Frederick Jackson Turner 's Frontier Thesis

In addition to commerce, the growth and movement of people was also significant to the development of the United States. The birth rate decreased because people wanted prosperity for their children. However, this didn’t stop the population from growing at a swift pace. The pace was so fast that the Americans “spread themselves over half a continent … (and) that astonished everyone”. In fact, between 1790 and 1820, the population of New York quadrupled, whereas that of Kentucky multiplied over eight times. In general, the “Americans occupied more territory than they occupied during the entire 150 years of the colonial period”.

From the time America first declared its independence, to the country we know it as today, the U.S. underwent many dramatic changes, as did American settlers. Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis stated that as each American generation moved West, the settlers became more American. The first settlers in America on the East Coast arrived thinking and acting like Europeans. However, as settlers began to move west, they started to loosen ties with European ways and develop a more American way of thinking and acting. Without a doubt, Turner’s frontier thesis can be proven upon examination of the growth of America and actions of Americans moving West because as settlers moved West, they became more democratic and less tolerant of hierarchy,

The frontier line was just the beginning of what was to become of America. Acres upon acres of land scarce of settlers allowed for easy expansion. “Frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of land, the development of markets, and the formation of states” (Hine and Faragher). One the expansion of the land started the formation of our own ways formed. For the first time we began to modify the ways of European life and make them into our own. Eventually as we continued to advance westward we began to leave the European ways of

Hidden in the middle of prose and paint, Bryant and Cole used their work to describe the frontiers of America by comparing it to Europe. They touch on important issues such as urbanization and deforestation and use their influence to argue against it. In this paper, I will examine how Cole uses his work to show the evolution of the frontier over time which consequently demonstrates how change constitutes destruction. I will also go into detail on how Bryant and Cole differ in their views on involvement in the pressing issue of urbanization.

The Turner Thesis is a thesis written by 1 Fredrick Jackson Turner in the year of 1893. It states multiple claims that have changed the view of many U.S. historians and overall changed the history of America. This argument has caused many controversies including historians arguing over the true meaning of 2"frontier". I agree with Turners thesis because it caused many phenomenon's and overall changed the frontier era.

Frederick Jackson Turner wrote the book “The Significance of the Frontier on American History”. The book’s basis was about his idea that American people created their own lifestyle. Until this time, most people believed that the way that America was was because when people founded the country, they brought their ways of life from Europe. Turner turned the U.S. on it’s head when he expressed that how Americans lived was from their own trial and error. As America expanded toward the West, they did not have any knowledge about the land. They didn't know how to live on it or farm it so they learned what worked and what did not. They didn't use any methods from other countries. They explored the land on their own. For example, If a boat shipwrecked on a desolate island, the people would not know anything about the land and there would be no one there to teach them. They would begin a new way of life. They would have to pick teams to do daily tasks and they would have to write

Critics denounce Turner's thesis as being much too ignorant on "economic concerns of past industrial America." Turner was also criticized for removing the natives from his narrative and further ignores alternative motives. Furthermore, the notion of the frontier is also criticized as being environmentally deterministic as people did not being fresh based on ambitions, but were merely victims of their current surroundings. Supporters of Turner's thesis, defend Turner's ideas of the frontier as the opportunity to spawn individualism, democracy, and freedom.

One of the most famous arguments made in the world of environmental history was sparked by Frederick Jackson Turner in his essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”. In his essay that came to be known as the Frontier/ Turner Thesis, he claimed that modern American culture and innovations had been developed by the growth of America into the western frontier. The migration of Americans to the western frontier originated through their desire for adventure as well as fertile and cheap land that was open for the taking. The frontier promised possibilities of expanding new markets in an unclaimed portion of the country. There are, however, several critics of the thesis, such as George Pierson, who disagree with Turner as to the

The westward expansion had a huge impact on the role of women in society. Around the time of the Westward Expansion women did not have as many of the rights that they do now. Women’s role helped show that they could do anything that a man could do, they showed that they were not as helpless as many thought they were and it helped themselves gain rights. Before this women and men roles were very separated. Women's roles were specifically private and home based and the men did all the “hard” work. The women had to step up their game from just everyday work around the house to loads of things. They had to cook a lot for their hard working husbands. They also had to wash all their clothes. That alone was a lot of work because most of them

Turner argued that “The peculiarity of American institutions is the fact that they have been compelled to adapt themselves to the changes of an expanding people – to the changes involved in crossing a continent, in winning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of this progress out of the primitive economic and political conditions of the frontier into the complexity of

Turner ensured open could simply fathom America by understanding the wild. The new western history authorities, in any occasion Professor Limerick, now affirm that the conflict and disarray on the American areas was not obliged to the United States, yet rather basic in its expansion. The focal government even thought little of the white explorers.

The closing of the frontier was introduced by Frederick Turner in the The Significance of the Frontier in American History. The western frontier created “American’s toughness, resourcefulness, and individualism” since it gave individuals new opportunities to start a new life such as finding new mining sites for precious minerals. The frontier was America’s “safety valve,” the idea that if employment was incapable in the east or overpopulation in the cities, that life can start over by moving west, and was basically America’s security in “political power.” However, with the unavailability of land, America believed it was one of their duties to expand their Anglo-Saxon superiority to other countries and to look for economic opportunities. Imperialism, additionally, was supported with Alfred Mahan book The Influence of Sea Power upon History in the interest of America for the country own interest. The idea of America becoming more involved in world affairs was encouraged by Mahan with “the creation of a powerful navy… (and)

The later half of the 1800’s brought some of most cataclysmic times in America’s history. The eastern half of America was in a great war that sparked the beginning of a rebellious overtaking of the entire country. The American Civil War was a major past time that has always underlined the late 1800’s with much death and ultimately the defeat of the South by the North. During this time, the western part of America was still inhabited by many native Indian tribes that had lived in peace for many of years. After the civil war, expansion westward became the principal goal in the eyes of the “white man”. The expansion caused a new civil war within America, this time involving the East battling the West.

Men carried their roles in society by protecting and providing for their families, forgetting all other aspects of society. As a result, this made women carry on the other roles that were dropped by the men. As the breadwinners, men were looked upon to make all the decisions regarding the public sphere of society. So when the idea of migrating westward erupted in the East, the men couldn’t be questioned by any of the women and ultimately resulted in the family traveling to the west. Women were ranked number two when it came to men’s authority and would have to confine with the westward journey whether they wanted or not. However, the reason why many married women endured the harsh conditions traveling to the west was because the dismembering

The Turner Frontier Thesis was created by frederick jackson turner in 1893 for the purpose of both analysing the past and warning of the future. In his thesis, Turner stressed the importance of continuously expanding the United States into new territories, such as the western/pacific coast of the United States that was being settled in his time period. However, when in 1890 the Eleventh United States Census was taken and declare the frontier line dissolved. Turner warned that the United States needed to create a new frontier line. It has been demonstrated that a “new frontier” was necessary to maintain the democratic identity of the United States, but also that this factor alone cannot entirely ensure the preservation of the American democracy in the twenty first century.