The Development of the American West and the Shaping of Its National Character

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_93How to use a DOI?

Keywords

American Westward Development; National Character; Pioneering Movement; Cultural Shaping

Abstract

The development of the American West (from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century) is the core historical process of shaping the national character of the United States. This century-old colonization took territorial expansion as the surface and spiritual remodeling as the inside, forging national characteristics through the triple mechanism of environmental adaptation, social interaction, and cultural innovation. The harsh wilderness gives birth to the survival ethics of pragmatism and individualism; the practice of frontier autonomy and the collision of pluralism deepen the concept of freedom and equality; the collective action across natural barriers fosters optimism and enterprising spirit. This process has always been accompanied by profound paradoxes-the coexistence of democratic empowerment and aboriginal expulsion, and the coexistence of individual freedom and resource plunder. Contradiction has cast a unique national character with both creativity and expansion. The development of the western region has condensed the “frontier spirit” into the gene of American civilization and continuously defined its modern values and development path.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Shengjie Zhao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - The Development of the American West and the Shaping of Its National Character
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 839
EP  - 848
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_93
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_93
ID  - Zhao2026
ER  -