Editing Frontier (section)

==United States==<!-- This section is linked from [[Gunfight at the O.K. Corral]] -->
[[File:Crossing the Mississippi on the Ice by C.C.A. Christensen.png|thumb|[[Mormon pioneers]] crossing the [[Mississippi]] in February 1846]]
In the [[United States]], the '''frontier''' was the term applied by scholars to the impact of the zone of land beyond the region of existing European occupation. That is, as pioneers moved into the frontier zone they were changed significantly by the encounter. That is what [[Frederick Jackson Turner]] called "the significance of the frontier." For example, Turner argued in 1893, one change was that unlimited free land in the zone was available and thus offered the psychological sense of unlimited opportunity, which in turn had many consequences, such as optimism, future orientation, shedding of restraints caused by land scarcity, and wastefulness of natural resources.

Operating in tandem with the doctrine of "[[manifest destiny]]", the "frontier" concept also had a massive impact on Native Americans like the declaration of ''[[terra nullius]]''<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/bourketerra/ | title=Governor Bourke's 1835 Proclamation of Terra Nullius &#124; Australia's migration history timeline &#124; NSW Migration Heritage Centre }}</ref> enacted by the British around 1835 to legitimize their colonization of [[Australia]]. The idea implicitly negated any recognition of legitimate pre-existing occupation and embodied a blank denial of land rights to the indigenous peoples whose territories were being annexed by European colonists.

Throughout American history, the expansion of settlement was largely from the east to the west and so the frontier is often identified with "the West." On the Pacific Coast, settlement moved eastward. In New England, it moved north.

"Frontier" was borrowed into English from French in the 15th century with the meaning "borderland," the region of a country that fronts on another country (see also [[marches]]). The use of frontier to mean "a region at the edge of a settled area" is a special North American development. (Compare the Australian "[[outback]]".) In the Turnerian sense, "frontier" was a technical term that was explicated by hundreds of scholars.

===Colonial North America===
{{See also|Colonial America|British colonization of the Americas|French colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonization of the Americas}}
[[File:Voyageur canoe.jpg|thumb|[[French Canadians|French-Canadian]] [[Voyageurs]] passing a waterfall]]
In the earliest days of European settlement of the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] Coast, the frontier was essentially any part of the forested interior of the continent beyond the fringe of existing settlements along the coast and the great rivers such as the [[Saint Lawrence River|St. Lawrence]],  [[Connecticut River|Connecticut]], [[Hudson River|Hudson]], [[Delaware River|Delaware]], [[Susquehanna River]] and [[James River (Virginia)|James]].

British, French, Spanish, and Dutch patterns of expansion and settlement were quite different from one another. Only a few thousand French migrated to Canada; the [[habitants]] settled in villages along the St. Lawrence River, built communities that remained stable for long stretches, and did not leapfrog west the way that the Americans would. Although French fur traders ranged widely through the [[Great Lakes (North America)|Great Lakes]] and [[Mississippi River]] watershed, as far as the [[Rocky Mountains]], they did not usually settle down. Actual French settlement in those areas was limited to a few very small villages on the lower Mississippi and in the [[Illinois Country]].<ref>Clarence Walworth Alvord, ''The Illinois Country 1673-1818'' (1918)</ref>

Likewise, the Dutch set up fur trading posts in the Hudson River Valley, followed by large grants of land to [[patroons]], who brought in tenant farmers who created compact permanent villages but did not push westward.<ref>Arthur G. Adams, ''The Hudson Through the Years'' (1996); Sung Bok Kim, ''Landlord and Tenant in Colonial New York: Manorial Society, 1664-1775'' (1987)</ref>

In contrast, the British colonies generally pursued a more systematic policy of widespread settlement of the [[New World]] for cultivation and exploitation of the land, a practice that required the extension of European [[property rights]] to the new continent. The typical British settlements were quite compact and small: under a square mile. Conflict with the Native Americans arose out of political issues on who would rule. Early frontier areas east of the [[Appalachian Mountains]] included the Connecticut River Valley.<ref>Allan Kulikoff, ''From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers'' (2000)</ref> The [[French and Indian Wars]] of the 1760s resulted in a complete victory for the British, who took over the [[French colonial territory]] west of the Appalachians to the Mississippi River. The Americans began moving across the Appalachians into areas such the Ohio Country and the [[New River Valley]].

===American frontier===
{{Further|American frontier}}
[[File:Alfred Jacob Miller - Fort Laramie - Walters 37194049.jpg|thumb|right|The first [[Fort Laramie]] as it looked prior to 1840. Painting from memory by [[Alfred Jacob Miller]]]]
After victory the [[American Revolutionary War]] and the signing [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1783, the [[United States]] gained formal, if not actual, control of the British lands west of the Appalachians. Many thousands of settlers, typified by [[Daniel Boone]], had already reached [[Kentucky]] and [[Tennessee]] and adjacent areas. Some areas, such as the [[Virginia Military District]] and the [[Connecticut Western Reserve]] (both in [[Ohio]]), were used by the states as rewards to veterans of the war. How to formally include the new frontier areas into the nation was an important issue in the [[Continental Congress]] in the 1780s and was partly resolved by the [[Northwest Ordinance]] (1787). The [[Southwest Territory]] saw a similar pattern of settlement pressure.

For the next century, the expansion of the nation into those areas, as well as the subsequently-acquired [[Louisiana Purchase]], [[Oregon Country]], and [[Mexican Cession]], attracted hundreds of thousands of settlers. The question of whether the [[Kansas Territory]] would become "slave" or "free" helped to spark the [[American Civil War]]. In general before 1860, Northern Democrats promoted easy land ownership, and Whigs and Southern Democrats resisted the [[Homestead Acts]] for supporting the growth of a free farmer population that might oppose slavery and for depoulating the East.

When the Republican Party came to power in 1860, it promoted a policy of a free land, notably the Homestead Act of 1862, coupled with railroad land grants that opened cheap (but not free) lands for settlers. In 1890, the frontier line had broken up; census maps defined the frontier line as a line beyond which the population was under 2 persons per square mile.

The impact of the frontier in popular culture was enormous, as shown in [[dime novels]], [[Wild West shows]], and after 1910 [[Western film|Western films]] that were set on the frontier.

The American frontier was generally the edge of settlement in the West and typically was more democratic and free-spirited in nature than the East because of the lack of social and political institutions. The idea that the frontier provided the core defining quality of the United States was elaborated by the great historian [[Frederick Jackson Turner]], who built his [[Frontier Thesis]] in 1893 around the notion.