Jackson Turner Western Frontier

In Frederick Jackson Turner’s essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”, he argues that the existence of the Western frontier of the U.S. played a major role in shaping American culture. Turner reasons that the frontier, the border between civilized society and the wilderness, was a tempting place for pioneers to settle since its unexplored land held opportunities for self-determination. The pioneers tamed the frontier in their efforts to make the land more amenable to them and their farming, leading it to become hospitable enough for more groups of people to settle in the same area. This process eventually transformed previously untamed land into towns and cities, from which more pioneers set out for the new frontier to restart the cycle of settlement.

sent their own representatives into the newly formed frontier towns to competitively cement their control over the settlers by creating schools and churches. These institutions ensured that the various moral, religious, political, and intellectual philosophies of the Eastern U.S. would continue to be present in the lives of the settlers, who were far-removed from the East and liable to forget Eastern ideologies the more time they spent away on the frontier. These diverse philosophies combined with those the different groups of settlers brought from their assorted places of origin and developed from living independently in harsh territory to create a culture that was distinctly American. This new American culture spread throughout the West with the settlers’ movements and became accepted across the entirety of the U.S., replacing the previous Eastern American culture that was distinctly influenced by European culture. Thus, Turner argues that the frontier contributed greatly to the formation of American