Editing Frontier

{{Short description|Area near or beyond a boundary}}
{{other uses|Frontier (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Virgin land}}
[[Image:1800s Texas House.JPG|right|thumb|300px|A restored pioneer house at the [[National Ranching Heritage Center]] in [[Lubbock, Texas]].]]

A '''frontier''' is a [[political]] and [[geographical]] term referring to areas near or beyond a [[border|boundary]].

== Australia ==
{{see also|European exploration of Australia|Australian frontier wars|Outback}}

[[File:StateLibQld 1 113072 Bushman with his dog and horse outside a humpy, Hughenden district^, 1910-1920.jpg|thumb|Australian bushman with his dog and horse, c. 1910]]
The term "frontier" was frequently used in [[colonial Australia]] in the meaning of country that borders the unknown or uncivilised, the boundary, border country, the borders of civilisation, or as the land that forms the furthest extent of what was frequently termed "the inside" or "settled" districts.<ref>See e.g. ''Parliamentary Debate'' April 14 ''Legislative Assembly of NSW'' (''Australian'' April 14, 1848, p.4 Robinson)</ref> The "outside" was another term frequently used in colonial Australia, this term seemingly{{original research inline|date=August 2016}} covered not only the frontier but the districts beyond. Settlers at the frontier thus frequently referred to themselves as "the outsiders" or "outside residents" and to the area in which they lived as "the outside districts". At times one might hear the "frontier" described as "the outside borders".<ref>see e.g. ''Sydney Morning Herald'' June 6, 1851 p.2g; ''South Australian Register'',  ''Moreton Bay Courier'' Feb 16, 1861, p2 and 2 April 1861, p.3 re 'The Native Police'; see Queensland Parliamentary Debate (Attorney-General Pring) (''Brisbane Courier'', July 27, 1861, p5); Queensland Parliamentary Debate 20 August 1863; ''Brisbane Courier'', Aug 22, 1863 (Editorial).</ref> However the term "frontier districts" was seemingly{{original research inline|date=August 2016}} used predominantly in the early Australian colonial newspapers whenever dealing with skirmishes between black and white in northern [[New South Wales]] and [[Queensland]], and in newspaper reports from [[South Africa]], whereas it was seemingly not so commonly used when dealing with affairs in [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], [[South Australia]] and southern New South Wales. The use of the word "frontier" was thus frequently connected to descriptions of frontier violence, as in a letter printed in the ''[[Sydney Morning Herald]]'' in December 1850 which described murder and carnage at the northern frontier and calling for the protection of the settlers saying: "...nothing but a strong body of [[Native Police]] will restore and keep order in the frontier districts, and as the squatters are taxed for the purpose of such protection".<ref>''Sydney Morning Herald'' Dec 24, 1850, p.3s.</ref>

== South America ==
[[File:VIRREINATOsur.png|thumb|350px|right|''De facto'' Spanish territories and indigenous territories around 1800. [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]] is shown in blue while the [[Captaincy General of Chile]] is shown in green.]]
=== Argentina ===
The southern indigenous frontier of the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata]] was the southern limit into which the viceyolty could exert its rule. Beyond this lay territories<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.redalyc.org/html/127/12701208/|chapter=Periferia y frontera al sur del en el sur del virreinato del Perú|language=es|last=Gascón|first=Margarita|year=2001|title=La transición de periferia a frontera : mendoza en el siglo XVII.|journal=Andes. Antropología e Historia|publisher=Andes|pages=4–6|access-date=June 15, 2019|issn=0327-1676}}</ref> ''de facto'' controlled by indigenous peoples who inhabited the [[Pampas]] and [[Patagonia]]. These group were mainly the [[Tehuelche people|Tehuelche]], [[Pehuenche]], [[Mapuche]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Marimán, P.; Caniuqueo, S.; Millalén, J.; Levil, R.|title=¡…Escucha, winka…!: Cuatro ensayos de Historia Nacional Mapuche y un epílogo sobre el futuro|year=2006|publisher=[[LOM Ediciones|LOM]]|isbn=9562828514|location=Chile|language=es}}</ref> and the [[Ranquel]]es. 
[[File:Indios_pampas_(Serie_Ibarra)_-_Carlos_Morel.jpg|thumbnail|Carlos Morel, Indios pampas (Serie Ibarra). Siglo XIX. Visible: 25 x 28 cm Llitografía: 21 x 26,5 cm, litografía sobre papel|alt=]]
Various military campaigns and peace treaties were arranged by the Spanish in order to either stop indigenous incursions in Spanish lands or to advance the frontier into indigenous territory.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10609160903336101?journalCode=ccla20|title=Mujeres, rehenes y secretarios : mediadores indígenas en la frontera sur del Río de la Plata durante el período hispánico|last=Roulet|first=Florencia|date=December 2009|journal=Colonial Latin America Review|volume=18|language=es|issue=3|access-date=May 10, 2009|page=303|issn=1466-1802|doi=10.1080/10609160903336101|s2cid=161223604|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In the 1870s, to counter the cattle raids (and the native peoples on horseback), Argentina constructed a deep trench, called [[Zanja de Alsina]], to prevent cattle from being driven west and establish a boundary to the raiding tribes in the Pampas. 

