Jozsa Raluca Diana Mariana

RO-EN, AN III

Essay

In the following essay I will discuss the connection between the two texts that I
choose to analyse, of Bell Hooks “Columbus. Gone but not Forgotten” and the text of
Frederick Jackson Turner “The significance of Frontier in American History 1893”, arguing
the reason for the colonization of America, thus leading to the movement of the American
border to the west, through violence of several types like rape, murder, war and so on. Both
texts present the development of the nation as an immediate obligation leading to prosperity
and abundance in the future.

In his text, Turner, talks about the occupation and development of the border,
occupying more and more territory, while also developing agriculture, thus managing to
create an individualistic space. It begins with a census report of the settlements in North
America in the period of the 1880, augmenting that in the eastern settlements it can be
conclusive, but in the western part it was not even worth to be done or discussed of. A very
strong feeling was as well the strength and the speed at which the area was developing, the
rate of which the colonization of land was adding up. The population and the development
rate were at a great speed, fearfully growing. The westward expansion is constituted by all
the social, economical and political factors contributing to the American colonization from
the Atlantic coast inwards towards the Rocky Mountains and beyond. There are depicted
factors as well like the split work force, the unorganized people and of course the slavery.
The frontier of the American territory is shaped from the European one, but the characteristic
of it is that it lies at the edge of the free land, the wilderness in the backyard of the great
continent. The steam navigation on western waters, also the opening of the Erie Canal, the
expansion of the cotton culture, railroads contractions, helped with the land grants from the
government all added to the expansion to the west of the European settlements that started
from the East.

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 On the other hand, the second text of bell hooks talks about Columbus who by
aggressive means seizes South and Central America. A major point for which Columbus
colonized America was to reap economic benefits, but also the increase of political power
over other rivals on other continents. The text presents the Columbus as the father of all the
iniquities, the violence that has befallen America, being the one who led the European elite to
violence against Native Americans, raping Native American women, playing the black race,
saying that there should be only one supreme race, that of whites and many others.

The common front that the two camps have is the incitement to violence. In Hook’s
work he expresses its origins in detail, and in Turner's work he generalizes through the
nation's desire for evolution. Turner describes the violence as a result of the expansion of the
American border into the Wild West. This is implicitly necessary in view of the rapidity with
which this colonization took place, describing the American people as a firm people who
know what they want, a determined people who cannot be stopped from their purpose. Most
Americans created almost from scratch what they have achieved to this day.

Hooks details this process of expanding the border and the issues that come with it,
namely, hatred, racism, violence. Things that still exist today unfortunately and that control
our habits, feelings and implicitly life. Of course, the intensity was much higher at that time,
and the lines were very well drawn. The New World mentality and perspective stands and the
base for the colonization of the America and is the motivation for the expansion and the
development that took place from East to West. The ideas of white people to travel the world
to conquer has merged with the one that there should also be a struggle for power and
resulted in the idea that whites civilizing nonwhites, which can be seen in the way that history
is taught and culturally remembered, and that there is too little emphasis on the Africans’
presence in the “New World” before Columbus. Unfortunately not enough effort, or at least
not enough results have yielded from all the effort that was done to eradicate sexism and
racism mostly because the better part of the American citizens do still believe that one group
of people should dominate over another, and should be superior and control, to oppress and
exploit.

Fast forwarding to the end of the 19th century, the settlement area already extended up
into the northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Along the Dakota rivers and in the
Black Hills region, also expanding alongside the Kansas and Nebraska rivers. To the
contribution of the frontier lines, the Colorado mines have also contributed to it, with

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Montana and Idaho receiving new settlers, alongside with the Great Plains having ranched
built on to develop. All this is part of the westward expansion and offers a great overview of
the scale of it from the region perspective on the continent.

From the region standpoint, we can further away to the human characteristic and the
classes of people the colonization did create, three main ones. The first class would be the
pioneers, then would be followed by the emigrants which would purchase the lands on which
the first ones did raise farms and worked in agriculture, and then the third class is the people
of the capital and enterprise, which in return would end up creating villages and then
evolving into cities.

The frontier help to form the composite nationality of the American people. A
legislation has been developed and stood as the backbone of the national government, so the
colonization was already at the next level, the development was striving, and the evolution of
the American institution were prosperous. Probably the biggest impact of the frontier was the
promotion of democracy like in the Columbus colonization. The economy was booming, and
so was the commerce, and as long as the free land existed, the opportunity for economic
power and political power would still thrive. But all these, would also encourage the
democracy to be strong int selfishness and individualism. Another contribution would be the
injection of paper-money and the implication of banks into the situations, as well contributing
factor could be considered the land grants offered to the people by the state.

Both texts express how through this process of colonization or expansion, democracy
took shape on this continent, and the beginnings of the so-called free people were created and
modified throughout history according to the needs of that period. Given the evolution of the
American people, and the customs created in this process of conquering territories, most
support the idea of oppression, of domination of other people as a normal and imperative
thing necessary in the development of the nation. Collateral victims being a necessity.
Although America is one of the most powerful countries, and their domination is visible
today, no matter what means has been achieved here, it can be said that through this long
process, many Americans still believe that they were they are still the supreme people, the
white race being also the supreme one, the others being a necessity only in achieving their
goals. Habits and such thinking have become deeply rooted in most Americans. By the
above, Columbus and implicitly the people, were not followers of the new policies and
customs of the peoples encountered as a result of the expansion to the west. These are seen as

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weaknesses and must be eradicated in order to create a supreme, dominant people, a
prosperous population, which he does by resorting to violence and subjugation. His behavior
and thinking are at odds with our current values such as peace, gender equality, racial
equality and so on. But even though these things are not part of our values, they have taken
America to the top of expansion and made the infrastructure and not only take a steep turn in
the development of the people.

In conclusion the relationship between the two texts would be that in both time
periods trying to colonize and expand as much and as fast as possible, both had in common
the same principles and ideologies of power, of oppressing another people and enslaving
them controlling the so considered inferior race and ripe the rewards for this in the process,
such as resources, land and of course the human resource itself by enslaving them, wiping out
the native population and bringing new mentality of a New World to the undeveloped and
less powerful population of the conquered continent, taking their goodness for granted and
exploiting it as a weakness to control them and even eliminate. The development and the
power took over in the end and a rapid process of development took place across the span of
hundreds of years, leaving behind the memories of how it began, not to mention the absolute
lack of intention to co-exist friendly in the same areas.