Turner's Frontier Thesis
Prior to the Revolutionary War of 1776, the thirteen colonies of the eastern seaboard were uniformly recognized as an appendage of England. They were considered by many to be the Western segment of Great Britain. However, the colonial victory of the Revolutionary War depraved the Britons of their Western appendage. The United States had in fact begun its own establishment, developing the manifest destiny to grow Westward. The acquiring of the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleonic France overnight doubled the size of the infant nation and created a large sense of nostalgia. With the expeditions of Lewis and Clark came further expansion into the backcountry of the West. Eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean, the United States had accomplished its goal of reaching "from sea to shining sea". Yet they had attained far more than their original goal. Development of the Western United States had returned man to his Darwinian beginnings, making evolution inevitable. With each evolutionary stage came the increase of true American character and the decrease of European influence. Frederick Jackson Turner, in his remarkable "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", embraces that point and further analyzes it. Turner argu
In his thesis, Turner argues that the frontier promoted American economic and political independence. Even after the American Revolution, the United States still received much of its final goods from European nations. However, in order to promote economic growth and manufacture in the United States, the government had imposed a set of tariffs and other economic sanctions on foreign goods. Despite this, Turner argues that it was the West that largely aided American self-sufficiency. The growing west, in the undeveloped state that it was in, needed many materials to advance its status. It became self-sufficient, producing much of its own goods and receiving much from the Eastern United States as well. In its development, the Frontier had succeeded in Americanizing the economy and freeing it from European grasp. Despite the explications and claims made by Turner, the West was not as influential on American politics and character as stated in "The Significance of the Frontier in American History". Earl Pomeroy, in his "Toward a Reorientation of Western History: Continuity and Environment", reinforces the common beliefs held by the historians of Turner's time period. Most importantly, Pomeroy explains that although the frontier was America's West, America was Europe's west. The United States remained the Western appendage of Europe, reinforcing European practices and beliefs in the Western Hemisphere. Pomeroy furthers his argument by stating that the development of the West was not a set of original evolutions, but was rather a prime example of conformity. The West mimicked the East in all parts of society. It formed similar institutions, called for the much of the same federal governmental policies, and even had similar building structures; the West was hardly an innovation, if anything, it was a conformity. Turner also mentions that the West evolved gradually, yet much of the West was developed overnight, such as the various mining and oil towns scattered around the region. With regard to Turner's claim that the frontier was self-sufficient, Pomeroy explains that the West was dependent on the East. He explains that goods we
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Approximate Word count = 1450
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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