9781422286234

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Western Great Lakes: Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin

the interior of North America. It extended from Canada in the north to today’s Mississippi and Louisiana in the south. Illinois was included in this vast area. Inevitably, France came into con- flict with Great Britain as Britain’s American colonies sought to expand. In 1754, a dispute over control of the Ohio River valley touched off a major war. Eventually, most of Europe’s major powers were drawn into the fighting. Battles took place not just in North America but around the globe. In Europe, the conflict was known as the Seven Years’ War. American colonists would call it the French and Indian War. Some Indians did fight on the French side. But others allied themselves with the British and the American colonists. By 1763, the French and their allies had been defeated. As part of a peace treaty, France ceded to Great Britain all territory in North America east of the Mississippi River. This included Illinois. Great Britain would soon lose most of this territory. The American

settlement be established near pres- ent-day Chicago. He thought the prairie would be ideal for farming. He also recommended that a short canal be dug to link Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. Because the Illinois emp- tied into the Mississippi, France could use the water route to extend its con- trol over a huge swath of territory. But French colonial officials weren’t interested in settling the region. They mostly wanted access to fur. At the time, beaver pelts were quite valuable. They were used to make hats sold in Europe. Nine years after Joliet and Marquette’s expedition, the French built a fort on the Illinois River, at a place called Starved Rock. It was sup- posed to protect the fur trade from disruption. French Canadian trappers estab- lished a few small settlements in the area. The oldest permanent one, Cahokia, dates to 1699. In the decades that followed, other forts were built. Other settlements sprang up. By the early 1700s, France claimed an enormous expanse of territory in