and
portion of the South, lying between the Alleghanies and the head of
navigation of the Atlantic rivers marked by the "fall line."[68:1]

In this region, and in these years, are to be found the beginnings of
much that is characteristic in Western society, for the Atlantic coast
was in such close touch with Europe that its frontier experience was
soon counteracted, and it developed along other lines. It is unfortunate
that the colonial back country appealed so long to historians solely in
connection with the colonial wars, for the development of its society,
its institutions and mental attitude all need study. Its history has
been dealt with in separate fragments, by states, or towns, or in
discussions of special phases, such as German and Scotch-Irish
immigration. The Old West as a whole can be appreciated only by
obliterating the state boundaries which conceal its unity, by
correlating the special and fragmentary studies, and by filling the gaps
in the material for understanding the formation of its society. The
present paper is rather a reconnaissance than a conquest of the field, a
program for study of the Old West rather than an exposition of it.

The end of the period proposed may be placed about 1763, and the
beginning between 1676 and 1700. The termination of the period is marked
by the Peace of Paris in 1763, and the royal proclamation of that year
forbidding settlement beyond the Alleghanies. By this time the
settlement of the Old West was fairly accomplished, and new advances
were soon made into the "Western Waters" beyond the mountains and into
the interior of Vermont and New Hampshire. The isolation of the
transmontane settlements, and the special conditions and doctrines of
the Revolutionary era during which they were formed, make a natural
distinction between the period of which I am to speak and the later
extension of the West.

The beginning of the period is necessarily an indeterminate date, owing
to the different times of colonizing the coastal areas which served as
bases of operations in the westward advance. The most active movements
into the Old West occurred after 1730. But in 1676 New England, having
closed the exhausting struggle with the Indians, known as King Philip's
War, could regard her established settlements as secure, and go on to
complete her possession of the interior. This she did in the midst of
conflicts with the exterior Indian tribes which invaded her frontiers
from New York a