Frontier Thesis
The Frontier Thesis, also known as Turner's Thesis or American frontierism, is an argument presented by historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 that the settlement and colonization of the rugged American frontier was decisive in forming a culture of American democracy distinct from European nations. First published in "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", a paper delivered to the American Historical Association in Chicago, the thesis held that American culture was shaped by the pioneers' work in "winning a wilderness", which instilled discipline, self-sufficiency, and a break from the settled, deferential culture that emerged from European feudalism.