Historic Frontiers
For an average American the term frontier conjures up the image of the unsettled lands of the "Wild West." As the setting familiarly recognized with such men as John Wayne or Buffalo Bill, the frontier is seen ideologically and rather specifically as being a certain place and time, namely, nineteenth century America, in the western territories. However, the concept of a frontier, or of the frontier should go, and in fact does go much further. Even within the solitary example of American history, the range of ideas and experiences that comprise the frontier is much greater than the common thread of thought involving unsettled western lands. Frontiers even within America's history, which is quite brief in comparison to the overall development of the frontier within history in general, are far more complex than a singular vision involving only one aspect of human activity. Rather, the frontier can be defined as any activity, idea, or development that pushes people from the known to the unknown, from the familiar to the unfamiliar, or from the mainstream to the fringes of the conventional, for the purpose of expanding the reach of man through those frontier pushing processes. This definition is applicable to man throughout human experience, from the initial settlement of society to the present day. Human history is a story of progression, from a beginning toward an unknown future. Along the way are simultaneous and unceasing processes of building, shaping, and changing the fundamental elements that drive humanity's progression from one age to the next. From the vantage of the current age, looking back on history, it is possible to suggest demarcating lines to divide history's frontiers into neat, chronological units, even though in historical actuality it is frequently impossible to conclude with certainty exactly what developments altered the frontier of a given "unit" of history. As a result, this paper will seek to outline the frontier through human history thematically, tracking its development up to the present by means of exhibiting the impact of human development on the frontier as it evolves.
The event known as the Neolithic Revolution, involving the gradual process of agricultural development and the transition from hunter/gathering societies to settled agricultural societies, is the first significant frontier in human history. As important as any other development in history, the Neolithic Revolution can be viewed as a frontier in several ways. First, and most obviously, the transition from acquiring food by a nomadic pre-Neolithic society to the settled agriculture of the Neolithic society has been an event of tremendous importance. Having a stable, unchanging availability of food allowed humanity to remain permanently settled in a single location. Over an extended period of time, this led to food surplus and increased population growth, which, in turn, spurred the growth of larger and larger villages and communities. With the development of larger communities, improved means of government became necessary and, therefore, developed. Within the framework of government, communities continued to grow larger and larger, leading to the establishment of cities. The availability of surplus food allowed specialization of labor. Artisans, manufacturers, and craftsmen were able to devise their trades and improve them, with a process of development, innovation, and implementation that continually pushed the frontiers in their individual trades. Collectively, these developments led to the formation of more complex and distinct societies, and the development and changing of new frontiers.
From the origins of human settlement came complex and highly organized civilizations, such as those in Mesopotamia, China, and Egypt. In this era, the development of writing changed the frontier of history by establishing a permanent record of life and society. Serving as the divide between history and pre-history, writing has allowed historians and researchers to learn a great deal of what is now known about human progress, from these ancient civilizations to the present day. Along with writing, these ancient civilizations each developed their own artistic traditions, pushing that frontier as well. In Egypt, art and writing converged, it seems, as the hieroglyphic system of writing emerged. In each civilization, the development of art often served to support the development of another frontier: religion. While religions and their practices differed greatly over the areas of human settlement, they generally had similar origins. Important as agriculture was, a system of religious thought developed in which human activity and their environment could be explained in relation to their various gods. Fertility and agricultural production were among various key relationships among some of the early religions. With a group of people over time developing shared religious beliefs, linguistic and written traditions, and more organized and centralized government rule, the patterns of human culture and society further developed, taking the frontier with it.
Following the time in which civilizations first developed on a large scale, the physical frontier of settlement continued to spread. The term "Mesopotamia," for example, means much less when studying culture than it would when studying physical settlement, since Mesopotamia was a name given to an area, not a specific people, as the people living in that area were not unified under a single political or cultural entity. Understanding the context of the development of the frontier is essential, in order to practically chart its progression from one age of human history to the next. In this wider view of the frontier, it is helpful to observe how similar conditions in the development of some civilizations led to similar developments in their frontiers, while the differences between each civilization contributed to different frontiers. For example, as the Greek civilization would eventually be the heir of ancient Mesopotamian civilization, it would be logical for the Greek culture to show evidence of the developments that occurred in the Mesopotamian civilizations. As these two cultural groups shared a common basis, their traditions could be expected to have similarities, with differences occurring as a progression of the frontier continued. As the frontier developed, its context would determine how people would pursue its development; their processes of innovation and implementation of ideas would be determined by the context of current circumstances, which had, in turn, been developed within the context of a previous frontier.
The self-governing city-states of Mesopotamia gradually gave way to more unified, centralized governments, as more militaristic neighbors conquered cities and added them to the existing empire. Warfare was one of the circumstances that profoundly dictated the direction taken in the development of the frontier. Looking toward Chinese development, the situation arises concerning the development of an empire. As a result of centuries of continual warfare and, as a consequence, great instability in government and social organization, China evolved into an empire, rather than a disorganized, highly decentralized group of warring states. This action was a reaction against the circumstances that had led to such a long period of stagnation in the development of the Chinese frontier. With the establishment of a more stable, unified state, people could then develop innovations among other frontiers than warfare; Confucian and Daoist philosophy were among the results. Generally, though, the direction of the frontier shifted, as dictated by the current circumstance. In the future, when government again became unstable, less emphasis would again be placed upon the development of cultural frontiers, and more would again be placed upon military and governmental evolution.
