Misplaced Pages

#831168

97-879: Virginian explorers recognized the potential of the Ohio region for colonization and moved to capitalize on it, as well as to block French expansion into the territory. In 1748, Thomas Lee and brothers Lawrence and Augustine Washington organized the Ohio Company to represent the prospecting and trading interests of Virginian investors including Robert Dinwiddie ; George Washington ; George Mason ; John Mercer (colonial lawyer) and sons George Mercer, James Mercer & John Francis Mercer ; Richard "Squire" Lee ; Thomas Ludwell Lee ; Phillip Ludwell Lee ; Robert Carter III of Nomoni; John Tayloe II of Mount Airy ; and Gwain Corbin, son of Henry Corbin (colonist) . In addition to

194-652: A storm suddenly destroyed his fleet. On 20 September 1565 the Spaniards, commanded by Menéndez de Avilés, attacked and massacred all the Fort Caroline occupants including Jean Ribault. The French interest in Canada focused first on fishing off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. However, at the beginning of the 17th century, France was more interested in fur from North America. The fur trading post of Tadoussac

291-495: A treaty of friendship and permission at Logstown with the main tribes in the region in 1752 . A rival group of land speculators from Virginia, the Loyal Company of Virginia , was organized about the same time, and included influential Virginians such as Thomas Walker , William Cabell and Peter Jefferson (father of Thomas Jefferson ). In 1752 George Mason , later to become a major founding father, became treasurer of

388-689: A "despoiled traders" (frontiersmen who had been aggrieved by the various Indian raids during and after the French and Indian Wars) land grant in 1768. In order to get approved by the British Crown , they joined with a number of other land speculators to form the Walpole Company, named for Thomas Walpole, a British lawyer involved in the endeavor. The company wanted to acquire 2.5 million acres of Ohio Country land. Pennsylvanian Benjamin Franklin

485-531: A Catawba word meaning "friendly brother". The river has also had historical alternate names, alternate spellings and misspellings including Wood's River for the tributary known today as the New River, for Colonel Abraham Wood , an English explorer from Virginia, the first European known to have explored the river in the mid-17th century. Archaeological artifacts, such as Clovis points and later projectiles, indicate prehistoric indigenous peoples living in

582-435: A France Équinoxiale further North, in what is today French Guiana , in 1626, 1635 (when the capital, Cayenne , was founded) and 1643. Twice a Compagnie de la France équinoxiale was founded, in 1643 and 1645, but both foundered as a result of misfortune and mismanagement. It was only after 1674, when the colony came under the direct control of the French crown and a competent Governor took office, that France Équinoxiale became

679-542: A French expedition departed from Cancale , Brittany, France, under the command of Daniel de la Touche, Seigneur de la Ravardière, and François de Razilly , admiral. Carrying 500 colonists, it arrived in the Northern coast of what is today the Brazilian state of Maranhão . De la Ravardière had discovered the region in 1604 but the death of the king postponed his plans to start its colonization. The colonists soon founded

776-681: A SW point not determined until after the Mason Dixon survey). Moreover, France also claimed land in North America, including everything drained by the Mississippi River (the Ohio River being one of the great river's tributaries). Not only did French traders compete with those of the Ohio Company and agents of other British-chartered entities, France had also sent soldiers, who were fighting for their kingdom's right to occupy

873-455: A capacity of 14 percent of the average annual flow at Charleston. The reservoirs on New and Gauley Rivers reduced the estimated 100-year flood discharge under 20th-century climate by about half at Kanawha Falls. Kanawha Falls is the upstream limit of several fish species that broadly inhabit the Ohio River watershed. Above the waterfall, the watershed has fewer fish species overall, a relatively high number of species found nowhere else in

970-642: A fortified storehouse at what became Ridgeley, Virginia across the Potomac River from the Will's Creek trading post. That year the Ohio Company also hired Christopher Gist , a skillful woodsman and surveyor, to explore the Ohio Valley in order to identify lands for potential settlement. He surveyed and estimated the area drained by the Kanawha River as well as that drained by other tributaries of

