Frontier Turner Analysis

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What 1890 Census words motivate Turner’s essay? Why is this a significant “brief official statement”?
Turner’s essay is motivated essentially by the fact that the frontier is disappearing. The 1890 Census explicitly states that “Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line….[the frontier’s extent] can not therefore have a place in the census reports”. Turner’s essay is sparked by this statement because he does not want the frontier to disappear, since he believes that the frontier has given so much to the American culture and contributed so much to American history, and he believes …show more content…

In order for America to be more independent from England, they needed to learn to become more self reliant. But to do this, the country needed to be more connected, both physically, economically, and nationally. They needed to be physically connected to be able to transport goods and other resources from one part of the country to another. To fulfil this, many long-term developments, such as internal improvements and railroad legislation, began as a result of the frontier. These changes built a community where the country could be economically connected as well: the roads, railroads, canals, etc. allowed resources to be able to transported across the country and begin exporting overseas. This gave America national recognition, since they needed to be united in order to compete with the rest of the world. Turner also argued that this connection between the country, and the process of “cross fertilization of ideas and institutions” that came with uniting the country allowed for nationalism since “Nothing works for nationalism like intercourse within the nation”. The frontier truly forced Americans to develop a more connected and independent country. The frontier pushed for many government actions, such as the acquisition of Louisiana. The disposition of public lands, according to Turner, was a “third important subject of national legislation influenced by the frontier”. Additionally, because the society on which the frontier was developed was so primal, the government was needed to regulate the nature of tariffs, land and internal improvements, politics, slavery, economics, and anything other issue that was needed to be taken care of in order to keep and preserve the independence of the country. The government, therefore, allowed the country to feel a stronger sense of nationalism because of the stability that it brought to the frontier and the rest of

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