The western tribes -- the
Sioux,
Blackfoot,
Ute,
Shoshoni,
Navaho and
Apache -- would each attempt
independently to resist the relentless
westward advance of the European-Americans. They would be pressed
from the east and the west, and the
movement of settlers and soldiers
would be facilitated by the age of
steam and the railroads. With the
indigenous tribes defeated and the
Union stretching across the continent,
the historian Frederick Jackson Turner
reflected on the century about to close
and raised serious concerns over the
socio-political arrangements and
institutions established on the heels of
conquest:
Up to the close of the War of 1812, this
country was involved in the fortunes of the
European state system. The first quarter
of a century of our national existence was
almost a continual struggle to prevent
ourselves being drawn into the European
wars. At the close of that era of conflict,
the United States set its face toward the
West. It began the settlement and
improvement of the vast interior of the
country. Here was the field of our
colonization, here the field of our political
activity. This process being completed, it
is not strange that we find the United
States again involved in world-politics.
The revolution that occurred four years
ago [1899], when the United states struck
down that ancient nation under whose
auspices the New World was discovered,
is hardly yet more than dimly understood.
The insular wreckage of the Spanish War
... are indications of the new direction of
the ship of state, and while we thus turn
our attention overseas, our concentrated
industrial strength has given us a striking
power against the commerce of Europe
that is already producing consternation in
the Old World. Having completed the
conquest of the wilderness, and having
consolidated our interests, we are
beginning to consider the relations of
democracy and empire.
The indigenous tribes were too
small in population and lacked the
knowledge to develop an industrial
system of production necessary to
carry on modern warfare. And yet,
they were fearsome opponents whose
conquest required the maintenance of
a large, standing army. As in all other
societies, the presence of a permanent
military, with its own institutions and
leadership hierarchy separate from the
civilian government, has had dire
consequences. The seeds of empire-building
grew out of the very process
of conquering the indigenous tribes
long after the threat of European
domination disappeared. A national
agenda, in direct opposition to the
transnational sentiments from which
liberty and equality of opportunity
arise, found early expression in
The
Federalist papers. Arguing on behalf
of the need for a standing army and a
strong naval fleet,
Alexander Hamilton
reminded his fellow citizens
of very real external dangers for which
they must ever be prepared:
Though a wide ocean separates the
United States from Europe, yet there are
various considerations that warn us
against an excess of confidence or
security. On one side of us, and stretching
far into our rear, are growing settlements
subject to the dominion of Britain. On the
other side, and extending to meet the
British settlements, are colonies and
establishments subject to the dominion of
Spain. ...The savage tribes on our
Western frontier ought to be regarded as
our natural enemies, their natural allies,
because they have most to fear from us,
and most to hope from them. The
improvements in the art of navigation
have, as to the facility of communication,
rendered distant nations, in a great
measure, neighbours. ...These
circumstances combined, admonish us
not to be too sanguine in considering
ourselves as entirely out of the reach of
danger.
Here was the essential dichotomy
associated with the European conquest
of the Americas subjugation of the
continent's indigenous population. As
the second and third and fourth
generations of European-Americans
migrated beyond the eastern seaboard,
the society they created combined the
best and worst characteristics of
rugged individualism and cooperative
enterprise. In many cases and for
prolonged periods they lived in a state
of cooperative anarchy. Intense land
speculation opened a continuously
moving frontier, while access to virgin
land expanded the participatory (if not
wholly democratic) experiment on the
basis of near-universal titleholdings in
landed property. A hierarchical
structure emerged, nonetheless, with
people of color largely unprotected
from exploitation.
Sioux,
Blackfoot,