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The Frontier In American History Summary

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The Frontier in American History
In the first chapter entitled “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”, of Frederick Jackson Turner’s book The Frontier in American History, Turner is talking about the census up to 1880. It was almost impossible to get a correct census count due to the influx of new settlers into the areas. The history of the colonization of the Great West had a large impact on American history.
American development begins over and over in a substantial flowing manner. The United States does not limit expansion to small areas and does not overrun other settlers; America is different in the fact that its institutions adapt to its population. The main focus is not that of the Atlantic coast, but of the Great West. Even through the fight of slavery, it inhabits an important position in American history due to the connection to the westward expansion. The frontier is just between the divisions of the uncivilized, not socially, culturally, or morally advanced, and the civilized, a stage of social development considered to be more advance, way of life of another particular area. …show more content…

The American frontier is clearly well-known from a secured partition running through the crowded population, it rests at the starting outline of a free land. Americans intended to examine the entire frontier, together with the Indian country and the outer fringe of the colonized region, of the census reports. We need to look at the lifestyle of the Europeans when they came to America and the ways Americans changed and developed upon those lifestyle. Frontier development forces the settlers to adapt to the condition of the area in which they settle in order to survive. In doing so, it causes the frontier to adapt to the

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In 1893 Frederic Jackson Turner a historian, introduces the “Frontier Thesis” in Columbian Exposition, he explains from this thesis about the importance of American history. Frontier thesis remarks the end of a great historic society. Because Frederic Jackson argues that continuous western settlement had an extraordinary impact on American social, political and economic development throughout 20th

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The migration of Americans to the west was a good thing for innovation and building up the United States as a country, but the Native Americans who lived in these lands were changed forever. Any Native Americans found in lands where United States citizens wanted land was immediately excavated from their land and brought to an Indian reservation of some kind. Overtime though, these Indian reservations began to limit due to the rising population in Americans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. “They [Lewis and Clark] provided valuable information about the topography, the biological sciences, the ecology, and ethnic and linguistic studies of the American Indian. The mysteries of

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Susan Rhoades Neel - A Place of Extremes: Nature, History, and the American West In her essay, Susan Rhoades Neel examines the significance of the environment of the American West when shaping western history by referring to and analyzing regional approaches claimed by Webb, Limerick, Worster, and White in order to deemphasize Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis. In fact, most historians may regard Turner's theory as the most influential and adequate one in attempting at giving meaning to the mythical territory of western America as it offers a common sense for the entire American nation. Nonetheless, because of the particular emphasis on nature and the human - nature relation, new approaches have been developed in order to outline

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Faith Picotte History 310 (T-Th) Homework Ch. 8 1.Turner’s frontier thesis is deceptively draws and allure your inquisitive imagination into a grand scale visionary picture of settlements of specific regions, and the social societal processes. Americans realized the frontier formed and promoted a composite nationalist American society. The English dominated the coastal region. , later continental immigrants flowed towards the free lands of the frontier.

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The western area of the modern day United States remained largely unoccupied by American settlers for the first century of the country’s existence. The slow colonization was due to a variety of factors preventing successful, efficient, and safe occupation of the area. Likely one of the most influential factors was a simple logistical problem: traversing the continent prior to the advent of mechanized, overland transportation was extremely difficult, if not dangerous. This was not the only issue affecting would-be western settlers, but it was the first necessary challenge to overcome before any consideration of establishing a homestead. The development of a railroad network was the most important limiting factor in western settlement, and the

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When analyzing the development of the Americas, people often overlook the fact that simple geography and environment was one of, if not the biggest influences in shaping the future of the Americas after colonization. For example, The geography and environment of the coastal colonies impacted the settlers’ very way of life. The most prominent geographical differences that affected colonial development and growth were between the Northern and Southern regions. The middle region contained environmental factors from both the North and South and consequently was less radical in the way that it shaped colonial development. The Northern and Southern areas differed and as the way of life in these regions shifted to adapt to the environment, one prominent