1067-539: A great military disadvantage against the British. The war between the colonies resumed in 1744, lasting until 1748. A final and decisive war began in 1754. The Canadiens and the French were helped by numerous alliances with Native Americans, but they were usually outnumbered on the battlefield. On May 17, 1673, explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began exploring the Mississippi River, known to

SECTION 10

#1732765111832

1164-635: A haven for the Huguenots , and was ultimately destroyed by the Portuguese in 1567 . On November 1, 1555, French vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (1510–1575), a Catholic knight of the Order of Malta , who later would help the Huguenots to find a refuge against persecution, led a small fleet of two ships and 600 soldiers and colonists, and took possession of the small island of Serigipe in

1261-643: A hunting ground. It was essentially unpopulated when the English and Europeans began to move into the area. The first white person to travel through Virginia all the way to the Ohio River (other than as a prisoner of the Indians) was Matthew Arbuckle, Sr. , who traversed the length of the Kanawha River valley arriving at (what would later be called) Point Pleasant around 1764. In April 1774, Captain Hanson

1358-492: A nephew of Villegagnon. They were joined by 14 Calvinists from Geneva, led by Philippe de Corguilleray , including theologians Pierre Richier and Guillaume Chartrier. The new colonists, numbering around 300, included 5 young women to be wed, 10 boys to be trained as translators, as well as 14 Calvinists sent by Calvin, and also Jean de Léry, who would later write an account of the colony. They arrived in March 1557. The relief fleet

1455-561: A place of competition among historical American Indian nations. Invading from their base in present-day New York , the Iroquois drove out or conquered Fort Ancient culture peoples, as well as such tribes as the Huron and Conoy . By right of conquest, the Iroquois, Lenape (Delaware), and Shawnee reserved the area as a hunting ground. They resisted European-American settlement during

1552-547: A population of 1,700 people), Newfoundland and Hudson Bay . Under the Sovereign Council, the population of the colony grew faster. However, the population growth was far inferior to that of the British Thirteen Colonies to the south. In the middle of the 18th century, New France accounted for 60,000 people while the British colonies had more than one million people. This placed the colony at

1649-528: A reality. To this day, French Guiana is a department of France. Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( / k ə ˈ n ɔː ə / kə- NAW -ə ) is a tributary of the Ohio River , approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia . The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its watershed has been a significant industrial region of the state since early in

1746-540: A rich and complex History as well as proud descendants far beyond Québec and Acadia original heartlands. A major French settlement lay on the island of Hispaniola , where France established the colony of Saint-Domingue on the western third of the island in 1664. Nicknamed the "Pearl of the Antilles", Saint-Domingue became the richest colony in the Caribbean due to slave plantation production of sugar cane. It had

1843-560: A series of floods resulted in Bienville ordering that the settlement be relocated in 1711 several miles downriver to its present location at the confluence of the Mobile River and Mobile Bay . A new earth-and-palisade Fort Louis was constructed at the new site during this time. By 1712, when Antoine Crozat was appointed to take over administration of the colony, its population had reached 400 persons. The capital of La Louisiane

1940-530: A village, which was named "Saint-Louis", in honor of the French king Louis IX . This later became São Luís in Portuguese,[1] the only Brazilian state capital founded by France. On 8 September, Capuchin friars prayed the first mass, and the soldiers started building a fortress. An important difference in relation to France Antarctique is that this new colony was not motivated by escape from religious persecutions to Protestants (see French Wars of Religion). The colony did not last long. A Portuguese army assembled in

2037-504: Is an overseas department of France, while St. Barthélemy and St. Martin each became an overseas collectivity of France in 2007. France Antarctique (formerly also spelled France antartique) was a French colony south of the Equator , in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio . The colony quickly became

