节选自弗雷德里克·杰克逊·特纳(Frederick Jackson Turner)在1893年哥伦比亚世界博览会(World’s columbia Exposition)期间撰写并发表的《美国历史上边疆的重要性》(The Significance of The Frontier in American History)。
美国的边境与欧洲的边境有明显的区别一条经过人口密集的防线。美国边疆最重要的一点是,它位于自由土地的边缘。在人口普查报告中,它被视为人口密度为每平方英里两倍或更多的居民点的边缘。这个术语是有弹性的,就我们的目的而言,不需要明确的定义。我们将考虑整个边境地带,包括印第安国家和人口普查报告中定居地区的外边缘。本文不会试图详尽地处理这个问题;它的目的仅仅是提请人们注意作为肥沃的研究领域的边疆,并提出与它有关的一些问题。
在美洲殖民时期,我们必须观察欧洲人的生活是如何进入欧洲大陆的,以及美国是如何改变和发展这种生活并对欧洲作出反应的。我们的早期历史是研究欧洲细菌在美国环境下的发展。公立学校的学生过于关注日耳曼血统,而忽视了美国因素。边境是最迅速和有效的美国化的分界线。荒野征服了殖民者。它发现他在服装、工业、工具、旅行方式和思想方面都是欧洲人。它把他从火车上拖下来,放到了桦木独木舟上。它剥去文明的外衣,给他穿上狩猎的衬衫和鹿皮鞋。它把他关在切罗基人和易洛魁人的小木屋里,用印第安人的栅栏围着他。不久,他就去种印第安玉米,用一根锋利的棍子耕地,他喊出了战争的口号,并以传统的印第安人的方式剥下了头皮。 In short, at the frontier the environment is at first too strong for the man. He must accept the conditions which it furnishes, or perish, and so he fits himself into the Indian clearings and follows the Indian trails. Little by little he transforms the wilderness, but the outcome is not the old Europe, not simply the development of Germanic germs, any more than the first phenomenon was a case of reversion to the Germanic mark. The fact is, that here is a new product that is American. At first, the frontier was the Atlantic coast. It was the frontier of Europe in a very real sense. Moving westward, the frontier became more and more American. As successive terminal moraines result from successive glaciations, so each frontier leaves its traces behind it, and when it becomes a settled area the region still partakes of the frontier characteristics. Thus the advance of the frontier has meant a steady movement away from the influence of Europe, a steady growth of independence on American lines. And to study this advance, the men who grew up under these conditions, and the political, economic, and social results of it, is to study the really American part of our history. . .
杰克逊列举了印第安人和殖民者之间的相似之处,主要是为了________________.