Political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary
A restored pioneer house at the
National Ranching Heritage Center
in
Lubbock, Texas
, US.
A
frontier
is the
political
and
geographical
area near or beyond a
boundary
. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"?the region of a country that fronts on another country (see also
marches
). Unlike a
border
?a rigid and clear-cut form of state boundary
[1]
?in the most general sense a frontier can be fuzzy or diffuse. For example, the frontier between the Eastern United States and the Old West in the 1800s was an area where European American settlements gradually thinned out and gave way to Native American settlements or uninhabited land. The frontier was not always a single continuous area, as California and various large cities were populated before the land that connected those to the East.
Frontiers and borders also imply different geopolitical strategies. In
Ancient Rome
, the
Roman Republic
experienced a period of active expansion and creating new frontiers. From the reign of
Augustus
onward, the Roman borders turned into defensive boundaries that divided the Roman and non-Roman realms.
[2]
In the eleventh-century China, China's
Song Dynasty
defended its northern border with the
nomadic
Liao empire
by building an extensive manmade forest. Later in the early twelfth century, Song Dynasty invaded the Liao and dismantled the northern forest, converting the former defensive border into an expanding frontier.
[3]
In modern history,
colonialism
and
imperialism
has applied and produced elaborate use and concepts of a frontier, especially in the
settler colonial
states of North America, expressed by the "
Manifest Destiny
" and "
Frontier Thesis
".
Mobile frontiers
was discussed during the
Schengen convention
.
[4]
It was used by Prime Minister of India
Jawaharlal Nehru
to describe
Mao Zedong's
actions of grabbing Indian territory before and during the
1962 War
through a creeping process.
[5]
Albert Nevett, in his 1954 book "India Going Red?" wrote that "The
Empire of Soviet
Communism has 'mobile frontiers'".
[6]
Spain
[
edit
]
Frontier in Spain the entry point to Gibraltar
The Spanish "frontier" lies between Spain and Gibraltar and has been in existence since Gibraltar became independent of Spain in 1704. Passports are checked twice - once by Gibraltar and once by Spain - within a short distance of each other. This regularly leads to delays exiting and entering Gibraltar.
Australia
[
edit
]
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.
[7]
The "outside" was another term frequently used in colonial Australia, this term seemingly
[
original research?
]
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".
[8]
However the term "frontier districts" was seemingly
[
original research?
]
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
,
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".
[9]
South America
[
edit
]
De facto
Spanish territories and indigenous territories around 1800.
Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata
is shown in blue while the
Captaincy General of Chile
is shown in green.
Argentina
[
edit
]
The southern indigenous frontier of the
Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata
was the southern limit into which the viceyolty could exert its rule. Beyond this lay territories
[10]
de facto
controlled by indigenous peoples who inhabited the
Pampas
and
Patagonia
. These group were mainly the
Tehuelche
,
Pehuenche
,
Mapuche
,
[11]
and the
Ranqueles
.
Carlos Morel, Indios pampas (Serie Ibarra). Siglo XIX. Visible: 25 x 28 cm Llitografia: 21 x 26,5 cm, litografia sobre papel
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.
[12]
Under General
Julio Argentino Roca
, the
Conquest of the Desert
extended Argentine power into
Patagonia
.
Chile
[
edit
]
The
Destruction of the Seven Cities
(1599?1604) led to the formation of a frontier called
La Frontera
, with the
Spanish
ruling north of
Biobio River
and
Mapuche
retaining independence south of the said river. Within this frontier the city of
Concepcion
assumed the role of "military capital" of Spanish-ruled Chile.
[13]
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
Potosi
called
Real Situado
.
[13]
Santiago located at some distance from the war zone remained the political capital since 1578.
[13]
Following the
Mapuche uprising of 1655
and abolition of
Mapuche slavery
in 1683 in the Spanish Empire trade across the frontier increased.
[14]
Mapuche-Spanish and later Mapuche-Chilean trade increased further in the second half of the 18th century as hostilities decreased.
[15]
Mapuches obtained
goods
from Chile and some dressed in "Spanish" clothing.
