Webblog

The Great Plains was a history of the Plains and its effects on its inhabitants and the nation as a whole. Webb basically shows the cause and effect of things that happened on the plains leading up to the state of the plains in Webb's time. Webb talks about how the introduction of the horse to the plains led to a change in lifestyle on the plains which in turn would create things like the cattle kingdom which would lead to towns being set up on the plains and many small farmers coming in. As a result of towns and more people coming to the plains water laws would be created which would lend its way to more of an institutionalized law on the plains and so on until you get the plains we see today. So basically I believe that what Webb is really trying to get at is that without the rapid development and adaptation to life on the plains many things in the rest of the country may have developed much slower if at all in some cases. Webb begins his history with the first people on the plains, the Indians. He goes into great detail about how the Indians were shaped by the plains and how, with the help of the horse shaped life on the plains and was in a sense the catalyst for the development of the plains. Webb puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of the horse in the beginning of the book and rightfully so. In my opinion without the horse the country as a whole may be much farther behind in many areas of life today. Webb also goes into great detail about the different approaches different groups took to try and settle the plains. What I found most interesting in this section was Webb's take on the Spanish. He believed that one of the main reasons the Spanish failed on the plains was because of their three part system when developing new colonies. I personally disagree with this because had the Spanish found lakes of gold or some other riches they most definitely would have stayed especially with the weather on the plains being much like that of their home country. Regardless of the wars Spain was facing at the time or other circumstances had the Spanish found riches they would have found a way to stay. Webb also talks about the importance of inventions on the plains and how inventions that were needed to live on the plains would effect the whole country if not the world. The most important invention of all of course was the six-shooter. The six-shooter was important for a couple of reasons, first it was the first mechanical adaptation to the plains and second it enabled the frontiersman to defeat the mounted Indian. Without the six-shooter the Indian wars could have very well lasted into the early 1900's costing many more lives and slowing down the progress of the nation or even worse we may have been forced off the plains altogether. Altogether I believe the book is really about how developments in the plains region with regards to surviving on the plains, environment etc. led to the development of our country as a whole. A good example of this would be where Webb talks about the plains as a buffer for slavery. Had that buffer where cotton wouldn't grow not existed this country would look drastically different today. So in that sense and of course many others the plains environment directly effected the direction and development of the whole country.
On a side note Webb paints a much different picture in his book of the Indian or Native American that we know today. Webb more then likely lived during the end of the Indian wars if not shortly there after so most of his information would have come from people that had fought the Indians and dealt with them pre-reservation and from what we know of history many of these encounters were not always the most enjoyable of experiences so it is really no wonder why Webb shows the Indians in the light he does. It would be extremely hard to imagine going down the road and being attacked by Indians but to the first settlers this was a reality and a risk they took by moving onto Indian lands. I have a feeling that even with all that we know if Indians and their culture today had we been with the first settlers of the plains we would have looked at the Indians in the same light as Webb if not an even less favorable one.

Labels: tom kramer