Northern North America (1828–1971 CE): Industrial Nations, Expanding Frontiers, and Cold War Geographies

Geography & Environmental Context

Northern North America encompasses the United States and Canada, excluding the West Indies, and divides into three subregions with fixed boundaries:

• Northeastern North America: east of 110°W, including the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence basin, Hudson Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, Greenland, the Atlantic seaboard from New England through Virginia, the Carolinas, and most of Georgia, as well as the Mississippi Valley north of Illinois’ Little Egypt, the Upper Missouri above the Iowa–Nebraska crossing, northeast Alabama, central and eastern Tennessee, and nearly all of Kentucky.

• Northwestern North America: west of 110°W, including Alaska, the Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta west of 110°W, Washington, Oregon north of the Gulf line, northern Idaho, the northwestern portions of Montana, and northern California above the Gulf line.

• Gulf and Western North America: the wedge south of the Montana diagonal, including nearly all of Florida, the lower Mississippi Valley, the southern Plains, the arid Southwest, and California south of the Oregon line.

This continental span contained Arctic tundra and boreal forest, Great Plains and Mississippi bottomlands, Appalachian and Pacific cordilleras, subtropical deltas, and Mediterranean California.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age ebbed by the mid-19th century, followed by gradual warming. Droughts and hurricanes repeatedly struck the Plains and Gulf coasts, while the Dust Bowl (1930s) devastated farms in the southern Plains. Industrial expansion brought deforestation, coal smoke, and polluted rivers, especially in the Great Lakes. Massive dams and irrigation systems — from the Hoover Dam to the St. Lawrence Seaway — transformed landscapes. Greenland’s ice and Arctic permafrost remained defining constraints, even as Cold War bases pushed into icy terrain.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Indigenous nations: Confined to reserves and reservations, often by force, yet maintained ceremonies, farming, and mixed economies.

• United States: Expanded westward through annexations and conquest, fought a Civil War (1861–65), and by the 20th century became a global power. Its economy diversified: cotton and tobacco in the South, corn and wheat in the Midwest, ranching on the Plains, citrus and irrigated crops in California, oil in Texas and Oklahoma, and industry in the Great Lakes and Northeast.

• Canada: Achieved Confederation in 1867, expanded westward, and industrialized through Montreal, Toronto, and Halifax, while prairie farming drew settlers. By the mid-20th century, Canada asserted sovereignty as a bilingual, bicultural nation.

• Greenland: Remained Danish until 1953, when it became a province; Inuit lifeways of hunting and fishing endured alongside missions, trade posts, and military installations.

Technology & Material Culture

Railways, canals, and steamships in the 19th century gave way to highways, aviation, and electronics in the 20th. Industrial mass production reshaped daily life: automobiles, telegraphs, radios, and televisions transformed communication and culture. In Alaska, British Columbia, and the Pacific Northwest, salmon canneries, sawmills, and oil pipelines redefined economies. Skyscrapers rose in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles; Hollywood studios and aerospace plants symbolized Gulf & Western modernity. Inuit and Native traditions — from totem carving to powwows and drum dances — persisted, often underground, before revival by the mid-20th century.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Rivers & canals: The Mississippi remained a backbone; the St. Lawrence Seaway (1959) linked Great Lakes industry to the Atlantic.

• Overland trails & railways: Oregon and Santa Fe Trails gave way to transcontinental railroads, highways, and pipelines.

• Maritime & global trade: Gulf ports tied into the Caribbean and Atlantic; California ports linked to Asia. The Panama Canal (1914) fused Gulf and Pacific economies.

• Air & Cold War routes: Alaska became an airbridge to Asia in WWII; DEW Line radar stations made the Arctic a Cold War front line.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Indigenous resilience: Ceremonies, art, and oral traditions preserved identity under dispossession; 20th-century activism began cultural resurgence.

• African American culture: From the Gulf South arose blues, jazz, and gospel — later shaping global music.

• Mexican American communities: In Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, bilingual and Catholic traditions defined regional life.

• National mythologies: The “Wild West,” the frontier, and the wilderness became symbolic narratives in both nations. Hollywood, national parks, and skyscrapers embodied progress and identity.

• Greenland Inuit: Hunting songs, carvings, and drum dances blended with Lutheranism and Cold War geopolitics.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Farming: Mechanization and fertilizers boosted yields but stressed soils; Dust Bowl crises spurred conservation.

• Water control: Dams, aqueducts, and irrigation turned deserts into farmland but altered ecosystems.

• Conservation: National parks and wildlife laws reflected emerging ecological awareness.

• Urban resilience: Cities rebuilt after fires, earthquakes, and storms; suburbs spread after WWII.

Political & Military Shocks

• United States: Expanded via wars with Mexico (1846–48) and Native nations; fought a Civil War; emerged from two World Wars as a superpower; became a Cold War leader.

