Turner (1893)
The West as Frontier:
The Turner Thesis
1.
An unsettled region. A
Wilderness of
Free land without a history of settlement.
2. Study the West as the process of settling the frontier by
Anglo-Americans.
Civilizing the Wildnerness.
3.
American history is the history of the settling of the West. The West is the center of American History.
Settling the West makes Americans who they are.
4.The West was settled by 1890.
The West as frontier is closed. After the West is settled, it is just like the
rest of America.
5. Western history is over after the frontier is settled.
Without a frontier of settlement, the West is no longer a unqiue region. The West is just like the rest of America. So Western history ends when the Frontier is
settled
.
