Why might the closing of the frontier have encouraged American imperialism

Why might the closing of the frontier have encouraged American imperialism? (1 point) Discontented Americans sought a new territory in which to try their luck. The rising American population needed more room to expand. Social Darwinism called for displaced Native Americans to be resettled abroad.

How did closing the frontier lead to imperialism?

Explanation: The frontier was officially closed in 1890, it fueled the imperialist furor of the late 1890s since a new frontier had to be found to quench the thirst for new exploration. The closing of the Frontier caused the American individualism to turn inward.

What invention closed the frontier?

For the first time, the east and west coasts of the United States were connected. This opened the West to the rest of the country and, in the words of Frederick Turner, effectively “closed the frontier”: the vast continent no longer seemed limitless.

Why did Americans first travel across the Great Plains?

Americans first travel across the Great Plains to seek gold and silver as the Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronadoconducted his expeditions to find gold and silver. Americans went to the Great Plains when they heard the presence of minerals in the Great Plains region.Shahrivar 18, 1399 AP

What was the Turner thesis quizlet?

The Frontier Thesis or Turner Thesis, is the argument advanced by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that American democracy was formed by the American frontier. American historian who said that humanity would continue to progress as long as there was new land to move into.

How has the presence of a frontier shaped American history and institutions according to Turner?

According to Turner, it was the frontier that shaped American institutions, society, and culture. The experience of the frontier, the westward march of pioneers from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, distinguishes Americans from Europeans, and gives the American nation its exceptional character.

Instant access to the answer in our app

And millions of other answers 4U without ads

Be smarter, download now!

or

• The government continued to promote the westward expansion after the Civil War.
• In 1890 the Census Bureau broadcast the closure of the frontier, meaning that in the west there was no apparent tracts of land without settlers.

Westward expansion

After the Civil War, the government sought to continue to promote promoting the westward expansion. At the time Texas was sparsely populated, Oklahoma and Kansas mostly reservations and the regions in Nebraska, Dakota and the Rocky Mountains were also primarily unpopulated.

Congress agreed that the transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, would be instrumental in spurring the transportation of people and goods in the area and thus stimulate settlement. President Lincoln’s Homestead Act (1862) was the other tool for promoting westward settlement and people including free slaves were given land for a meagre sum, provided they settled and developed the property for 5 years, after which their title was confirmed.

Through the 1870s and the 1880s, there was an extraordinary expansion of the western region. Diversity reflected the settlement opportunities that drew people from America, Europe and even Asia. In New Mexico and California, the Spaniards were the first settlers and the Mexican government invited Americans to settle in the region until the area was ceded to America under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

San Francisco, initially settled by Spaniards, became part of the US in 1846 and was the regional economic hub by 1880. On the coast of California, west of the Rock Mountains, settlements grew with interest first being on the potential for gold and silver followed by timber, ranching and farming evolving along with government policies such as the homestead and the transcontinental railroad.

By 1900, 14 new states emerged from the western territories with Colorado being admitted into the Union in 1876, a hundred years after the US acquired the status of nationhood and was called the Centennial State. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming were admitted between the year 1889 to 1890 following the northwest ordinances that provided the criteria for the recognition of states. Utah was admitted in 1896 once the Mormon in the region, who were led initially by Brigham Young, renounced polygamy.

In 1889, lands in Oklahoma that were reserved for the Creeks and the Seminoles were opened for settlement and fifty thousand “Boomers” and “89ers” acquired land in the region, enabling its admission into the Union in 1907.

The Close of the Frontier and Impact

In 1890, the Census Bureau broadcast the closure of the frontier, meaning that in the west there was no apparent tracts of land without settlers. This news was a distinguished event in American history; the frontier represented danger because of the Natives who lived in the region but also freedom and opportunity. The frontier also had a limitless aspect upon which Americans could extend their institutions and democracy through Manifest Destiny.

The frontier had become a safety valve for the American people, and when tough economic times hit the southern and northern regions, people occupied the frontier to start over. In 1893 Fredrick Turner wrote an essay entitled “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” regarding America’s westward expansion. In his paper he argued that the hardship in the early days of the frontier, coupled with the American democratic institutions, fostered self-reliance and individualism that led to the rise of a society different from the rest of Europe although originating from Europe. However, the historical account has been dismissed as revisionist in failing to acknowledge the impact the westward settlements had on Native Indians who were decimated by diseases introduced by Europeans, massacred in wars and forced to abandon their lifestyle and live in small reservations.

An example of this was President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt saw himself as a westerner. He became a leader in the environmental movement, starting the National Park system. Roosevelt also was involved in the spreading of democracy to other nations around the world. As opportunity for individual democracy decreased in America, there was a desire to make democracy available to people in other nations.

Some people falsely accuse the motivation to spread democracy to Imperialism. The idea of setting up American colonies never had the support of the American people. The Rough Riders (Westerners) under Teddy Roosevelt wanted to free the Cubans from Spanish rule , not to set up an American colony.