Reading Questions Turner What was Europes frontier (in the old world & the new world)?

In the old world Europes frontier was a fortified boundary line running through dense populations and new world the American Atlantic coast. What reasons does Turner give for the importance of studying the frontier? Turners reason for studying the frontier is to see it from the view of the historian and economist and also call attention to the frontier as a field of investigation and point out problems that come with the frontier. How does Turner describe the American West or frontier (i.e., the land & the natives who live there)? What metaphors does he use? Turner describes the American West or frontier as open and savage land, in other words not belonging to anyone. Turner uses the metaphor of the American frontier being the master of the European. Turner says, It takes him from the railroad car and puts him puts him in the birch canoe. It strips off the garments of civilization and arrays him in the hunting shirt and the moccasin. How is the American character defined by frontier? The frontier defines the American character as a cross between European and Indian. How does Turner describe the relationship between Americans and Indians? Turner first describes the Americans as relying on the Indians to survive then later on the Indians relying on the Americans to survive after the Americans have altered the natives way of living. How is native dependency encouraged and developed by the colonizer, and what is the benefit of the natives dependency on the colonizers? Native dependency is encouraged and developed when colonizer give the natives better weapons such as guns to better the natives in hunting animals which they trade to the colonizers for more guns. The colonizers then trade to whoever (England and France) stimulating the American economy and repeating the cycle of giving natives weapons to hunt animals that can be traded. By trading with the colonizer for weapons, natives step out of their traditional ways or purposes for hunting and walk into the new way of life thats suitable for the colonizer which is more of a capitalistic type of economy. The benefit of native dependency on the colonizers is control of the natives method of survival. Natives basically exchange their old way of living for the life of the colonizer who cares nothing about them and everything about the product they produce. The colonizer continues to change the environment which becomes more suitable to the colonizer and less suitable to the native.