Illinois Country



The Illinois Country (: Pays des Illinois) was the name used in the 17th century and afterwards to refer to an undefined region centered around present day southwest that was explored and settled by the French beginning in, when  and  explored the , and France claimed the Illinois Country.

Location
The region never had clearly defined boundaries. Earlier descriptions tended to be more expansive. The largest scope described it as extending east to the, west to the , north up to and south to the  where the  flowed into the. By another description, it extended from lakes and  to the  and  rivers. A third, from after the British acquired the region, described it as bounded by the Mississippi River on the west, the on the north, the  on the east, and the Ohio River on the south. The region now known as the  is very nearly at the center of all descriptions of the Illinois Country.

Exploration and settlement
Initially, the principal white inhabitants were French traders and missionaries, both dealing with Native Americans, particularly the group known as the. The French were not very successful in encouraging settlement in the area, despite the importation of women to induce permanent settlement. Some number of French convicts were relocated there and became settlers. There were also some German and Spanish immigrants to the region, creating one of the earliest American cultures.

It was originally governed from, but by order of King Louis XV on , , the Illinois Country was annexed to the French province of , with the northern border being the. In, the seventh civil and military district of Louisiana was named Illinois, and it included more than half of the present state, as well as the land between the and the line of 43 degree north latitude, and the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. In, the region around the was made into a separate district. Around this time, the Illinois Country was sometimes referred to as Upper Louisiana, although this term was also used to describe the land west of the Mississippi River, with Illinois Country referring to land east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio Rivers. The distinction became clearer after the in 1763, when Britain acquired the land east of the Mississippi and Spain acquired Louisiana and land west of the Mississippi.

Fort de Chartres
On, , a trade monopoly was granted to and his  (which was to become the  in ). Hoping to make a fortune mining precious metals, the company built a fort to protect its interests. Construction began on in 1718 and was completed in. It was located near, close to the Mississippi River.

This fort was to be the seat of government for the Illinois Country and help to control the aggressive. The fort was named after, son of the regent of France. Because of frequent flooding, another fort was built further inland in. By, the Company of the Indies had gone defunct and turned Louisiana and its government back to the king. The garrison at the fort was removed to in, about 18 miles to the south. A new stone fort was planned near the old fort and was described as "nearly complete" in, although construction continued until.

The new stone fort was headquarters for the French Illinois Country for less than 20 years, as it was turned over to the in  with the  at the end of the. Almost all of the land between the and the Mississippi River from Florida to  became a Native American territory called the  following the. Settlers were ordered to leave or get a special license to remain. This was to cause many of the French settlers to move to St. Louis.

The British took control of Fort de Chartres on, and renamed it. The British softened the initial expulsion order and offered the French inhabitants the same rights and privileges enjoyed under French rule. In September,, the British established a Court of Justice, the first court of in the Mississippi valley (the French law system is called ).

After severe flooding in, the British saw little value in maintaining the fort and abandoned it. They moved the military garrison to the fort at Kaskaskia and renamed it.

Other Settlements

 *  was at first the southermost part of, then the northernmost part of the French Colony of , and finally the westernmost part of the newly formed . interests were dominant at Peoria for well over a hundred years, from the time the first French explorers came up the Illinois River in 1673 until the first United States settlers began to move into the area around . A small French presence persisted for a time on the east bank of the river, but was gone by about . Today, only faint echoes of French Peoria survive in the street plan of downtown Peoria, and in the name of an occasional street, school, or hotel meeting room: Joliet, Marquette, LaSalle.
 * In, founded a mission at the Great Village of the Illinois, near present , which was destroyed by  in 1680.
 * , later known as St. Vinennes and eventually, was established in . It was renamed after being captured by the British. George Rogers Clark renamed it Fort Patrick Henry, for the Governor of Virginia. Although part of the original expansive Illinois Country, as part of the Northwest Territory it was the seat of a separate county.
 * , established in by French missionaries from Quebec was the one of the earliest permanent settlements in the region and became one of the most populous of the northern towns. In, it was made the seat of St. Clair County in the . In , , then governor of , enlarged St. Clair County to administer a vast area extending to the Canadian border. By , the county had been reduced to the size of the present  when the county seat shift away from Cahokia to . On , , the great Indian leader,  came to an ignominious end in Cahokia, murdered by a chief of the.
 * , established in, was at first a tiny mission station, and later flourished to become capital of the , -, and the first capital of the state of Illinois, -. The French built a fort here in , which was destroyed in  by the British. (The fort lay across what was then the lower course of the  and now the new course of the Mississippi.)  During the American Revolution, General  took possession of the village in . Flooding in the 19th century destroyed the old settlement. Much of the village cemetery was transferred to the higher ground of  across the river.
 * In, , the Director of Mining Operations for the Company of the West, arrived with about 200 laborers and mechanics and 500 negro slaves for working the mines. However, the mines yielded only unprofitable coal and lead, leading to the failure of the Company of the West. In , Renault, with his workers and slaves, established the village St. Philippe (near the present day unincorporated community of Renault, Illinois in ) about 3 miles north of Fort de Chartres. This is the first record of African slaves in the region.
 * The French built  in near the present.
 *  was established in 1723 along the near.

Post-colonial period
During the Revolutionary War, General took possession of the entire Illinois Country for. In November of, the Virginia legislature created the county of Illinois comprising all of the lands lying west of the to which Virginia had any claim, with Kaskaskia as the county seat. Captain was named as governor. However, this government was limited to the former French settlements and was rather ineffective.

For their assistance to General Clark in the war, French and Indian residents of Illinois Country were given full citizenship. Under the and many subsequent treaties and acts of Congress, the French and Indian residents of Vincennes and Kaskaskia were granted specific exemptions, as they had declared themselves citizens of Virginia. The term Illinois Country was sometimes used in legislation to refer to these settlements.

Much of the Illinois Country region became an of the United States with the establishment of the  in 1787.