The Significance of the Frontier in American History

The importance of 1890 is that the census taken that year showed a disappearance of the American frontier. The population records before 1890 showed large pockets of unsettled areas that needed settlement. The 1890 census showed only small isolated plots of land that gave evidence that there was no more land left to explore and settle, marking the end of the frontier and fulfilling our manifest destiny.

The difference between the American and European frontiers is that the line that marks the begi...