The American frontier closing and its historical significance

¶ … external factors, including socio-economic or demographic ones, shape political systems and institutions. The latter are flexible to adapt to the changes in the external factors and to their impact, often in violent ways that translate into revolutions, such as the French Revolution. From this larger perspective on things, Turner focuses on the external factors that have shaped the American democracy and the U.S. political institutions.

For Turner, the key element in the evolution of America as a democratic state is the frontier and the frontier regions. Turner looks back even before the Declaration of Independence, with examples of frontier regions in Virginia. The key element of the frontier region, with impact on the development of democratic institutions, appears to be the absolute freedom of small landholders, dominated by an entrepreneurial and adventure spirit, aiming to discover, own and develop. This was true both for existing settlers and for new immigrant arrivals.

Primarily, the demand of the settlers in the frontier regions was one for self-government and, as Turner points out, for "the right to establish their own political institutions in an area which they have won from the wilderness." The underlying relationship between the frontier regions and American democracy appears here. It is a reflection of the laissez-faire spirit that dominates the first colonists of the frontier regions. The colonists require that they be allowed to govern themselves, form their own institutions and be part of a federation that is loosely governed from the center.

Obviously, it is natural that this translated into the objectives of the American Revolution, with the United States being a frontier region for England. With what authority would London govern territories that were thousands of miles away and that had grown, over more than 150 years, into separate cultural and economic entities, which would then require political independence as well?

Another argument that Turner uses in favor of his thesis that democracy came from the West, from the frontier regions, is that many of the U.S. leaders during the late 18th century and early 19th century were the human product of the frontier regions. People like Andrew Jackson, born in the frontier regions, would bring to Washington the ideals and perceptions of those areas and shape the American democracy with that background. Such values and ideals included the spirit of independence and adventure that dominated the perceptions of the frontier people.

The Far West provides more examples of how the American democracy was shaped by frontier regions. As Turner shows, the Far West was a geographic space of difficult physical conditions. As a consequence, associations were needed, as people pooled their resources in order to be able to achieve agricultural and industrial performances. The initial individualistic spirit that had led them to the Far West was replaced by a social and community spirit, necessary to survive and perform in the area.

From this type of associations came the development of large capital, equivalent to the growth of industry and the development of the economy. The free opportunities translated into other sectors of the economy, beyond the agricultural sector, carrying all these benefits to the new economic segments.

Following this analysis, Turner's question is whether the American democracy can support itself with the extinguishing of the frontier spirit. My belief is that, in fact, the spirit of the frontier has already blended into the overall framework of the American democracies and that the frontier spirit is manifesting itself with success in other ways and in other areas. We cannot say that this spirit is dead, following the end of the opening up of the West.

The first characteristic of the frontier spirit is the entrepreneurship, the ability to commit to risk for a future profit. This has been successfully appropriated from the frontier spirit and is now functional in the economic and business area. People are no longer colonizing the Far West, but are investing resources to innovate, to create new businesses, produce jobs and apply their knowledge to new products and services.