What was the American frontier?

The American frontier, in United States history, refers to the advancing border that marked lands settled by Europeans, characterized by the westward movement of settlers from the Atlantic coast in the 17th century to the Far West in the 19th century. Defined as the edge of European-American settlement, it was statistically an area with two to six inhabitants per square mile. The frontier was not just a geographical location, but also a constantly changing area as the population advanced. This westward expansion involved physical advances into new geographic areas and constant social change from rural lifestyles to urban complexity. This movement shaped American life and character as people sought unclaimed lands and new opportunities. The westward movement saw people moving into the continental boundaries of the mainland United States.

Why did people move to the frontier in the United States?

Driven by "wanderlust," people moved to the American frontier seeking new opportunities and land. The westward movement was a gradual process of European settlement that began along the Atlantic coast and lasted three centuries. The Homestead Act of 1862 offered public lands at low prices, attracting settlers from the East and Europe to the Midwest and West. This constant push westward led to inevitable conflicts with Native Americans, resulting in wars, treaties, and the forced removal of Indigenous peoples to reservations. By the late 19th century, the frontier had largely disappeared, replaced by family farms and settlements.

What challenges did settlers on the frontier face?

Life on the American frontier in the 17th–19th centuries presented settlers with many challenges, including conflicts with Native Americans, who were being displaced from their ancestral lands due to the American settlers' desire to possess the entire continent. The settlers also faced economic hardships. Establishing a farm in the West required significant capital, and many settlers had to borrow money, leading to hostility toward banks and a debtor mentality. The journey westward on trails such as the Oregon Trail was perilous, with the primary threats to life being accidents and diseases like cholera, dysentery, and smallpox.

How did westward expansion affect Native American peoples?

Westward expansion dramatically altered the lives of Native American peoples through territorial dispossession and cultural disruption. As settlers moved west, the U.S. government implemented policies undermining Indigenous rights, such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830 , which forced tribes off their lands and onto reservations. The Dawes Act of 1887 further eroded communal land ownership by allotting individual parcels, leading to the loss of vast amounts of Native American land. Cultural assimilation policies, including boarding schools , suppressed Indigenous languages and traditions. Despite resistance, these actions resulted in immense suffering, the destruction of cultural practices, and the undermining of tribal sovereignty.

What role did the concept of Manifest Destiny play in the American frontier?

Manifest Destiny significantly influenced the American frontier by promoting the idea of inevitable U.S. expansion westward to the Pacific. This belief drove the acquisition of territories like Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, and California before the Civil War. Fueled by a sense of divine right and American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny encouraged settlers to move west, impacting government policies, territorial disputes, and conflicts with Indigenous populations. This expansion resulted in the Mexican-American War and the displacement of Native Americans, as well as debates over slavery in newly acquired territories.

How did the closing of the frontier influence American society and identity?

The American frontier's closure profoundly impacted society and identity. According to Frederick Jackson Turner, the frontier shaped American institutions by compelling adaptation to an expanding population, fostering a unique American identity rooted in westward expansion. The frontier promoted individualism and cooperation, contributing to democratic ideals and equal representation. Though the physical frontier vanished by the late 19th century, its influence persisted, symbolizing American individualism, freedom, opportunity, and daring in stories and pictures. The frontier also created sectional conflicts, influencing politics and westward expansion, including the Mexican-American War .

American frontier

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Lithograph by Currier and Ives showing pioneers with covered wagons and oxen crossing grassy plains near a stream, with dramatic mountains in the background.

Map showing the Thirteen American Colonies in 1775 along the eastern coast of North America, color-coded by region: New England colonies in purple, Middle colonies in green, and Southern colonies in orange. The map also marks the Province of Quebec, Indian Reserve, and the Proclamation line of 1763, with current state and international boundaries outlined.

Map illustrating the Northwest Territory as defined by the Northwest Ordinances of 1785 and 1787, covering present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Insets show the Ohio Company's land purchases with numbered townships and sections, and a diagram explaining how land was divided into square-mile sections, with further subdivisions labeled by acreage. Section 16 in each township is marked as reserved for public schools. Current state boundaries and years of statehood are indica

Oil painting of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville signing, showing General Anthony Wayne with U.S. officers and Miami chief Little Turtle with Native American leaders in a grassy landscape.

