Westward Expansion Analysis

Frederick Jackson Turner, in a series of articles beginning in the 1890s and continuing for over three decades, illustrated the influence of American Westward expansion, western culture, and sectionalism on American Society. In his paramount work “The Significance of Westward Expansion,” originally published in 1893, Turner examines the importance of the Frontier on nineteenth century American institutions and culture. According to Turner, historians should view the events and advancements which occurred in the century since the formation of the republic through the larger context of westward expansion. “Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area …show more content…
Turner never recanted his early belief that progressive western expansionism and the individualist character that resulted, shaped American political institutions for the betterment of the country and beyond. He foreshadowed each of these changes in earlier articles, ending “Significance of the Frontier in American History” by writing “…the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.” (60). By the time of “The Problem of the West” publication in 1896, Turner was already theorizing the effects of sectionalism on democratic institutions, “It would not mean sectional disunion, as some have speculated, but it might mean a drastic assertion of national government and imperial expansion under a popular hero.”(75) His focus on sectionalism in American society post World War I represented his belief that European nations could disrupt the cycle of violence if they modeled their political institutions and ideology off of the United States, which for Frederick Jackson Turner meant the American character and culture spawned through westward