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                BRITISH POLICY IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY
                               1763-1768

                                  BY
                         CLARENCE EDWIN CARTER
                 A. M., 1906 (UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN)

                                THESIS
         SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
                                FOR THE
               DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY

                                IN THE
                            GRADUATE SCHOOL
                                OF THE
                        UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
                                 1908




  UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

  June 1 1908

  THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY
  Clarence Edwin Carter, A.M.

  ENTITLED British Policy in the Illinois Country, 1763-1768

  IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS
  FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in History

  Evarts B Greene

  HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF History.




BRITISH POLICY IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY

1763-1768


  CHAPTER I.—Introductory Survey.

  CHAPTER II.—The Occupation of Illinois.

  CHAPTER III.—Status of the Illinois Country in the Empire.

  CHAPTER IV.—Trade Conditions in Illinois, 1765-1775.

  CHAPTER V.—Colonizing schemes in the Illinois.

  CHAPTER VI.—Events in the Illinois Country, 1765-1768.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY.—




CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY SURVEY.


In 1763 Great Britain was confronted with the momentous problem of
the readjustment of all her colonial relations in order to meet the
new conditions resulting from the peace of Paris, when immense areas
of territory and savage alien peoples were added to the empire. The
necessity of strengthening the imperial ties between the old colonies
and the mother country and reorganizing the new acquisitions came to
the forefront at this time and led the government into a course soon
to end in the disruption of the empire. Certainly not the least of the
questions demanding solution was that of the disposition of the country
lying to the westward of the colonies, including a number of French
settlements and a broad belt of Indian nations. It does not, however,
come within the proposed limits of this study to discuss all the
different phases of the western policy of England, except in so far as
it may be necessary to make more clear her attitude towards the French
settlements in the Illinois country.

The European situation leading to the Seven Years War, which ended so
disastrously to French dominion, is too familiar to need repetition.
That struggle was the culmination of a series of continental and
colonial wars beginning towards the close of the seventeenth century
and ending with the definitive treaty of 1763. During the first quarter
of the century France occupied a predominating position among the
powers. Through the aggressiveness of Louis XIV and his ministers
her boundaries had been pushed eastward and westward, which seriously
threatened the balance of power on the continent. Until 1748 England
and Austria had been in alliance against their traditional enemy, while
in the Austrian Succession France had lent her aid to Prussia in the
dismemberment of the Austrian dominions,—at the same time extending
her own power in the interior of America and India. In the interval of
nominal peace after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, preparations
were begun for another contest. The astute diplomacy of Kaunitz won
France from her traditional enmity and secured her as an open ally for
Maria Theresa in her war of revenge.[1] While the European situation
was giving occasion for new alignments of powers, affairs in America
were becoming more and more important as between France and England.
Here for over a century the two powers had been rivals for the
territorial and commercial supremacy.

In North America the pioneers had won for her the greater part of
the continent,—the extensive valleys of the St. Lawrence and the
Mississippi with all the land watered by their tributaries. The
French claim to this region was based almost entirely upon discovery
and exploration, for in all its extent less than one thousand
people were permanently settled. Canada at the north and the region
about New Orleans on the extreme south containing the bulk of the
population, while throughout the old Northwest settlements were few and
scattering.[2] Trading posts and small villages existed at Vincennes
on the Wabash River, at Detroit on a river of the same name, at
St. Joseph near Lake Michigan and other isolated places. Outside of
Detroit, the most important and populous settlement was situated along
the eastern bank of the Mississippi, in the southwestern part of the
present state of Illinois. Here were the villages of Kaskaskia, St.
Phillippe, Prairie du Rocher, Chartres village and Cahokia, containing
a population of barely two thousand people.

In contrast to this vast area of French territory and the sparseness
of its population were the British colonies,