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.

Antiabolitionist, proslavery convictions stiffen in the South in reaction to the slave insurrections of the previous era, and will persist in the region until the American Civil War.

During the years from 1838 to 1849, the U.S. concludes the second Seminole War (1835-1842) and wars with Mexico (1846-1847) and with the Cayuse tribe of eastern Washington and Oregon (1848-1855).

John L. O'Sullivan coins the phrase “Manifest Destiny” in his United States Magazine and Democratic Review (July-August 1845).

Expansionist congressmen quickly adopt the term in their debates over the three territorial questions confronting the United States in 1845 and 1846: the annexation of Texas, the joint occupation of the Oregon Territory with Britain, and the prosecution of war with Mexico.

South Carolina urges all slave-holding states to form a united front against interference by the North, while the newly conquered territory of California requests admission as a free state.

Internal politics turn violent with the Anti-Renter movement (1839-1846), and Dorr's Rebellion (1842), while the mutiny on the Creole (1841), like that on of the Amistad (1839) exacerbates the national debate over slavery.

So too does the landmark suit brought to the Missouri state courts by the enslaved Dred Scott on the grounds that his residence in a free state and a free territory has made him a free man.

Nine Southern states, defending slavery and the right of all Americans to migrate to the Western territories, seek to extend the Missouri Compromise line west to the Pacific.

The Compromise of 1850 postpones the secession of the South while sowing the seeds of future discord.

Manifest Destiny is the belief that American settlers are destined to expand across the continent.

Manifest Destiny is rejected by modernizers, especially the Whigs like Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln who want to build cities and factories—not more farms.

Democrats strongly favor expansion, and win the key election of 1844.

After a bitter debate in Congress the Republic of Texas is annexed in 1845, leading to war with Mexico, who consider Texas to be a part of Mexico due to the large numbers of Mexican settlers.

The Mexican–American War (1846–48) breaks out with the Whigs opposed to the war, and the Democrats supporting the war.

The U.S. army, using regulars and large numbers of volunteers, defeats the Mexican armies, invades at several points, captures Mexico City and wins decisively.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the war in 1848.

Many Democrats want  to annex all of Mexico, but that idea is rejected by southerners who argue that by incorporating millions of Mexican people, mainly of mixed race, would undermine the United States as an exclusively white republic.

Instead the U.S. takes Texas and the lightly settled northern parts (California and New Mexico)

The Hispanic residents are given full citizenship and the Mexican Indians become American Indians.

Simultaneously, gold is discovered in California in 1849, attracting over one hundred thousand men to northern California in a matter of months in the California Gold Rush.

A peaceful compromise with Britain gives the U.S. ownership of the Oregon Country, which is renamed the Oregon Territory.

The United States annexes the Republic of Texas in 1845 during a period of expansionist Manifest destiny.

The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain leads to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.

Victory in the Mexican–American War results in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest.

The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 spurs migration to the Pacific coast, which leads to the California Genocide and the creation of additional western states.

The United States Army attacks Mexico on three fronts: one column, under General Stephen W. Kearney, occupies California and New Mexico; another column, under General Zachary Taylor, enters northern Mexico; and a third detachment, commanded by General Winfield Scott, lands at Veracruz and marches to Mexico City.

California and New Mexico fall with little bloodshed.

Northern Mexico is the scene of fierce battles between Taylor and Santa Anna's armies at Buena Vista.

Santa Anna initially strikes hard at the outnumbered United States forces, but he later abandons the battle and returns to Mexico City, prematurely claiming victory.

The situation in Mexico City is chaotic.

Antonio López de Santa Anna, president once again, denounces both congress and his own subordinates in the executive branch for their lack of resolve in preparing the defense of the capital.

They, in turn, denounce him for his failures in battle.

On August 20, 1847, the Army of Occupation asks for the surrender of Mexico City, but the battle continues until September 13, 1847, when the last bastion of Mexican resistance falls during the famous Battle of Chapultepec.

During the battle, young cadets from the Mexican military academy, the Niños Héroes (or "boy heroes") leap to their deaths rather than surrender.

The United States victory marks the end of the war and the beginning of negotiations for peace.

The heaviest fighting is done by General Winfield Scott's Army of Occupation, which lands at Veracruz on March 9, 1847.

Rather than attempt to occupy the city outright, Scott positions his forces west of it, cutting off Veracruz's supply line from the capital.

After several days of heavy naval bombardment that kills hundreds of civilians, Veracruz surrenders on March 27, 1847.

The idea of incorporating Texas into the United States has gained support both in Texas and in the United States Congress since Texas attained its independence from Mexico.

Definitive action on the measure has been delayed for several years, however, because of the divisive issue of admitting another slave state into the United States and the likely prospect that annexation would provoke a war with Mexico.

In early 1845, the United States Congress passes a resolution in favor of the annexation of Texas, which prompts Mexico to sever diplomatic relations with the United States.

The Mexican congress had never ratified Santa Anna's secret treaty with the Texans, and to underscore its opposition to Texas's independence, the Mexican congress passes a law that retroactively annuls any treaties signed by a Mexican negotiator while in captivity.