Frontier

:This article is about the Frontier term. For the computer game, see Frontier (computer game). For the games developer see Frontier Developments.

Sea to sea grants

When the British divided their North American land into colonies, they did not place western boundaries on most of them, including Virginia and New York. Theoretically the provinces extended to the Pacific Ocean. In practice, the western boundary was the peaks of the Appalachian mountains, which divided French form British territories.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the French and Indian War, Britain received the French territory east of the Mississippi river, but through the Poclamation of 1763, the new territory was closed to settlers, in effect returning to the old colonial boundaries. After the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution, the territory between the Appalachians and the Mississippi returned to the newly independent states. Many claims overlapped, based on the original sea-to-sea grants. The Articles of Cofederation and the Constitution were silent on the matter (art. 4, sec. 3 clause 2, in pertinent part "nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims ... of any particular state"), but states were encouraged to resolve their conflict peacefully and to turn over "excess" western territory (over which they exercised no de facto control, since it was occupied by Indians) to the federal government, which in 1787 organized it into the Northwest Territory through the Northwest Ordinance.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~