Historical map of the United States from 1783 to 1812, showing the original states in green, states admitted between 1784 and 1812 in yellow, U.S.-claimed territories in pink, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 in orange, and disputed areas in purple. The map labels regions such as the Territory of Louisiana, Oregon Country, and Spanish and British possessions, and marks the years of statehood for newly admitted states.

The impact of the Louisiana Purchase on the U.S.

Learn how the U.S. Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance to outline settlement of the Northwest Territory

American frontier

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Top Questions

What was the American frontier?
The American frontier, in United States history, refers to the advancing border that marked lands settled by Europeans, characterized by the westward movement of settlers from the Atlantic coast in the 17th century to the Far West in the 19th century.

Defined as the edge of European-American settlement, it was statistically an area with two to six inhabitants per square mile. The frontier was not just a geographical location, but also a constantly changing area as the population advanced. This westward expansion involved physical advances into new geographic areas and constant social change from rural lifestyles to urban complexity.

This movement shaped American life and character as people sought unclaimed lands and new opportunities. The westward movement saw people moving into the continental boundaries of the mainland United States.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Why did people move to the frontier in the United States?
Driven by "wanderlust," people moved to the American frontier seeking new opportunities and land. The westward movement was a gradual process of European settlement that began along the Atlantic coast and lasted three centuries.

The Homestead Act of 1862 offered public lands at low prices, attracting settlers from the East and Europe to the Midwest and West. This constant push westward led to inevitable conflicts with Native Americans, resulting in wars, treaties, and the forced removal of Indigenous peoples to reservations. By the late 19th century, the frontier had largely disappeared, replaced by family farms and settlements.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What challenges did settlers on the frontier face?
Life on the American frontier in the 17th–19th centuries presented settlers with many challenges, including conflicts with Native Americans, who were being displaced from their ancestral lands due to the American settlers' desire to possess the entire continent.

The settlers also faced economic hardships. Establishing a farm in the West required significant capital, and many settlers had to borrow money, leading to hostility toward banks and a debtor mentality. The journey westward on trails such as the Oregon Trail was perilous, with the primary threats to life being accidents and diseases like cholera, dysentery, and smallpox.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How did westward expansion affect Native American peoples?
Westward expansion dramatically altered the lives of Native American peoples through territorial dispossession and cultural disruption. As settlers moved west, the U.S. government implemented policies undermining Indigenous rights, such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced tribes off their lands and onto reservations.

The Dawes Act of 1887 further eroded communal land ownership by allotting individual parcels, leading to the loss of vast amounts of Native American land. Cultural assimilation policies, including boarding schools, suppressed Indigenous languages and traditions. Despite resistance, these actions resulted in immense suffering, the destruction of cultural practices, and the undermining of tribal sovereignty.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What role did the concept of Manifest Destiny play in the American frontier?
Manifest Destiny significantly influenced the American frontier by promoting the idea of inevitable U.S. expansion westward to the Pacific. This belief drove the acquisition of territories like Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, and California before the Civil War.

Fueled by a sense of divine right and American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny encouraged settlers to move west, impacting government policies, territorial disputes, and conflicts with Indigenous populations. This expansion resulted in the Mexican-American War and the displacement of Native Americans, as well as debates over slavery in newly acquired territories.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How did the closing of the frontier influence American society and identity?
The American frontier's closure profoundly impacted society and identity. According to Frederick Jackson Turner, the frontier shaped American institutions by compelling adaptation to an expanding population, fostering a unique American identity rooted in westward expansion. The frontier promoted individualism and cooperation, contributing to democratic ideals and equal representation.

Though the physical frontier vanished by the late 19th century, its influence persisted, symbolizing American individualism, freedom, opportunity, and daring in stories and pictures. The frontier also created sectional conflicts, influencing politics and westward expansion, including the Mexican-American War.
2 Britannica Sources
1. American frontier: The disappearance of the frontier
2. westward movement
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

American frontier, in United States history, the advancing border that marked those lands that had been settled by Europeans. It is characterized by the westward movement of European settlers from their original settlements on the Atlantic coast (17th century) to the Far West (19th century).

