8 - Primitive accumulation and violence on the frontier

Summary

The process of frontier expansion has been observed to be very violent. Indeed this violence defines the process in some degree. But the explanation for the violence is less evident. It may be seen, in descriptive terms, as equivalent to ‘lawlessness’ and therefore endemic to frontier regions existing beyond the reach of the law: it is random in nature, particular in motive, and criminal in its conception. It may be seen, in more moral terms, as the result of a ruthless search for gain by evil and unprincipled entrepreneurs and politicians, who do not include the costs of violence in their calculations. Finally, it may be seen in political terms, as a result of institutional incursions on the frontier: the legacy of legal confusion and conflict, and of bureaucratic bungling or inertia. Possibly all of these ‘explanations’ contain elements of the truth, but they all participate in partial perspectives of the total process. The intention now is to integrate these different perspectives into a more complete theoretical framework, which will contain not only these descriptive, moral and political elements, but also the economic relationships which underpin violent behaviour on the frontier.

Violence and the stages of frontier expansion

Explanations of the violence as ‘inevitable’ in the ‘lawless’ frontier regions appear to refer to the precarious occupation of the land in the initial stages of frontier expansion.