[16]
Despite close contacts Chileans and Mapuches remained socially, politically and economically distinct.
[16]
Spanish and later Chilean officials with the titles of
comisario de naciones
and
capitan de amigos
acted as intermediaries between the Mapuche and colonial and republican authorities.
[17]
During the
Occupation of Araucania
the Republic of Chile advanced the frontier south from
Bio Bio River
to
Malleco River
where a well defended line of forts was established between 1861 and 1871.
Having decisively defeated Peru in the
battles of Chorrillos
and
Miraflores
in January 1881 Chilean authorities turned their attention to the southern frontier in Araucania seeking to defend the previous advances that had been so difficult to establish.
[18]
[19]
[20]
The idea was not only to defend forts and settlements but also to advance the frontier all the way from
Malleco River
to
Cautin River
.
[18]
[20]
North America
[
edit
]
Colonial North America
[
edit
]
French-Canadian
Voyageurs
passing a waterfall
The word "frontier" has often meant a region at the edge of a
settled
area, especially in North American development. It was a transition zone where explorers, pioneers and settlers were arriving.
Frederick Jackson Turner
said that "the significance of the frontier" was that as pioneers moved into the "frontier zone," they were changed by the encounter. For example, Turner argues in 1893 that in the United States, unlimited free land in this zone was available, and thus offered the psychological sense of unlimited opportunity. This, in turn, had many consequences such as optimism,
future orientation
, shedding the restraints of land scarcity, and the wastage of natural resources.
[21]
In the earliest days of
European settlement
of the Atlantic coast, the frontier was any part of the forested interior of the continent lying beyond the fringe of existing settlements along the coast and the great rivers, such as the
St. Lawrence
,
Connecticut
,
Hudson
,
Delaware
,
Susquehanna River
and
James
.
[
citation needed
]
English, French, Spanish and Dutch patterns of settlement were quite different. Only a few thousand French citizens migrated to Canada. These
Canadiens
settled in villages along the
St. Lawrence River
, establishing communities that remained stable for long stretches, rather than leapfrogging west the way the English and later the Americans did. Although French
fur traders
ranged widely through the
Great Lakes
and
Mississippi River
watersheds, including as far as the
Rocky Mountains
, they did not usually settle down. French settlement in these areas was limited to a few very small villages on the lower Mississippi and in the
Illinois Country
.
[22]
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 that created compact, permanent villages. Dutch efforts at westward expansion were halted by their defeats at the hands of English forces.
[23]
The
English colonies
generally pursued a more unified policy of settlement of the New World, including focusing their efforts on cultivating land in the New World. The typical English settlements were quite compact and small? mostly being under 3 square kilometres (1 square mile). Early frontier areas east of the
Appalachian Mountains
included the
Connecticut River
valley.
[24]
The
French and Indian War
of the 1760s resulted in a victory for the British, who gained large areas of
French colonial territory
west of the Appalachians to the
Mississippi River
in the
Treaty of Paris
.
American settlers
began moving across the Appalachians into areas such the Ohio Country and the
New River Valley
both before and after the
American Revolution
.
[24]
Most of the frontier movement was east to west, but there were other directions as well. The frontier in New England lay to the north; in Nevada to the east; in Florida to the south. Throughout American history, the expansion of settlement was largely from the east to the west, and thus the frontier is often identified with "the west." On the Pacific Coast, settlement moved eastward.
[24]
Canadian frontier
[
edit
]
A Canadian frontier thesis was developed by
Canadian
historians
Harold Adams Innis
and
J. M. S. Careless
. They 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] This is reflected in
Canadian literature
with the phrase "
garrison mentality
". In Innis's 1930 work
The Fur Trade in Canada
, he expounded on what became known as the Laurentian thesis: that the most creative and major developments in Canadian history occurred in the metropolitan centers of central Canada and that the civilization of North America is the civilization of Europe. Innis considered place as 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 continue 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 rather more democratic than the rest of Canada, but whether that was caused by the need to be self-reliant at the frontier itself, or the presence of large numbers of American immigrants is debated.
[
citation needed
]
Swiss immigrants camped on the shores of
Lake Winnipeg
in the autumn of 1821
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, the civilizing force is not supposed to be shaped by that which it is civilizing. Blattberg criticizes both the frontier and border "civilizing" processes.
[
citation needed
]
Canadian prairies
[
edit
]
The pattern of settlement of the Canadian prairies began in 1896, when the American prairie states had already achieved statehood. Like their American counterparts, the Prairie provinces supported populist and democratic movements in the early 20th century.
[25]
United States
[
edit
]
The first
Fort Laramie
as it looked prior to 1840. Painting from memory by Alfred Jacob Miller
Following the victory of the United States in the
American Revolutionary War
and the signing
Treaty of Paris
in 1783, the United States gained formal, if not actual, control of the British territory west of the Appalachians. Thousands of settlers, typified by
Daniel Boone
, had already reached
Kentucky
,
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 these new frontier areas into the nation was an important issue in the Continental Congress of the 1780s and was partly resolved by the
Northwest Ordinance
(1787). The
Southwest Territory
saw a similar pattern of settlement pressure.
[
citation needed
]
[26]
For the next century, the expansion of the nation into these areas, as well as the subsequently acquired
Louisiana Purchase
,
Oregon Country
, and
Mexican Cession
, attracted hundreds of thousands of settlers. Whether the Kansas frontier would become
"slave" or "free"
kindled the
American Civil War
. In general before 1860, Northern Democrats promoted easy land ownership and Whigs and Southern Democrats resisted. The Southerners resisted
Homestead Acts
because it supported the growth of a free farmer population that might
oppose slavery
.
[
citation needed
]
When the Republican Party came to power in 1860 it promoted a free land policy ? 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 density was under 2 inhabitants per square mile or 0.8 inhabitants per square kilometre).
The effect of the frontier upon popular culture was enormous, in
dime novels
, Wild West shows, and, after 1910,
Western movies
set on the frontier.
The American frontier was generally the westernmost edge of a settlement and typically more free-spirited than in the East because of its lack of social and political institutions. The idea that the frontier provided the core defining quality of the United States was elaborated by the historian
Frederick Jackson Turner
, who built his
Frontier Thesis
in 1893 around this notion. Subsequently, the frontier has also been described as the point of contact between two cultures, where contact led to exchanges that affected both cultures.
[27]
In popular culture,
Alaska: The Last Frontier
is an American reality cable television series about Alaskan pioneers, Yule and Ruth Kilcher, at their homestead 11 miles outside of Homer.
Russia
[
edit
]
![[icon]](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/20px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png) | This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
November 2020
)
|
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.
[28]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Mura, Andrea (2016).
"National Finitude and the Paranoid Style of the One"
.
Contemporary Political Theory
.
15
: 58?79.
doi
:
10.1057/cpt.2015.23
.
S2CID
53724373
.
- ^
Luttwak, Edward (1976).
The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century CE to the Third
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ^
Chen, Yuan Julian (July 2018).
"FRONTIER, FORTIFICATION, AND FORESTATION: DEFENSIVE WOODLAND ON THE SONG?LIAO BORDER IN THE LONG ELEVENTH CENTURY"
.
Journal of Chinese History
.
2
(2): 313?334.
doi
:
10.1017/jch.2018.7
.
ISSN
2059-1632
.
- ^
Zaiotti, Ruben (2011).
Cultures of Border Control: Schengen and the Evolution of European Frontiers
. University of Chicago Press. p. 97.
ISBN
978-0-226-97787-4
.
- ^
Singh, Air Commodore Jasjit (2013-03-15).
China's India War, 1962: Looking Back to See the Future: Looking Back to See the Future
. KW Publishers Pvt Ltd.
ISBN
978-93-85714-79-5
.
- ^
Nevett, Albert (1954).
India Going Red
. Indian Institute of Social Order (
Indian Social Institute
).
- ^
See e.g.
Parliamentary Debate
April 14
Legislative Assembly of NSW
(
Australian
April 14, 1848, p.4 Robinson)
- ^
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).