SECTION 20

#1732765111832

2134-645: Is now known as Montreal . Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette founded Sault Sainte Marie (1668) and Saint Ignace (1671) and explored the Mississippi River . At the end of the 17th century, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle established a network of forts going from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River . Fort Saint Louis was established in Texas in 1685, but

2231-583: Is today the province of Quebec, Canada, and for a very short period (12 years) also Antarctic France (France Antarctique, in French), in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All of these settlements were in violation of the papal bull of 1493, which divided the New World between Spain and Portugal. This division was later defined more exactly by the Treaty of Tordesillas . France équinoxiale started in 1612, when

2328-610: The Appalachian Mountains to the Monongahela River , and then to start widening this road into a wagon road. Though not known at the time, that route was one of only three mid-mountain-range crossings of the Appalachian Ridge and Valley system between the northern Hudson-Great Lakes route, and the southern Georgia-Mississippi-Western Tennessee plains route. In 1750, the Ohio Company established

2425-590: The Captaincy of Pernambuco , under the command of Alexandre de Moura, was able to mount a military expedition, which defeated and expelled the French colonists in 1615, less than four years after their arrival in the land. Thus, it repeated the disaster spelt for the colonists of France Antarctique, in 1567. A few years later, in 1620, Portuguese and Brazilian colonists arrived in number and São Luís started to develop, with an economy based mostly in sugar cane and slavery. French traders and colonists tried again to settle

2522-549: The Fort Ancient culture peoples, who had villages that survived to the time of European contact, such as Buffalo and Marmet . They were driven out by Iroquois from present-day New York . According to French missionary reports, by the late 16th century, several thousand Huron , originally of the Great Lakes region, lived in central West Virginia. They were partially exterminated and their remnant driven out in

2619-473: The Guanabara Bay , in front of present-day Rio de Janeiro, where they built a fort named Fort Coligny . The fort was named in honor of Gaspard de Coligny (then a Catholic statesman, who about a year later would become a Huguenot), an admiral who supported the expedition and would use the colony in order to protect his fellow believers. To the still largely undeveloped mainland village, Villegaignon gave

2716-577: The Huron and Ottawa against their traditional enemies, the Iroquois . Champlain and other French travelers then continued to explore North America, with canoes made from birch bark , to move quickly through the Great Lakes and their tributaries. In 1634, the Normand explorer Jean Nicolet pushed his exploration to the West up to Wisconsin. Following the capitulation of Quebec by the Kirke brothers,

2813-540: The Kanawha River and the Monongahela . The grant was in two parts: the first 200,000 acres were promised, and the following 300,000 acres were to be granted if the Ohio Company successfully settled one hundred families within seven years. Furthermore, the Ohio Company was required to construct a fort and provide a garrison to protect the settlement at their own expense. But the land grant was rent and tax free for ten years to facilitate settlement. The organizers signed

2910-519: The Lesser Antilles at various times. Islands that came under French rule during part or all of this time include Dominica , Grenada , Guadeloupe , Marie-Galante , Martinique , St. Barthélemy , St. Croix , St. Kitts , St. Lucia , St. Martin , St. Vincent and Tobago . Control of many of these islands was contested between the French, the British and the Dutch; in the case of St. Martin,

3007-551: The Mobile River , as the first capital of the French colony of La Louisiane . It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville , to establish control over France's claims to La Louisiane . Bienville was appointed as royal governor of French Louisiana in 1701. Mobile's Roman Catholic parish was established on July 20, 1703, by Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier , Bishop of Quebec . The parish

Ohio Company - Misplaced Pages Continue

3104-562: The Ohio River , and returned in 1751 and 1753. His journals provide valuable insights of the greater Ohio Valley as well as the Alleghenies . Gist travelled as far west as the Miami Indian village of Pickawillany (near present Piqua, Ohio ). Relying on his report, the Ohio Company began selling land in what later became Western Pennsylvania and present-day West Virginia . Gist and Cresap both received sizable land grants west of