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In my opinion and based on readings I think that the western frontier fostered values of American democracy and individualism. Moving west allowed settlers and even immigrants the opportunity to make a new life for them and their families. The “Gold Rush” and mining for other precious metals such as silver, copper, lead and iron brought many people west to explore and find riches. Many cities such as Virginia City, Nevada were industrialized and colonized by those who wanted to find riches in those precious metals. Many of these settlers were immigrants, it is noted that the Utah Territory, that eventually became known as Nevada, had about 30 percent of people settling that were from outside the United States, compared to 25 percent in New

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The idea he brought into light about the image of the frontier and the west inspiring American development can be seen throughout this time, and into the 20th century as well. As America moved to the west, more areas where becoming populated and developed, creating new challenges for the government. Some included requesting protection provided by the government against feared Indian tribes. Also, large land owning railroad companies would ask for lessening fees paid to the government and acquiring additional lands to assist them in developing rail lines in many portions of the west. As the frontier grows, the government continued passing legislation to support and give incentive to those to go out west.

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Overall, the closing of the frontier was a turning point in American history, marking the end of one era and the beginning of another. By transforming the economy and society, it laid the groundwork for the United States to become the global superpower it is today. During the period between 1865 and 1898, one additional factor that shaped American culture and character was the westward expansion and settlement of the frontier. The promise of land, opportunities for economic growth, and the idea of Manifest Destiny drove Americans to venture beyond the Mississippi River and into the

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Elizabeth Melendez Mrs. McCain History G175 24 July 2015 American History In “The Frontier in American History” by Fredrick Jackson Turner, the author explains the significance of the frontier to the importance of Americanization. Turner explains the frontier as being a frontier line from England to the Westward expansion in America. Through many detailed examples, Turner shows how the frontier characterized the American identity.

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In the years following the Revolutionary War the United States would begin to expand, although not popular among all citizens, it helped shape the country into what we know today. The first acquisition of territory would be as a result of the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain ending the Revolutionary War. This treaty marked the boundaries between the British colonies still located in North America and ceded the thirteen American colonies to a newly recognized country known as the United States of America. This would not be the only acquisition of territory that the United States would complete between the years of 1789 and 1815 but it would be the initial acquisition of territory that would develop this newly formed nation.

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During the “Gilded Age” period of American history, development of the Trans-Mississippi west was crucial to fulfilling the American dream of manifest destiny and creating an identity which was distinctly American. Since the west is often associated with rugged pioneers and frontiersmen, there is an overarching idea of hardy American individualism. However, although these settlers were brave and helped to make America into what it is today, they heavily relied on federal support. It would not have been possible for white Americans to settle the Trans-Mississippi west without the US government removing Native Americans from their lands and placing them on reservations, offering land grants and incentives for people to move out west, and the

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“ The first is that typical frontier community was sociologically cohesive- a kind of persistent Lockhean husking and barn-raising. The second misconception is that these particular frontier communities were reslentlessly homicidal” (pg 218). Frontier citizens worked together to obtain railroads, manage their cattle and access to cattle trails, defend themselves and families from outlaws gangs, but also they fought among themselves for cattle, for lands, for power and wealth. Which proves the contrast between Dykstra’s research and the western legends belief. Also the homicide rate in frontier compare to modern society is lower.

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The contrasts between the American West and East in the nineteenth century range from a new start to the adventure of the living in the Wild West. The east had become overcrowded and did not allow much opportunity for people of lesser wealth. “In 1893, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner gave a celebrated lecture, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” in which he argued that on the western frontier the distinctive qualities of American culture were forged: individual freedom, political democracy, and economic mobility. The West, he added, acted as a “safety

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By opening Virgin Land with de Crévecouer’s question, “What is an American?,” (3) Smith demonstrated that the primary ambition was to answer that very question. Smith uses the frontier myth as his starting point because the most persistent “generalizations concerning American life and character has been shaped by the pull of a continent drawing population westward.” (Virgin Land 3) Where Turner had argued that the frontier had shaped the American identity, Smith shifted the attention “away from what ‘actually happened’ in time past to what people though was happening.” (Marks, 71) Focusing instead on the mythic and symbolic aspects of the West, Smith demonstrated that the image of the West was considered to be a reflection of American nationality, identity, and culture. The American identity was, according to Smith, not the result of the actual experience of living on the frontier as Turner had argued but the result of the utopian ideas used to describe the West and the myths that followed in its

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