US Frontier declared non-existent

Historical Context Note

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Domains

Colonialism and colonisation

Dates

Date of occurrence 1890

Places

United States (Location)

Resources

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When the 11th US Census established that the population in the West had 'settled' (with an average of 2 people per square mile) and was no longer pushing forward, it was declared the frontier was closed. The character of frontier settlements changed as populations grew and towns and cities were established. Most famously this ending of the American Frontier was discussed by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 in his highly influential 'Frontier Thesis'.

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