Frontier Essay

"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 (Turner)." When the Europeans immigrated to the New World, they were faced with an overwhelming frontier atmosphere and forced to adapt to their environment or perish. As a result, an Americanization occurred which made these former Europeans into Americans, who founded the concept of democracy   and made the traits associated with Americans almost stereotypical (Turner). Despite the fact that Frederick Turner"s essay, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, was warmly received at the World"s Fair in Chicago of 1893, after his death in 1932, a large cascade of criticism was unleashed arguing that Turner had misrepresented some dynamic concepts like the nature of the frontier, frontier allures, democracy, and the fur trade. Frederick Jackson Turner offered his essay as an analysis of the past and a warning about the future so the generations of his time period could find comfort knowing that the closing of the frontier was not an end to American history but rather an end to a chapter in American history. From the lack of a physical frontier in the United States of America, Americans thought the source of America"s uniqueness was gone forever, however, in the recent century many frontiers have been discovered thus symbolizing a new chapter in American history.

Frederick Jackson Turner"s Frontier "Thesis" contains a multitude of core concepts in his essay titled The Significance of the Frontier in American History. First, Turner viewed the frontier as a constant for three hundred years. The boundaries of the frontier shifted and moved as the population of the United States expanded and important discoveries were made: cotton can be a cash crop, gold exists in California, and...