Half Of The Western U.s. Mining Frontier Of The Nineteenth Century

A large scope of mining developing movement sprang up in the western mountain areas of America in the later period of 19th century. TTie movement, guided by the golden rush, experienced two periods of exploiting in the shallow layer and digging in the deep layer. Accompanied by the process of this movement, the "mining frontier" was formed which was equivalent to the" agricultural frontier" and the" cattle - herding frontier" and so on.In the preface, based on forefathers, the writer redefined the word"mining frontier". Here, the"mining frontier"is not only a pure economical and geographical notion, but also a notion containing natural geography and social form. It includes the dialectical relationship between "human being" and "earth" , the purpose of which is to explain the distribution and variation of various kinds of economic, social and cultural phenomena in one area. Through the study of "frontier-, the paper tries to show the pattern and regularity of the inner deepening and the outer spreading of various phenomena and the influences among those phenomena.The paper consists of four parts which respectively illustrate the social and historical cause of the formation and development of the mining frontier, the developing process of the mining frontier, the consequence and influence of the development of the mining frontier and the enlightenment on the western development of our country by the formation and development of the mining frontier in the west of America.With regards to the social and historical cause of the formation and development of the mining frontier in the west of America, the writer illustrated it from three aspects. (1) The formation and development of the mining frontier in the west of America was a necessary result of the economic development capitalism. The formation and development of the mining frontier was the objective demand of the economic development of the world capitalism; the formation and development of the mining frontier was the inner demand of the economic development of the capitalism in America. (2) There were a lot of factors that were beneficial to the formation and development of the mining frontier in the west of America. Rich mineral resources brought about the possibility to the formation and development of the mining frontier; the input of outer capital resolved the funds problem in themining development; the input of a great number of immigrants supplied the development with rich labor resources; and the preferential strategy of American government on the western development is beneficial to the formation and development of the mining frontier. (3) The peculiar concept on value held by immigrants is the important ideal cause.As to the developing process of the mining frontier in the west of America, it can be acknowledged from two aspects of regional spreading of mining development and the deepening of the productive mode of the frontier was going on accompanied by the continuous transmission of hot points of development in the western area; and the productive mode experienced a continuously furthering process of individual, employed labor, exploitation by machine.The upsurge of the economic development of the mining frontier in the west of America lasted approximately half a century . In this process, economic areas were formed which were characterized by the furthering development of the productive mode of capitalism in mining production. What's more, the geographical and social characters of the mining frontier were taken on because of the mining production's development in the areas. The dual process of mining frontier both in range and in depth not only propelled the social and economic development of both the western area and the whole America, but also produced a far - reaching influence on politics, culture and so on. On the basis of this, every progress of society, economy, politics and culture all became the new starting point and new propelling factors for the continuous expanding of the mining frontier in range and in depth.The m...