As white settlers went west across America after 1780, the size, length of time, and intensity of conflicts increased between settlers and various Indians. The biggest came in the War of 1812, which resulted in the defeat of major Indian coalitions in the Midwest and the South. Conflict with settlers happened less, and treaties became more common. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 allowed the US government to remove natives from east of the Mississippi River to the west. The west was what the government believed to be empty American frontier. (Many tribes had a lot of territory in this area, however.) The federal US policy of removal was eventually changed in the West. It was changed to relocating Indian tribes to specially designated and federally protected reservations.