For a decade or more England nursed the idea of a Neutral Ground, unoccupied by either contestant. She would "make a solitude and call it peace." Hoping thereby to conciliate Spain, she forbade Englishmen to settle south of the Altamaha. But unruly frontiersmen flouted the order and violated the Neutral Ground. In spite of English diplomacy, Spain entered the Seven Years' War, and thereby lost all her lands east of the Mississippi. The century-long contest over the Georgia country was thus ended.