RST 242 Discussion 2I disagree with the statement that America could have developed its national identity without its natural landscapes. People were slowly starting to come out of the idea that the wilderness was “repulsive” and should be avoided. This was due to Romanticism in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and by the mid nineteenth century Americans were greatly appreciating the wilderness (Nash, 2014). The New World intrigued many of the European settlers, and many even started to write about their journey to the New World, which made the excitement of the wilderness very appealing. William Byrd II is an example of one of these authors who, after seeing the Appalachian Mountains for the first time, described them as“Ranges of Blue Clouds rising one above another” (Nash, 2014). There were many factors that began to change American’s views towards nature. Romanticism was one of these factors. Initially many people wanted to conquer the wilderness, but now there were softer views towards nature. Pioneers started viewing the wilderness as an opportunity for freedom and adventure, and this made the wilderness much more appealing. This idea of independence was creating a lot of excitement because that is ideally why people had travelled to the New World in the first place. More and more people were starting to become proud of the nature America had to offer, for example, calling the Mississippi River a “prince of rivers,” and the Nile was nothing in its comparison (Nash, 2014). American’s were starting to develop a large sense of pride in the country, claiming that “America’s nature, if not her culture, would command the world’s admiration” (Nash, 2014). America used not only nature to form a sense of nationalism in so many ways, but the sense of “wildness” in America due to nature and the
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