The contrast between the context of classical Chinese and Roman society helps to illustrate the point of the divergent nature of frontier development. Clearly, as history has shown, not all cultures developed along the same lines, as different circumstances dictated different courses of progression. However, even with similar circumstances, similar course of progression are not necessarily in order. Han Dynasty China was contemporary with the height of the Roman Empire in Europe. Both civilizations were the supreme military powers in their continents, with advanced trade networks and economies, complex governmental bureaucracies, and governed by powerful emperors. With a similar set of circumstances between the two civilizations, they nonetheless developed their frontiers differently. The divergent development stems from the cultural context. In China, the empire eventually collapsed due to internal rebellion, resulting from a cultural tradition called the "Mandate of Heaven," which legitimized overthrowing governments that came to be seen as immoral or illegitimate. China lost the Mandate by not being able to pacify peasant distress about taxation and other problems, which were in turn the result of the development of the bureaucratic system, which had been based upon Confucian principles. Thus, Han China's demise eventually resulted from circumstances that were shaped by their context. Rome, too, eventually fell, but mostly from outward pressures rather than internal ones. In either case, though, the development of their respective frontiers would progress in the light of the circumstances that had contributed to the falls of each of these civilizations. The reaction in Europe was decentralization, while China saw a resumption of intermittent warfare among broken states. For both, the frontiers shifted from the pursuits of the classical age to the needs of a society immersed in conflict.
For the time following the development of several major religions, the frontiers of human development have been irrevocably changed. First, with the development of Hinduism and Buddhism in India, and later with the development of Christianity in Europe, and Islam in the Arab world, religion became one of the most driving forces behind the development of societies, cultures, and nations. Whereas Christianity and Islam developed as exclusive religions, Buddhism and Hinduism, along with the Chinese philosophies, came to be inclusive, as a person could combine the elements of, for example Confucian morality with Buddhist enlightenment. As a result, one of the frontiers the Chinese did not develop was that of the religious war. However, the western religions, with their exclusivity, did take up the sword to defend their faiths, leading to such events as the Crusades in the Middle Ages of feudal Europe. Religion did much more than cause a war, though. For each religion concerned, it was a pivotal development of the frontier, as it pushed for new ways of thinking about man's life in this world, and, in some cases, in the next world, or whatever is analogous to the next world. In areas such as Europe and the Middle East, which had not been formally united in government (as Catholic Christianity spread through Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire), religion was a unifying force that brought different groups together under a more unified and powerful rule. In Europe, this spiritual power was under the pope, as it was politically under the Muslim caliphs. Buddhism and Hinduism played comparatively lesser roles in unifying their states, as neither religion was exclusive in its approach, and therefore more open to tolerating different religions and people. The directions taken in the pursuit of the frontiers reflects this, as India and China would each develop traditions of overlapping and interchangeable ideologies.
The continuing development of civilization after the advent of the current major religions stemmed directly from their cultural roots. As European kingdoms became stronger political entities, they began to export these ideas to other places. Similarly, Muslim expansion could be viewed in the same light. While the European and Muslim states were busily expanding and exporting their beliefs, Hindu and Buddhist principles of introspection and the inner self led China and India to remain inward looking, rather than expansionist. The result of this fundamental difference was that it was European states that came to dominate the rest of the globe, through colonization. Although China had the opportunity and capability to establish overseas colonies a full century before any other nation, it did not, because of a combination of Buddhist and Confucian beliefs. With Christianity's explicit commandment to export the faith, expansionism and colonization of new people was a readily compatible opportunity--for religion and economy. Thus, the European Age of Exploration led to colonialism, mercantilism, and a position of dominance in the world. With each step, the frontier's boundaries were pushed back further and further, until one frontier had been closed, with the opening of new frontiers for exploration: as Europe explored the globe, new opportunities for trade and expansion developed.
Following colonialism, the world saw an age of Enlightenment, followed by revolution in both the Old and New World. In both, frontiers developed concerning man's right to self-determination and freedom. The results of these developments have greatly marked human progress up until the present day. With the rebirth of democracy in America, and with the effort to install a republic in France, men began to question the traditional rights of kings to rule over men, with man looking more into himself for the right to rule. The growth of America did indeed include the physical frontier presented by the western territories, which were eventually conquered over the next 125 years. More important, though, were the ideas that were eventually propagated by the institution of American government. Over time, the American "experiment" has become the model used by other countries seeking to install a democratic system of government. The frontier, as it has developed in the world's history, has ultimately come to its present form, and it can be seen that the issues and concerns familiar today are not unrelated to the frontiers of human development that have transpired up until this point. Indeed, as ever, the direction of the current frontier is inexorably connected to the current circumstance and the context of that circumstance. The context of the frontier's current development is, as it has always been, man's searching progress into the unknown. Thus, with history serving to explain both what has happened and how that progress has yielded the current frontiers and the context of the human progress, the frontier will continue to evolve, as will history, the story of human progression.