The Frontier Thesis
According to Frederick Jackson Turner, what shaped American identity more than anything else?
What is the frontier?
What did Americans believe the West offered after the Civil War?
What are freedom, opportunity, and a fresh start?
Who was most harmed by the movement of settlers into the West?
Who are Native Americans?
Who encouraged Americans to move west after the Civil War?
What is the U.S. government?
Who wrote “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”?
Who is Frederick Jackson Turner?
Turner believed the frontier taught Americans independence and promoted what kind of government?
What is democracy?
What type of stories and songs helped spread the idea that the West was a land of opportunity?
What is folklore (and music)?
What happened to Native Americans’ land as settlers moved west?
They were forced off their land and onto reservations.
What did government land policies provide to settlers?
Free or cheap land to encourage farming and settlement.
Who wrote A Century of Dishonor?
Who is Helen Hunt Jackson?
Why did Turner think the closing of the frontier was a turning point for America?
Because Americans would no longer have free land to expand into, forcing change in how the nation grew.
What natural feature of the West symbolized open possibility to Americans?
What are clear skies and open spaces?
The destruction of what animal devastated Native Americans’ way of life?
What is the bison/buffalo?
What did reservation policy force Native Americans to do?
Live on restricted land under government control.
What did Helen Hunt Jackson accuse the U.S. government of doing?
Mistreating Native Americans and breaking promises.
Turner said the frontier encouraged what traits in the American character?
What are individualism, opportunity-seeking, and self-reliance?
Besides opportunity, what else motivated people to move west?
What are government land policies and the hope of independence?
How did westward expansion threaten Native American culture?
It broke apart traditions, communities, and self-sufficiency.
Why did the government support breaking up tribal land into individual plots?
To assimilate Native Americans and weaken tribal identity.
How did Turner’s view of the West differ from Jackson’s?
Turner praised it as opportunity; Jackson criticized it for harming Native Americans.
Why did Turner call the frontier “the most American part of America”?
Because it set the U.S. apart from Europe by giving ordinary people freedom and opportunity.
The West was romanticized as a place where ordinary people could achieve what?
What is the “American Dream” (freedom and prosperity)?
Overall, what was the long-term effect of westward settlement on Native Americans?
Loss of land, resources, and culture, leading to lasting hardships.
How did government support for settlers directly harm Native Americans?
By giving away Native land and ignoring Native rights.
Why are Turner and Jackson’s writings important to study together?
They show different perspectives: expansion as growth vs. expansion as injustice.