- ^
Sydney Morning Herald
Dec 24, 1850, p.3s.
- ^
Gascon, Margarita (2001). "Periferia y frontera al sur del en el sur del virreinato del Peru".
La transicion de periferia a frontera : mendoza en el siglo XVII
(in Spanish). Andes. pp. 4?6.
ISSN
0327-1676
. Retrieved
June 15,
2019
.
- ^
Mariman, P.; Caniuqueo, S.; Millalen, J.; Levil, R. (2006).
¡…Escucha, winka…!: Cuatro ensayos de Historia Nacional Mapuche y un epilogo sobre el futuro
(in Spanish). Chile:
LOM
.
ISBN
9562828514
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
Roulet, Florencia (December 2009).
"Mujeres, rehenes y secretarios : mediadores indigenas en la frontera sur del Rio de la Plata durante el periodo hispanico"
.
Colonial Latin America Review
(in Spanish).
18
(3): 303.
doi
:
10.1080/10609160903336101
.
ISSN
1466-1802
.
S2CID
161223604
. Retrieved
May 10,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
Enciclopedia regional del Bio Bio
(in Spanish).
Pehuen Editores
. 2006. p. 44.
ISBN
956-16-0404-3
.
- ^
"La Frontera araucana"
.
Memoria Chilena
(in Spanish).
Biblioteca Nacional de Chile
. Retrieved
November 30,
2019
.
- ^
Bengoa 2000, pp. 45?46.
- ^
a
b
Bengoa 2000, p. 154.
- ^
"Tipos fronterizos"
.
Memoria Chilena
(in Spanish).
Biblioteca Nacional de Chile
. Retrieved
January 12,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Bengoa 2000, pp. 275-276.
- ^
Ferrando 1986, p. 547
- ^
a
b
Bengoa 2000, pp. 277-278.
- ^
"Frederick Jackson Turner: The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893)"
.
wwnorton.com
. Retrieved
2021-11-30
.
- ^
Clarence Walworth Alvord,
The Illinois Country 1673-1818
(1918)
- ^
Arthur G. Adams,
The Hudson Through the Years
(1996); Sung Bok Kim,
Landlord and Tenant in Colonial New York: Manorial Society, 1664-1775
(1987)
- ^
a
b
c
Allan Kulikoff,
From British Peasants to Colonial American Farmers
(2000)
- ^
Laycock, David.
Populism and Democratic Thought in the Canadian Prairies, 1910 to 1945.
1990; Seymour Martin Lipset,
Agrarian Socialism
(1950).
- ^
"Westward Expansion | Encyclopedia.com"
.
www.encyclopedia.com
. Retrieved
2021-05-29
.
- ^
Anzaldua, Gloria (1987).
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
- ^
Richards, John F.
(15 May 2003). "7: Frontier Settlement in Russia".
The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World
. California world history library. Vol. 1 (reprint ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press (published 2003). p. 263.
ISBN
9780520230750
. Retrieved
2016-08-15
.
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').
References
[
edit
]
Chilean history
[
edit
]
US history
[
edit
]
- 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
- Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier
(1952 and later editions), the most detailed textbook, with highly detailed annotated bibliographies
- 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
[
edit
]
- 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. This 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.
Siberian frontier
[
edit
]
Comparative Frontiers
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- The World in 2015: National borders undermined?
11-min video interview with Bernard Guetta, a columnist for Liberation newspaper and France Inter radio. "For [Guetta], one of the main lessons from international relations in 2014 is that national borders are becoming increasingly irrelevant. These borders, drawn by the colonial powers, were and still are entirely artificial. Now, people want borders along national, religious or ethnic lines. Bernard Guetta calls this a "comeback of real history"."
- Mura, Andrea (2016).
"National Finitude and the Paranoid Style of the One"
.
Contemporary Political Theory
.
15
: 58?79.
doi
:
10.1057/cpt.2015.23
.
S2CID
53724373
.
- Struck, Bernhard,
Border Regions
,
EGO - European History Online
, Mainz:
Institute of European History
, 2013, retrieved: March 8, 2021 (
pdf
).
External links
[
edit
]