The Significance of the Frontier in American History free essay sample

How does Turner explain the recurring need for communication and transportation along the American frontier? What Turner wants to point out here is that the American West is the most important feature of American history, and of the development of its society. He refers several times to a process of â€Å"Americanization† and we will see that the definition he gives of it is a very peculiar one. He gives a definition of the frontier: â€Å"it lies at the hither edge of free land†, meaning that he considers the Indian territory to be free land. According to him the frontier is the â€Å"meeting point between savagery and civilization†, â€Å"the most rapid and effective Americanization†. The process of Americanization he refers to is in fact a double transformation of the society. First the European people being stripped off by the wilderness they have to face in the west, and then those same people rebuilding a new society in which they turn the savage people into a civilized one, but not a â€Å"European civilized†, an American civilized population. We will write a custom essay sample on The Significance of the Frontier in American History or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It was, according to him, a plural-ethnical society in which â€Å"the immigrants were Americanized, liberated and fused into a mixed society†. Turner gives great credit to the frontier as a paramount feature of American history. He defines it as a â€Å"steady movement away from Europe,† which corroborates what we have already seen, the fact that it was a two-fold process in which the European populations first got rid of their European â€Å"attributes. † He argues that the advance of the frontier was a means of being less and less dependent on England, and that the frontier helped develop democracy, the legislation, communication, transportation etc. For instance the Indian trade contributed in the development of transport and every colonization was a model for the others and improvements that could be made in a region served in others†¦ It was, according to Turner, a circular system of dependencies, but this system remained internal, and European rules or habits were almost banished. Turner argues that the west is the real basis of the American society because, thanks to the movement westward, the population became more and more American, and there was a rejection of England. He says â€Å"Such examples teach us to beware of misinterpreting the fact that there is a common English speech in America into the belief that the stock is also English. † At last, he considers the frontier as a historical period as such. He divides American history into two parts: first the early history corresponding to the period of dependency upon England, a period which he associates with the East, and the period of â€Å"the Frontier† associated with the West, a period on which are now based most American features regarding society. I think his point of view is somewhat extreme in the sense that even though the West did play a great part in the development of the American society, he goes too far in explaining his view on Americanization, on the rejection of any European habits†¦ The East also played a role in the American society and his being a propagandist is clear throughout his writing. He even refers to Eastern people as â€Å"traitors†, as people too much dependent on England. He points out the fact that the West was â€Å"self-conscious†, insinuating that Eastern America is just a copy-cat of England, of its system, legislation. It is true that building a new society requires the setting up of new rules etc. but he seems to forget that the first frontier in America was that of the Atlantic Ocean and that, despite closer links with Europe, The East had to develop as a new society as well. At last, his definition of Americanization is too exclusive and we find in it a propaganda for the West, he seems to exclude the East from this new Americanized society. How does Turner connect the ingenuity of the American frontiersmen with the ever-present influence of nature? Turner connects the ingenuity of the frontiersmen by omitting the pioneer farmer who moves from the love of adventure, the advance of the more steady farmer is easy to understand. Obviously the immigrant was attracted by the cheap lands of the frontier, and even the native farmer felt their influence strongly. Year by year the farmers who lived on soil, whose returns were diminished by unrotated crops were offered the virgin soil of the frontier at nominal prices. Their growing families demanded more lands, and these were dear. The competition of the unexhausted, cheap, and easily tilled prairie lands compelled the farmer either to go west and continue the exhaustion of the soil on a new frontier, or to adopt intensive culture. Thus the census of 1890 shows, in the Northwest, many counties in which there is an absolute or a relative decrease of population. These States have been sending farmers to advance the frontier on the Plains, and have themselves begun to turn to intensive farming and to manufacture. A decade before this, Ohio had shown the same transition stage. Thus the demand for land and the love of wilderness freedom drew the frontier ever onward. Having now roughly outlined the various kinds of frontiers and their modes of advance, chiefly from the point of view of the frontier itself, we may next inquire what were the influences on the East and on the Old World. A rapid enumeration of some of the more noteworthy effects is all that I have time for. First, we note that the frontier promoted the formation of a composite nationality for the American people. The coast was preponderantly English, but the later tides of continental immigration flowed across to the free lands. This was the case from the early colonial days. The Scotch-Irish and the Palatine Germans, or Pennsylvania Dutch, furnished the dominant element in the stock of the colonial frontier. With these peoples were also the freed indented servants, or redemptioners, who at the expiration of their time of service passed to the frontier. Governor Spotswood of Virginia writes in 1717, The inhabitants of our frontiers are composed generally of such as have been transported hither as servants, and, being out of their time, settle themselves where land is to be taken up and that will produce the necessaries of life with little labor. Very generally these redemptioners were of non-English stock. What does Turner foreshadow about diversity and the character of the American identity? Turner foreshadows a couple of diversities and the American identity. In another way the advance of the frontier decreased our dependence on England. The coast, particularly of the South, lacked diversified industries, and was dependent on England for the bulk of it s supplies. In the South there was even a dependence on the Northern colonies for articles of food. Governor Glenn of South Carolina writes in the middle of the eighteenth century: He says they’re trade with New York and Philadelphia was of this sort, draining us of all the little money and bills we could gather from other places for their bread, flour, beer, hams, bacon, and other things of their produce; all which, except beer, our new townships begin to supply us with, which are settled with very industrious and thriving Germans. This no doubt diminishes the number of shipping and the appearance of our trade, but it is far from being a detriment to us. Before long the frontier created a demand for merchants. As it retreated from the coast it became less and less possible for England to bring her supplies directly to the consumers wharfs and carry away staple crops, and staple crops began to give way to diversified agriculture for a time. The effect of this phase of the frontier action upon the northern section is perceived when we realize how the advance of the frontier aroused seaboard cities like Boston, New York, and Baltimore, to engage in rivalry for what Washington called the extensive and valuable trade of a rising empire. Since the days when the fleet of Columbus sailed into the waters of the New World, America has been another name for opportunity, and the people of the United States have taken their tone from the incessant expansion which has not only been open but has even been forced upon them. He would be a rash prophet who should assert that the expansive character of American life has now entirely ceased. Movement has been its dominant fact, and, unless this training has no effect upon a people, the American energy will continually demand a wider field for its exercise. But never again will such gifts of free land offer themselves.