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Frederick Jackson Turner's Western Frontier Summary

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Frederick Jackson Turner, an American historian, stresses the importance of the great western frontier and all of the developments it has made on American history. It’s through Turner’s main points of how the frontier shaped America, how expansion to the west frontier changed people's cultural views, and why America is what it is today that he shows the true value the frontier has in American history. The first major point Turner emphasizes on greatly is how America was shaped by the frontier. The only limits Americans had discovered that they could not overcome were the physical barriers that lie between them and their vision of expansion. The frontier’s physical development that shaped America over each century began with the fall line of the east coast in the seventeenth century and ended at the belt of the Rocky Mountains. Turner relates his point to …show more content…

In a sense, America is what it is today because of every challenge, every victory, every defeat it has faced. With each victory over the Native Americans, America gained new territory. Even slavery holds a place in the development of the western frontier. The allowance and disallowance of slavery existed in the new frontier depending on each territory’s popular choice. Instead of having separate states with split decisions and “ignoring the huge elephant (slavery) in the room,” the frontier proposed the idea of having a uniform decision where slavery was either illegal or legal in all territories, thus introducing the idea of democracy. This unity is what created a uniform America instead of a bunch of individual states. America may have begun with predominantly Englishmen on the eastern coast, but immigration has molded America into being a true “melting pot” of the various cultures in which the present American culture developed around. The advances made on the frontier are what evolved the European influences into the influences of independent

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In writing A Voyage Long and Strange, Tony Horwitz’s goal is clear, to educate others on early America and debunk ignorant myths. Horwitz’s reason for wanting to achieve this goal is because of his own ignorance that he sees while at Plymouth Rock. “Expensively educated at a private school and university- a history major, no less!-I’d matriculated to middle age with a third grader’s grasp of early America.” Horwitz is disappointed in his own lack of knowledge of his home country, especially with his background history and decides not only to research America’s true beginnings, but to also follow the path of those who originally yearned to discover America.

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The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804—1806 is arguably one of the most important moments in the creation of the superpower known as the United States of America. Lewis and Clark’s expeditions of the Louisiana Territory and western territories are highly well-known and are considered to be the reason for the growth in American populace in all areas west of the Mississippi River. If it weren’t for President Thomas Jefferson’s decision to buy the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte and to support the expeditions of the land, it is possible that migration in the western regions of the North American continent would be fairly different than it had already transpired. The Lewis and Clark Expeditions mainly saw the rise of American dominance

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Frederick Jackson Turner first spoke to an audience about the Turner Thesis during the 1893 Chicago World Fair. This event was the central ground of American superiority. Many different business groups of diverse backgrounds met to share new products, values and aspects of their culture. Turner stated in one of his speeches at an American Historians seminar that the american frontier or the desire to settle in an area of open and free land will always remain in effect. Due to the lack of land to expand in our continent, America would look overseas.

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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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878 Words | 4 Pages

Anne Bruner Eales’ book, Army Wives on the American Frontier: Living by the Bugles, largely agrees with Fredrick Jackson Turner’s thesis. Both Turner and Eales have the idea that the American frontier shaped and changed people, creating a unique American. Throughout the three chapters of Eales’ book, there were similarities and differences between the chapters and Turner’s thesis. The two major similarities between Eales’ book and Turner’s thesis are the ideas of unique change in the people of the frontier and the frontier creating a unique American. The differences between Turner and Eales’ thoughts are very minor, Turners talks about generalized change in the American man and his family, whereas Eales talks about the change in women .

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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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In response to Ms. Poston's question: one way that America could maintain its greatness was by alleviating poverty and educating the masses (From Urban Growing Pains, To Political Dysfunction & Corruption - 1870-1900, Slide 31). By accomplishing these two key objectives, America would be encouraging the furthering of technology and ideals, which is a concept that Natalie earlier touched. I also agree with Ms. Poston with the way she interpreted Turner, that the West was, in fact, closed. I believe that Americans probably felt both accomplished, as they achieved Manifest Destiny, and they felt let down, due to the fact that they had nowhere else to explore or discover(Redefining the South & the Final Conquest of the American West , Slide 30).

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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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(pg. 686) As America expanded westward to pursue a “special ‘destiny’ to settle, develop, and dominate the entire continent,” they invaded the territory promised to Native Americans. (pg. 680, pg. 686) Promises made to Indians that they would keep and own their land in the West without worrying about trespassers were consistently broken by “buffalo hunters, miners, ranchers, farmers, railroad surveyors, and horse soldiers.”

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The Americans now had opened up the Mississippi Valley for expansion. This victory made American colonists very proud and patriotic toward their English heritage. “But only twelve years later, these American colonists found themselves locked in a bitter and violent conflict with the mother country that had so recently been the object of their

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There he was, all alone walking through the forest on a cold December morning. Cutting paths for future settlers, and hunting game for his family. “Crack.” He stops as he hears a twig snap under someone or somethings’ foot. Before he can even turn his head they’re on him.

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J. Hector ST. John De Crevecoeur tells the story of the western frontier from the perspective of a European American finding a new found freedom for exploration. He compares American experiences with the old country and welcomes emigrants from many countries in Europe to participate in the navigation of the frontier. The exploration of the frontier he equates to equality among those that may have been oppressed by Europe’s Kings: “Here are no aristocratic families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one.....”

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Today in my analysis I will be conducting a comparative analysis over the theme, “The American Frontier.” The works that I'll include in my analysis are, “True West,” by Sam Shepard, “In Search of Snow,” by Luis Alberto Urrea, and the film “Days of Heaven,” which was viewed in class. Primarily my comparative analysis will focus in on these key points; symbolism, setting, the American way of life, American values, and ideas. In the story, “True West” included a little American drama so to speak.

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America’s Diverse Population In the nineteenth century, rates of immigration across the world increased. Within thirty years, over eleven million immigrants came to the United States. There were new types of people migrating than what the United States were used to seeing as well. Which made people from different backgrounds and of different race work and live in tight spaces together; causing them to be unified.

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Perhaps the most significant myth in American culture is that of the American frontier generated by the European encounters with the American West. The most noticeable part of the frontier myth is the mythic struggle between modern civilization and wilderness. Frontier is defined as “the meeting point between savagery and civilization”. Turner believes that the American frontier is closely related to American civilization and that frontier

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