American Frontier

[emuoy]

Explain the central place of the frontier in making colonists into Americans by the early nineteenth century. Be sure to include in your discussion the role of the frontier in the rise of individualism, the place of experience and how Americans understood the world, and the transformation of the social structure and relationships.

[dot.hawkes]

basically it was an expansion of colonialism that did not rely wholly on armies and military force but on enterprise, capitalism and the excitement generated by the opportunities for free will and personal gain as well as adventure and progress. Women emerged in a new world as eqyals in the stuggle for survival and gain, but with a slow progression of law following on behind the early pioneers a woman had to stand up for herself and work along side men to survive. the move West saw many many cultures and nationalities all presented with the equal opportunity to bring their own kind of civilisation to a vast wilderness where the shock of the hardship seperated the weak from the strong.

[jno]

depends what you mean by 'Americans'. But a lot of what America offered was apparently unlimited space; until they hit California (which didn't really happen until the gold rushes of the mid 19th century) there was always scope for European migrants who'd been living 10 to a room back home to have pretty much all the space they wanted. So many pioneers joined wagon trains westward, though most would have settled further back from the frontier and left it to the cavalry to fight off hostile Injuns.

[daverock4]

Read john Locke. Individualism stems from philosophers of that ilke