• Canada: Consolidated federation, expanded to the Pacific, and by the 20th century gained full sovereignty from Britain.

• Greenland: Shifted from colony to province of Denmark, with U.S. military bases central to Cold War defense.

• Indigenous dispossession: Trail of Tears, Plains wars, reservations, and residential schools inflicted deep trauma, yet mid-20th-century activism laid groundwork for revival.

Transition

Between 1828 and 1971, Northern North America transformed into a continent of industrial democracies, resource frontiers, and Cold War battlegrounds. The United States emerged as a global superpower; Canada matured into a sovereign federation; Greenland became strategically vital. Indigenous, African American, and Mexican American communities endured dispossession and marginalization but defined much of the continent’s cultural vitality. By 1971, the subregion was at once an engine of global industry, a crucible of diverse identities, and a geopolitical frontier, carrying into the late 20th century the legacies of expansion, exploitation, resilience, and renewal.

Gulf and Western North America (1828–1971 CE): Frontiers, States, and Modern Transformations

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Gulf and Western North America includes Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, nearly all of California (except the far northwest), nearly all of Florida (except the extreme northeast), southwestern Georgia, most of Alabama, southwestern Tennessee, southern Illinois, southwestern Missouri, most of Nebraska, southeastern South Dakota, southern Montana, southern Idaho, and southeastern Oregon. Anchors included the lower Mississippi delta, the Rio Grande, the California goldfields, and the Great Plains.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The 19th century saw the end of the Little Ice Age. Periodic droughts afflicted the Great Plains and Southwest, while hurricanes ravaged the Gulf Coast. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s devastated Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. Irrigation and damming transformed western rivers (Colorado, Rio Grande).

Subsistence & Settlement

• United States expansion reshaped the subregion. The Texas Revolution (1836) and U.S.–Mexican War (1846–1848) annexed vast territories from Mexico.

• California Gold Rush (1849) spurred migration westward. Railroads linked Gulf, Plains, and Pacific coasts.

• Farming of cotton, rice, and sugar persisted in the Gulf South under slavery until the Civil War (1861–1865), after which sharecropping replaced plantations.

• The Plains saw mounted bison hunting collapse under U.S. expansion and commercial slaughter.

• The Southwest and California shifted to ranching, citrus, and irrigated agriculture.

• Native nations endured forced removals, wars, and confinement to reservations, though cultural lifeways persisted.

Technology & Material Culture

Steamboats plied the Mississippi; railroads crossed the Plains; telegraphs and later highways knit regions together. Oil fields in Texas, Oklahoma, and California transformed economies. Cities like New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco grew as industrial hubs. Spanish mission architecture survived as heritage, while new skyscrapers and freeways symbolized modernization.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• The Mississippi River system remained central to transport.

• Railroads and highways tied Gulf ports to western mines and farms.

• The Panama Canal (1914) enhanced Gulf–Pacific linkages.

• Air routes by mid-20th century tied Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami to global circuits.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Native American rituals persisted underground and revived on reservations.

• African American culture flourished in music—blues, jazz, gospel—rooted in Gulf South experience.

• Mexican American communities preserved fiesta traditions, Catholic devotions, and bilingual culture across the Southwest.

• Symbols of progress included oil derricks, rail hubs, and Hollywood.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Dams, canals, and aqueducts adapted deserts for agriculture. Coastal levees tried to buffer hurricanes. Communities adjusted to Dust Bowl migrations, civil rights struggles, and industrial booms. Native, African American, and Mexican American resilience shaped cultural survival under marginalization.

Transition

By 1971 CE, Gulf and Western North America was a mosaic of industrial hubs, farms, and diverse communities. U.S. expansion had fully incorporated the subregion, yet its Indigenous, African American, and Mexican American peoples continued to define cultural resilience and identity.

Some forty-five Iowa tribesmen fight in the American Civil War in the Union Army, among them Chief James White Cloud, grandson of Mahaska.

Reconstruction begins in earnest following the war. 

While President Lincoln attempts to foster friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the former Confederacy, his assassination on April 14, 1865, drives a wedge between North and South again.

Republicans in the federal government make it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure the rights of African Americans.

They will persist until the Compromise of 1877, when the Republicans will agree to cease protecting the rights of African Americans in the South in order for Democrats to concede the presidential election of 1876.

Gulf and Western North America (1864–1875 CE): Reconstruction, Conflict, and Change

Post-Civil War Reconstruction

Following the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Reconstruction era begins as the United States seeks to reintegrate and rebuild the South. Initially aiming to restore unity and heal divisions, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 reignites tensions between the North and South. Republicans in Congress push aggressively to ensure civil rights and protections for African Americans, efforts that persist until the Compromise of 1877, when federal protections are withdrawn in exchange for political concessions.

