The exploration of the New Frontier, sometimes represented as the idea of Manifest Destiny, shows a desire to expand ones knowledge of the unknown.  It may be as simple as a desire to conquer the unconquered, or to be among the first to discover something new and exciting and hopefully financially viable to the finder.  Manifest Destiny is a term that is used to convey the feeling or belief that the colonists of America were entitled or destined to aggrressive westward expansion.  This idea that the discovered land was meant for the colonists comes from the fact that it was discovered and was for the most part, seemingly uninhabited, at least by civilized people.  Because of this many colonists felt that their occupation and expansion of the land was divinely ordained.

     The terms New Frontier or Manifest Destiny have been used by American Studies scholars to explain the why the colonists of the United States continually pressed Westward so rapidly.  Henry Nash Smith wrote that "with each surge of westward movement a new community came into being.  These communities devoted themselves not to marching onward but to cultivating the earth."  He also talks about the opportunity for settlers to acquire property and acres of land in the vast and abundant resources to be obtained through expansion. 

Smith, Henry Nash.  Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth.  Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.  London, England. 1978

Manifest Destiny.  Wikipedia.org.  October 12, 2009.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny