What was the significance of the closure of the Western frontier?
To me, this is a question of opinion since you cannot really measure the effect of this closure. I would think that you could point to a couple of impacts of this closure. First, you could say that this represented the first time that America was not a frontier nation. That is to say that it was the first time that it was not engaged in expansion. This deprived people of a place to go when their current situation was not to their liking. A person with few prospects in the east could no longer try to find his fortune on the frontier. You could argue that this led to the creation of an urban working class and to the reduction in America’s pioneer spirit. Second, you can argue that the closing of the frontier helped lead to overseas imperialism. Perhaps the closing of the frontier pushed America to try to expand outside of the bounds of North America.