Epidemics and Health Crises

The spread of cholera and typhus continues to devastate populations during this period. Cholera outbreaks in the 1870s claim approximately fifty thousand lives, spreading from New Orleans along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Typhus epidemics also strike cities such as Baltimore, Memphis, and Washington, DC, between 1865 and 1873, exacerbating postwar social and economic challenges.

Indigenous Displacement and Military Conflict

Indigenous peoples face ongoing displacement and conflict. In the Southwest, the United States Army battles the Navajo and Apache (1860–1865). On the Great Plains, the United States intensifies efforts to confine Native tribes to reservations. The Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867) attempts to restrict the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Apache tribes to smaller lands, promising protections that ultimately fail to materialize. In response, the Comanche under Isa-tai launch the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874, suffering a decisive defeat. This leads to the Red River War, culminating in the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon, where the last independent Comanche bands, led by Quanah Parker, surrender in 1875.

The Decline of the Plains Buffalo

During this period, the systematic slaughter of buffalo herds reaches catastrophic levels, significantly undermining the traditional ways of life for Plains tribes, especially the Comanche, Kiowa, and Sioux. Within a decade, the once-massive herds are nearly extinct, dealing a severe blow to indigenous economies and cultures dependent on buffalo hunting.

Pawnee and Osage Struggles and Alliances

The Pawnee play crucial roles as scouts for the U.S. Army between 1864 and 1877, notably participating in conflicts against traditional rivals, including the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa. Their service is pivotal during the Powder River Expedition (1865) and the Great Sioux War of 1876. Meanwhile, the Osage tribe endures severe hardships, caught between Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War, experiencing significant famine and instability as their lands continue to be reduced through treaties.

Railroads and Western Expansion

The completion of transcontinental railways following the Civil War accelerates westward migration, economic expansion, and conflict with indigenous populations. Railroads facilitate increased settlement, trade, and migration to formerly remote areas, profoundly transforming the regional economy and accelerating the displacement of native tribes.

Key Historical Developments

• Reconstruction efforts reshape the postwar South but falter due to political compromise.

• Severe cholera and typhus epidemics devastate populations throughout the 1860s and 1870s.

• The Comanche and other Plains tribes resist confinement but ultimately suffer military defeat and displacement.

• Near-extinction of buffalo herds severely impacts Plains indigenous cultures and economies.

• Pawnee scouts actively assist the U.S. Army in military campaigns against rival tribes.

• Rapid railroad expansion accelerates westward migration and intensifies conflicts with indigenous peoples.

Long-Term Consequences and Historical Significance

The period from 1864 to 1875 is marked by dramatic changes across Gulf and Western North America. Reconstruction efforts, despite initial promise, fall short in securing lasting civil rights. Meanwhile, indigenous populations endure significant losses of land, autonomy, and traditional livelihoods, setting the stage for profound economic and cultural transformations that shape the region's future.

The lands of the Osage in Kansas are further reduced through subsequent United States treaties and laws through the 1860s.

During the years of the Civil War, they are buffeted by both sides, as they are located between Union forts in the North, and Confederate forces and allies to the South.

While the Osage try to stay neutral, both sides raid their territory, taking horses and food stores.

They struggle simply to survive through famine and the war.

Five hundred thousand workers have been put out of work in British cotton mills due to the blockade of Southern-grown cotton during the American Civil War, in which Britain is officially neutral, British leaders personally dislike American republicanism and favor the more aristocratic Confederacy, as it had been a major source of cotton for textile mills.

Prince Albert had been effective in defusing a war scare in late 1861.

The British people, who depend heavily on American food imports, generally favor the United States.

What little cotton is available comes from New York, as the blockade by the U.S. Navy had shut down ninety-five percent of Southern exports to Britain.

In September 1862, during the Confederate invasion of Maryland, Britain (along with France) had contemplated stepping in and negotiating a peace settlement, which could only mean war with the United States.

But in the same month, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln had announced the Emancipation Proclamation.

Since support of the Confederacy now meant support for slavery, there was no longer any possibility of European intervention.

Meanwhile, the British sell arms to both sides, build blockade runners for a lucrative trade with the Confederacy, and surreptitiously allow warships to be built for the Confederacy.

The warships had caused a major diplomatic row (it will be resolved in the Alabama Claims in 1872, in the Americans' favor.)

Robert Lowry, writes "Shall We Gather at the River?" (or simply "At the River"), today a traditional Christian hymn, in 1864.

Lowry, born in Philadelphia, had studied theology at the University at Lewisburg (now Bucknell University) and on graduating, in 1854, had become ordained as a Baptist minister.