Under General [[Julio Argentino Roca]], the [[Conquest of the Desert]] extended Argentine power into [[Patagonia]].

===Bolivia===
{{expand section|date=January 2024}}
For long time a frontier existed east of [[Tarija]] in southeastern Bolivia.<ref name=guillermina>{{Cite journal |title=Chiriguanos: la construcción de un estereotipo en la política colonizadora del sur andino |journal=Memoria Americana |last=Oliveto |first=Guillermina |url=https://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?pid=S1851-37512010000100002&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt |volume=18 |issue=2 |year=2010 |trans-title=Chiriguanos: southern andes colonizing policy and the construction of a stereotype |language=es}}</ref><ref name=aguayaceite>{{Cite journal |title=Como agua y aceite. Las alianzas guerreras entre tobas y chiriguanos en el siglo XIX |journal=Indiana |last=Combès |first=Isabelle|year=2014 |volume=31 |pages=321–349 |language=es}}</ref> Starting in the late 16th century the Spanish saw the tribes inhabiting the eastern jungles, and the "[[Ava Guaraní people|Chiriguanos]]" in particular, as a threat.<ref name=guillermina/> This frontier attracted [[Afro-Bolivians|Maroons]] and indigenous individuals who escaped Spanish rule in the [[Real Audiencia of Charcas]].<ref name=aguayaceite/> The frontier remained remakably stable until the late 18th century when the Spanish made some advances into the Chiriguano territory.<ref name=aguayaceite/> Later, in the second half of the 19th century a more definitive advance begun on the Chiriguano lands with the last resistance being crushed in the early 20th century.<ref name=aguayaceite/>

===Chile===
{{see also|Arauco War|La Frontera, Chile|Mapuche conflict|Malón}}
The [[Destruction of the Seven Cities]] (1599–1604) led to the formation of a frontier called [[La Frontera, Chile|La Frontera]], with the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] ruling north of [[Biobío River]] and [[Mapuche]] retaining independence south of the said river. Within this frontier the city of [[Concepción, Chile|Concepción]] assumed the role of "military capital" of Spanish-ruled Chile.<ref name=encicloreg2006>{{cite book|title=Enciclopedia regional del Bío Bío|page=44|language=es|date=2006|isbn=956-16-0404-3|publisher=[[Pehuén Editores]]}}</ref> This informal role was given by the establishment of the Spanish [[Army of Arauco]] in the city which was financed by a payments of silver from [[Potosí]] called [[Real Situado]].<ref name=encicloreg2006/> Santiago located at some distance from the war zone remained the political capital since 1578.<ref name=encicloreg2006/>
[[File:Huasos Maulinos - Rugendas.jpg|thumb|Chilean [[huaso]]s, 1836, by [[Johann Moritz Rugendas]]]]
Following the [[Mapuche uprising of 1655]] and abolition of [[Slavery of Mapuches|Mapuche slavery]] in 1683 in the Spanish Empire trade across the frontier increased.<ref name=MCLGuerraarauco>{{Cite journal| url   = http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-7681.html
| title = La Frontera araucana
| journal  = [[Memoria Chilena]]
| publisher  = [[Biblioteca Nacional de Chile]]
| access-date = November 30, 2019
| language = es
}}</ref> Mapuche-Spanish and later Mapuche-Chilean trade increased further in the second half of the 18th century as hostilities decreased.<ref name=Bengoa45-46>Bengoa 2000, pp. 45–46.</ref> Mapuches obtained [[Good (economics)|goods]] from Chile and some dressed in "Spanish" clothing.<ref name=Bengoa154>Bengoa 2000, p. 154.</ref> Despite close contacts Chileans and Mapuches remained socially, politically and economically distinct.<ref name=Bengoa154/> Spanish and later Chilean officials with the titles of [[comisario de naciones]] and [[capitán de amigos]] acted as intermediaries between the Mapuche and colonial and republican authorities.<ref name=MemChiTiposFro>{{Cite journal| url   = http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-97969.html
| title = Tipos fronterizos
| journal  = [[Memoria Chilena]]
| publisher  = [[Biblioteca Nacional de Chile]]
| access-date = January 12, 2021
| language = es
}}</ref>

