America without the Frontier

How would the American identity develop if we followed the Canadian example instead of rapid expansion?
 
Canada had a choice: Either buy Alaska knowing it would give us Sarah Palin, or send Chinese to their death building a national railroad. I think the choice is obvious.






:p
 
Canada had a choice: Either buy Alaska knowing it would give us Sarah Palin, or send Chinese to their death building a national railroad. I think the choice is obvious.






:p

lol. damned Palin.

back on topic. I think if American expansion had been more organized we wouldn't be Americans. When was the last time we did something that was thought out and rational. I am afraid to say the instances are in my mind very few.
 
It was organized. Why do you think every state west of the Mississippi and east of California tries to be as boxy as possible? Land was also frequently owned, and in the west still is frequently owned by the government and public interests. Immigration wasn't often checked, but there was organization. The reason it was managed to be settled so rapidly was a hell of a lot of people moving west.
 
"Twas only the cold, inhospitable weather that slowed the Canadians down. That, and the fact that there wasn't as many of them "going west.".:D;).
 
"Twas only the cold, inhospitable weather that slowed the Canadians down. That, and the fact that there wasn't as many of them "going west.".:D;).

This is very true.
When a fast growing wheat was finally shown to be capable of thriving in the Canadian prairies, there was a pretty large population boom in the mid 1890's until about 1910. I believe it was an even faster population increase than the US had.
Until then it was too cold and the growing season too short to have farmers in most areas.
 
I don't think either nations expansion was based on rationality but by necessity. The US expanded more quickly because the frontier rapidly became the interior.
 
America wouldn't be without a frontier, it was all frontier at one point.

Canada is like america but with worse weather. It was the weather that prevented to rapid expansion.
 
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