3201-679: The Secretary of State of the Navy to give him the command of Louisiana . He believed that it was close to New Spain by drawing a map on which the Mississippi seemed much further west than its actual rate. He set up a maritime expedition with four ships and 320 emigrants, but it ended in disaster when he failed to find the Mississippi Delta and was killed in 1687. In 1698, Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville left La Rochelle and explored

3298-728: The Seneca nation and the United States established ten reservations. This formal treaty was signed on September 15, 1797. Lewis was granted a large tract of land near the mouth of the Great Kanawha River in the late 18th century. The Little Kanawha and the Great Kanawha rivers, the two largest in the state, were named for the American Indian tribe that lived in the area prior to European settlement in

3395-644: The Treaty of Rijswijk until 1701, when the two parties agreed on peace. Then, the war against the English took over in the War of the Spanish Succession . In 1690 and 1711, Quebec City had successfully resisted the attacks of the English navy and then British army. Nevertheless, the British took advantage of the second war. With the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France ceded to Britain Acadia (with

3492-805: The Valley of Ohio , migrated into the Spanish territory West of the Mississippi and were instrumental in pushing further West toward the Pacific through their longer experience of the new continent and its native inhabitants. Only the islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon are still in French hands. In 1802 Spain returned Louisiana to France, but Napoleon sold it to the United States in 1803. The French and their descendants left many toponyms ( Illinois , Vermont , Bayous ...) and ethnonyms ( Sioux , Coeur d'Alene , Nez Percé ...) in North America along with

3589-608: The 17th century by the Iroquois ' invading from western present-day New York. Other accounts note that the tribe known as Conois , Conoy, Canawesee , or Kanawha were conquered or driven out by the large Seneca tribe, one of the Iroquois Confederacy , as the Seneca boasted to Virginia colonial officials in 1744. The Iroquois and other tribes, such as the Shawnee and Delaware , maintained central West Virginia as

3686-659: The 18th century. Under pressure from the Iroquois, most of the Conoy/Kanawha had migrated to present-day Virginia by 1634, where they had settled on the west side of the Chesapeake Bay and below the Potomac River . They were also known to the colonists there as the Piscataway . They later migrated north to Pennsylvania , to submit and seek protection with the Susquehannock and Iroquois. The spelling of

3783-463: The 19th century. It is formed at the town of Gauley Bridge in northwestern Fayette County , approximately 35 mi (56 km) SE of Charleston , by the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers 2 mi upstream from Kanawha Falls . The waterfall is 24 ft high and has been a barrier to fish movement for more than 1 million years. The river flows generally northwest, in a winding course on

3880-404: The 48 contiguous United States. Each division is divided into provinces, there are 25 provinces in the United States. Each province is then divided into sections, creating 85 different physiographic sections in the United States. The Kanawha section is one of those 85 sections. The Kanawha section encompasses areas of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. The two major cities in

3977-665: The Appalachian Mountains were forfeited to the Native American tribes in the Proclamation of 1763 , requiring them to be re-purchased through King George III . In 1768, the British government authorized Sir William Johnson to make the Treaty of Fort Stanwix , purchasing land rights from the Iroquois , in accordance with the Proclamation of 1763. Samuel Wharton and William Trent applied for

Ohio Company - Misplaced Pages Continue

4074-522: The Appalachians. In 1752 the company had a pathway blazed between the small fortified posts at Wills Creek (that became Cumberland, Maryland ), and Redstone Old Fort (that became Brownsville, Pennsylvania ). Cresap and his scout Nemacolin had established the latter location in 1750, which overlooked Redstone Creek and the longstanding Monongahela River ford . Conflicting land claims complicated settlement efforts. The Ohio Country tract ceded by

4171-423: The Bluestone Lake. In addition to the New and Gauley River headwaters, the Kanawha is joined at Charleston by the Elk River , at St. Albans by the Coal River , and at Poca by the Pocatalico River . Major impoundments in the Kanawha River watershed include Claytor Lake and Bluestone Lake on the New River, Summersville Lake on the Gauley River, and Sutton Lake on the Elk River. Collectively, they have