During the [[Occupation of Araucanía]] the Republic of Chile advanced the frontier south from [[Bío Bío River]] to [[Malleco River]] where a well defended line of forts was established between 1861 and 1871.

Having decisively defeated Peru in the [[Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos|battles of Chorrillos]] and [[Battle of Miraflores|Miraflores]] in January 1881 Chilean authorities turned their attention to the southern frontier in Araucanía seeking to defend the previous advances that had been so difficult to establish.<ref name=Bengoa275-276>Bengoa 2000, pp. 275-276.</ref><ref name=Ferrando547>Ferrando 1986, p. 547</ref><ref name=Bengoa277-278>Bengoa 2000, pp. 277-278.</ref> The idea was not only to defend forts and settlements but also to advance the frontier all the way from [[Malleco River]] to [[Cautín River]].<ref name=Bengoa275-276/><ref name="Bengoa277-278"/>

==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.

==Canadian frontier==

[[File:Cold night camp on the inhospitable shores of Lake Winnipeg.jpg|thumb|Swiss immigrants camped on the shores of [[Lake Winnipeg]] in the autumn of 1821]]
A [[Canada|Canadian]] frontier thesis was developed by the Canadian historians [[Harold Adams Innis]] and [[J. M. S. Careless]], who emphasized the relationship between the center and periphery. Katerberg argues that "in Canada the imagined West must be understood in relation to the mythic power of the North" (Katerberg 2003). Innis's 1930 work ''The Fur Trade in Canada'' expounded on what became known as the Laurentian thesis: the most creative and major developments in Canadian history occurred in the metropolitan centres of Central Canada, and the civilization of North America is the civilization of Europe. Innis considered place to be critical in the development of the Canadian West and wrote of the importance of metropolitan areas, settlements, and indigenous people in the creation of markets. Turner and Innis have continued to exert influence over the historiography of the American and Canadian Wests. The Quebec frontier showed little of the individualism or democracy that Turner ascribed to the American zone to the south. The Nova Scotia and Ontario frontiers were more democratic than the rest of Canada, but whether that was caused by the need to be self-reliant on the frontier itself or the presence of large numbers of American immigrants is debated.

The Canadian political thinker Charles Blattberg has argued that such events ought to be seen as part of a process in which Canadians advanced a "border," as distinct from a "frontier," from east to west. According to Blattberg, a border assumes a significantly sharper contrast between the civilized and the uncivilized since unlike a frontier process in which the civilizing force is not supposed to be shaped by what it civilizes. Blattberg criticizes both the frontier and the border "civilizing" processes.

===Canadian Prairies===
The pattern of settlement of the Canadian Prairies began in 1896, when the American Prairies had already achieved statehood. Pioneers then headed north to the "[[Last Best West]]."  
Before the settlers began to arrive, the [[North West Mounted Police]] had been dispatched to the region. When the settlers began to arrive, a system of law and order was already in place, and the Dakotas' lawlessness that was famous for the American "Wild West" did not occur in Canada. The federal government had also sent teams of negotiators to meet with the indigenous peoples of the region. In a series of treaties, the basis for peaceful relations was established, and the [[American Indian Wars|long wars with the Natives]] that occurred in the United States largely did not spread to Canada.

Like their American counterparts, the Canadian Prairies supported populist and democratic movements in the early 20th century.<ref>Laycock, David.  ''Populism and Democratic Thought in the Canadian Prairies, 1910 to 1945.'' 1990; Seymour Martin Lipset, ''Agrarian Socialism''  (1950).
</ref>