The term frontier has been defined in various ways. Webster’s International Dictionary, in 1890, described it as “that part of a country which fronts or faces another country or an unsettled region;…extreme part of a country.” In the 19th century it was statistically classified as an area having no fewer than two but no more than six Euro-American inhabitants per square mile (fewer than one to just over two Europeans per square kilometer). The United States Census Bureau defined areas with lower population densities as “unsettled” and on this basis marked the frontier line on a series of maps for each decade. Thus, areas on the frontier were no longer the exclusive domain of explorers, missionaries, and trappers, but settled homesteads were relatively rare and widely dispersed.

The historian Frederick Jackson Turner noted that, “especially in the United States,” the term referred to that “belt of territory sparsely occupied by Indian traders, hunters, miners, ranchmen, backwoodsmen and adventurers of all sorts” which formed “the temporary boundary of an expanding society at the edge of substantially free lands.” Others have thought of it as “a form of society,” “a state of mind,” “the edge of the unused,” “the first stage in the process of transforming the simplicity of the wilderness into modern social complexity.” Some have used the terms frontier and West interchangeably as referring to an area having geographical location only in relation to a particular period of time and changing constantly as population had advanced.

Amid the uncertainty in the use of terms, there remains the simple fact that the history of the United States, up to the beginning of the 20th century, was that of a people moving steadily toward the occupation of a vast continent. This involved not only recurring physical advances into new geographic basins where life had to be lived on simple elemental levels for a time but also constant social change from an independent, rural lifestyle based on hunting and trading to varying degrees of urban complexity and interdependence.

For three centuries, some Americans were leaving the older settlements and beginning over again on the frontier. For the same length of time, those who lived in what had become old and established centers were conscious of the fact that there remained an open door to lands that were ostensibly unclaimed, where place and fortune were yet to be won. As a reality for some and as a symbol for others, the frontier became a vital factor in shaping American life and American character.

The first frontier

Thus understood, the American colonies along the Atlantic coast were Europe’s frontier, and their gradual drift away from European patterns was the first manifestation of frontier influence. They began the conquest of the wilderness; they took the first steps in crossing the continent; they became Americans. This, however, was only the beginning. Scarcely had the colonies themselves become firmly established before the western push began anew. Out from old centers, the dissatisfied, the restless, the adventurous made their way into the backcountry. There they encountered long-established Native American populations, sometimes coexisting with them, sometimes forcing them into open resistance but ultimate retreat. Sometimes they moved to secure more room for themselves and their cattle; sometimes, as John Winthrop described it, they simply possessed a “strong bent of their spirits to remove thither.”

Well before the American Revolution they had brought a new west into being: in upper New England, in the Mohawk River valley, in the great valley of Pennsylvania and above the fall line and out into the ridges and valleys of the south. In spite of the limitations placed on expansion by the Proclamation of 1763, already a few settlers had crossed the mountains and opened the way for an even greater west. With the Peace of Paris (1783), Britain ceded the lands east of the Mississippi to the newly independent United States, but it maintained a system of strategic forts throughout the region. The issuance of the Northwest Ordinances (1784, 1785, and 1787) fueled a wave of migration to the Midwest.

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Native American tribes, seeing their hunting grounds reduced by the encroachment of settlers in the Northwest Territory, gathered under the banner of the Northwest Confederation. In 1791 they delivered a stunning defeat to an American military expedition that had been sent to pacify the region. U.S. Pres. George Washington dispatched Gen. Anthony Wayne and a much larger force to the region, and the Americans effectively crushed the confederation at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794). With the subsequent Treaty of Greenville (1795), the confederation ceded a large swath of the Great Lakes region to the Americans. Nevertheless, Indigenous peoples had demonstrated that they would not submit passively to the expansion of the frontier into their lands.

This first west differed sharply from the original colonies, which had already begun to reproduce the Old World social and economic patterns, along with their class distinctions. It was, as Turner called it, a “democratic, self-sufficing, primitive agricultural society in which slavery and indentured servants played little part” and in which poverty and toil went along with a scarcity of social accumulations. As population spread and increased, differences between coast and interior became increasingly apparent, and strife often developed over taxes, representation, internal improvements, and religious matters.

Bacon’s Rebellion, the Regulator movement, and soon Shays’s Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion were all expressions of an east-west conflict produced by expansion.

American frontier

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The first frontier