He has charge of churches in a number of places including the Bloomingdale Baptist Church in New York; the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn; and others in West Chester, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Lowry is most remembered as a composer of gospel music and a hymn writer, and also works as a music editor at the Biglow & Main Publishing Company.

In all, his output will total around five hundred compositions, including "Nothing But the Blood," "Christ Arose" ("Low in the Grave He Lay") (words and music)," "Shall We Gather At The River?," and "How Can I Keep From Singing?"

He also writes the music and refrain for "Marching to Zion" (words by Isaac Watts).

Despite his success as a hymn writer, it is as a preacher that Lowry would prefer to be recognized.

He once stated: "Music, with me has been a side issue... I would rather preach a gospel sermon to an appreciative audience than write a hymn. I have always looked upon myself as a preacher and felt a sort of depreciation when I began to be known more as a composer." (Butterworth, Hezekiah. The Story of the Tunes. New York: American Tract Society (1890) .p. 165).

However, it is as a hymn writer that he remains renowned.

George Frederick Root has become particularly successful during the American Civil War, as the composer of martial songs such as Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Prisoner's Hope), The Vacant Chair, Just before the Battle, Mother, and The Battle Cry of Freedom.

Battle Cry of Freedom (1862) has become well-known even in England.

He had written the first song concerning the war, The First Gun is Fired, only two days after the conflict began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

He ultimately scores at least thirty-five war-time "hits", in tone from the bellicose to the ethereal.

His songs are played and sung at both the home front and the real front.

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, written from the prisoner's point of view and published in 1864 to give hope to the Union prisoners of war, becomes popular on troop marches, and is one of the most popular songs of the American Civil War.

The chorus tells his fellow prisoners that hope is coming.

The song has since been parodied numerous times, an early variant being "Damn, Damn, Damn the Filipinos", a song popular U.S. with troops during the Philippine-American War.

It also lends the music to an Irish patriotic song, "God Save Ireland", as well as the children's song "Jesus Loves the Little Children".

Root, named after the German-born British composer George Frideric Handel, was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts.

Leaving his farming community for Boston at eighteen, flute in hand, intending to join an orchestra, he had worked for a while as a church organist in Boston, and from 1845 has taught music at the New York Institute for the Blind, where he had met Fanny Crosby, with whom he will compose fifty to sixty popular secular songs.

In 1850, he had made a study tour of Europe, staying in Vienna, Paris, and London.

He had returned to teach music in Boston, Massachusetts as an associate of Lowell Mason, and later Bangor, Maine, where he was director of the Penobscot Musical Association and presided over their convention at Norumbega Hall in 1856.

Root will spend most of his career (when not writing, or helping to manage his publishing company) traveling and teaching at Musical Institutes that move from town to town.

Instrumental in developing mid- and late-nineteenth century American musical education, he applies a version of the teaching method of Pestalozzi, a Romantic who felt that education must be broken down to its elements in order to have a complete understanding of it.

He is a follower of the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

On his return from Europe, Root had begun composing and publishing sentimental popular songs, a number of which achieve fame as sheet-music, including those with Fanny Crosby: "Hazel Dell", "Rosalie the Prairie Flower", "There's Music in the Air" and others, which are (according to Root's New York Times obituary) had been known throughout the country in the antebellum period.

Root had chosen to employ a pseudonym George Wurzel (German for Root) to capitalize on the popularity of German composers during the 1850s.

Besides his popular songs, he also composes gospel songs in the vein of Ira Sankey (known as The Sweet Singer of Methodism) and collects and edits volumes of choral music for singing schools, Sunday schools, church choirs and musical institutes.

He has also composed various sacred and secular cantatas including the popular "The Haymakers" in 1854.

Root's cantatas were popular on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the nineteenth century.

Building on his talent for song-writing, Root had moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1859 to work for his brother's music publishing house of Root & Cady.

The influx of emigrants and settlers into Wyoming Territory has led to more encounters with the native tribes, resulting in an increase of military presence along the trails.

Military posts such as Fort Laramie had been established to maintain order in the area.

In 1851, the first Treaty of Fort Laramie had been signed between the United States and representatives of American Indian nations to ensure peace and the safety of settlers on the trails.

The 1850s had subsequently been quiet, but increased settler encroachment into lands promised to the tribes in the region has caused tensions to rise again, especially after the Bozeman Trail had been blazed in 1864 through the hunting grounds of the Powder River Country, which had been promised to the tribes in the 1851 treaty.

The Powder River country encompasses the numerous rivers (the Bighorn, Rosebud, Tongue and Powder) that flow northeastward from the Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone.

The Cheyenne had been the first tribe in this area, followed by bands of Lakota.

As more of the northern plains become occupied by white settlement, this region becomes the last unspoiled hunting ground of the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho and several of the seven bands of the Lakota.