== Russia ==
{{expand section|date=May 2025}}
The expansion of [[Russia]] to the north, south ([[Wild Fields]]) and east ([[Siberia]], the [[Russian Far East]] and [[Russian Alaska]]) exploited ever-changing frontier regions over several centuries and often involved the development and settlement of [[Cossack]] communities.<ref>
{{cite book
| last1 = Richards
| first1 = John F.
| author-link1 = John F. Richards
| chapter = 7: Frontier Settlement in Russia
| title = The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HQ5KbXYhEB8C
| series = California world history library
| volume = 1
| edition = reprint
| location = Berkeley
| publisher = University of California Press
| publication-date = 2003
| page = 263
| isbn = 9780520230750
| access-date = 2016-08-15
| quote = Discharged and unemployed or deserting servicemen, younger sons and other dependents of men already in frontier service in older areas, fleeing criminals, sedentarized steppe Tatars, and cossacks took up residence in or near the new centers. Decade after decade, however, peasants fleeing to the frontier made up the largest category of migrants. [...] The more venturesome Russian migrants avoided the frontier towns and peasant villages in favor of life as cossacks (from the Turkic ''kazak'', meaning 'free man').
}}
</ref>

==See also==
* [[Cabin rights]]
* [[Marches]]
* [[Military Frontier]]
* [[Xinjiang under Qing rule]]
* [[North-West Frontier Province]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
===US history===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19971022225845/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/ The Frontier In American History] by Frederick Jackson Turner
* Billington, Ray Allen. ''America's Frontier Heritage'' (1984), an analysis of the frontier experience from perspective of social sciences and historiography
* Billington, Ray Allen. ''Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier'' (1952 and later editions), the most detailed textbook, with highly detailed annotated bibliographies
* Billington, Ray Allen. ''Land of Savagery / Land of Promise: The European Image of the American Frontier in the Nineteenth Century'' (1981)
* Blattberg, Charles ''Shall We Dance? A Patriotic Politics for Canada'' (2003), ch. 3, a comparison of the Canadian 'border' with the American 'frontier'
* Hine, Robert V.  and John Mack Faragher. ''The American West: A New Interpretive History'' (2000), recent textbook
* Lamar, Howard R. ed. ''The New Encyclopedia of the American West'' (1998), 1000+ pages of articles by scholars 
* Milner, Clyde A., II ed. ''Major Problems in the History of the American West'' 2nd ed (1997), primary sources and essays by scholars
* Nichols, Roger L. ed. ''American Frontier and Western Issues: An Historiographical Review'' (1986) essays by 14 scholars 
* Paxson, Frederic, ''History of the American Frontier, 1763-1893'' (1924)
* Slotkin, Richard, ''Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860'' (2000), University of Oklahoma Press

===Canada===
* Blattberg, Charles ''Shall We Dance? A Patriotic Politics for Canada'' (2003), ch. 3, a comparison of the Canadian 'border' with the American 'frontier'
* Cavell, Janice. "The Second Frontier: the North in English-Canadian Historical Writing." ''Canadian Historical Review'' 2002 83(3): 364–389. ISSN 0008-3755 Fulltext in Ebsco
* Clarke, John.  ''Land, Power, and Economics on the Frontier of Upper Canada.'' McGill-Queen's U. Press, 2001. 747 pp.  
* Colpitts, George.  ''Game in the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife in Western Canada to 1940'' U. of British Columbia Press, 2002. 216 pp.  
* Forkey, Neil S.  ''Shaping the Upper Canadian Frontier: Environment, Society and Culture in the Trent Valley.'' U. of Calgary Press 2003. 164 pp.  
* Katerberg, William H. "A Northern Vision: Frontiers and the West in the Canadian and American Imagination."  ''American Review of Canadian Studies'' 2003 33(4): 543–563. ISSN 0272-2011 Fulltext online at Ebsco 
* Mulvihill, Peter R.; Baker, Douglas C.; and Morrison, William R. "A Conceptual Framework for Environmental History in Canada's North." ''Environmental History'' 2001 6(4): 611–626. ISSN 1084-5453. Proposes a five-part conceptual framework for the study of environmental history in the Canadian North. The first element of the framework analyzes approaches to environmental history that are applicable to the Canadian North. The second element reviews historical forces, myths, and defining characteristics that pertain to the region. A third element of the framework tests the validity of Turner's Frontier Thesis and Creighton's Metropolitan Thesis when applied to northern Canada. The fourth element consists of an overview of major northern environmental trends. The final element consists of four interrelated themes that identify the environmental relationships between northern and southern Canada.

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19971022225845/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/ Turner Thesis text]
* [http://www.transhumanist.com/volume4/space.htm Transhumanist.com: Opening Space as a Frontier]

[[Category:Canada–United States relations]]
[[Category:History of United States expansionism]]

[[io:Frontiero]]
[[pt:Fronteira]]