Illinois
Long after the voyages of Columbus, long after Spain and France and England and Holland had planted their colonies in America, the valley of the Mississippi was an unknown region. Although DeSoto's journey to the "father of waters" gave Spain a claim to the Illinois country, and though this claim was confirmed by the Pope, the Spanish did nothing to explore or colonize it. Not until 1673, when the first of the French arrived, does Illinois history really begin.
The first Europeans to visit the region now known as Illinois were the French. In 1659 Pierre Radisson and Medard Chouart des Groseilliers seem to have reached the upper Mississippi. It is certain that in 1673 part of the region known as the Illinois country was explored to some extent by two Frenchmen, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit father
France ceded to Great Britain its claims to the country between the Ohio and Mississippi arivers, but on account of the resistance of Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas, who drew into conspiracy most of the tribes between the Ottawa river and the lower Mississippi, the English were not able to take possession of the country until 1765, when the French flag was finally lowered at Ft. Chartres.
The English authorities instigated the Indians to make attacks upon the frontiers of the American colonies, and this led to one of the most important events in the history of the Illinois country, the capture of the British posts of Cahokia and Kaskaskia in 1778, and in the following year of Vincennes by George Rogers Clark (q.v.), who acted under orders of Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia. These conquests had much to do with the securing by the United States of the country west of the Alleghenies and north of the Ohio in the treaty of Paris, 1783
"In 1818 Illinois became a state of the American union, the enabling act fixing the line 42° 30' as the northern boundary, instead of that provided by the ordinance of 1787, which passed through the south bend of Lake Michigan. The reason given for this change was that if the Mississippi and Ohio rivers were the ouly outlets of Illinois trade, the interests of the state would become identified with those of the southern states; but if an outlet by Lake Michigan were provided, closer relations would be established with the northern and middle states, and so "additional security for the perpetuity of the Union" would be afforded.
|
Illinois Land Records