4268-428: The Boroughs Queens and Brooklyn from the upper and lower parts of the harbor until 1609 when the British and the Dutch came to take control of it from the French Verrazzano. He would later give the names Francesca and Nova Gall to that land between New Spain and English Newfoundland, thus promoting French interests. In 1534, Francis I of France sent Jacques Cartier on the first of three voyages to explore

4365-435: The British occupied the city of Quebec and Canada from 1629 to 1632. Samuel de Champlain was taken prisoner and there followed the bankruptcy of the Company of One Hundred Associates . Following the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye , France took possession of the colony in 1632. The city of Trois-Rivières was founded in 1634. In 1642, the Angevin Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière founded Ville-Marie (later Montreal ) which

4462-445: The French and Indians were usually peaceful. As the 19th-century historian Francis Parkman stated: "Spanish civilization crushed the Indian; English civilization scorned and neglected him; French civilization embraced and cherished him." To boost the French population, Cardinal Richelieu issued an act declaring that Indians converted to Catholicism were considered "natural Frenchmen" by the Ordonnance of 1627: "The descendants of

4559-476: The French who have accustomed to this country [New France], together with all the Indians who will be brought to the knowledge of the faith and will profess it, shall be deemed and renowned natural Frenchmen, and as such may come to live in France when they want, and acquire, donate, and succeed and accept donations and legacies, just as true French subjects, without being required to take no letters of declaration of naturalization." Louis XIV also tried to increase

4656-421: The Grand Ohio Company received from the British government a grant of a large tract lying along the southern bank of the Ohio as far west as the mouth of the Scioto River . A colony to be called "Vandalia" was planned. However, the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War interrupted colonization and nothing was accomplished. The London-based company ceased operations in 1776. The Ohio Company of Associates

4753-464: The Gulf of Mexico and established a fort at Mobile in 1702. From 1699 to 1702, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was governor of Louisiana. His brother succeeded him in that post from 1702 to 1713. He was again governor from 1716 to 1724 and again 1733 to 1743. In 1718, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville commanded a French expedition in Louisiana. He founded the city of New Orleans, in homage to Regent Duke of Orleans . The architect Adrian de Pauger drew

4850-454: The Illinois River, along with 23 French and 18 Native Americans. In April 1682, they arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi; they planted a cross and a column bearing the arms of the king of France. In 1686 de Tonti left 6 men near the Quapaw village of Osotouy, creating the settlement of Arkansas Post. De Tonti's Arkansas Post would be the first European settlement in the Lower Mississippi River valley. La Salle returned to France and won over

4947-416: The Indian Old Fields of the valley of the South Branch of the Potomac; the Delaware were gone from the Monongahela; the Cherokee who claimed all the region between the Great Kanawha and Big Sandy, had never occupied it." quoting Virgil A. Lewis (1887), corresponding member of the Virginia Historical Society. The river's name changes to the Kanawha River at the Kanawha Falls . The Treaty of Big Tree between

SECTION 50

#1732765111832

5044-409: The King through Virginia's Governor Dinwiddie included, in Dinwiddie's opinion, the "forks of the Monongahela," present-day Pittsburgh . The Pennsylvania colonial government also claimed much of this territory (though Maryland's charter ended at the Appalachian divide , and while the charter of Virginia set no western boundary, Pennsylvania's grant was for 5 degrees of longitude from the Delaware River,

5141-427: The Mississippi River to Britain. This area was made a part of the expanded British West Florida colony. The British changed the name of Fort Condé to Fort Charlotte , after Queen Charlotte . The French were eager to explore North America but New France remained largely unpopulated. Due to the lack of women, intermarriages between French and Indians were frequent, giving rise to the Métis people . Relations between

5238-408: The New World as travelers seeking a route to the Pacific Ocean and wealth. Major French exploration of North America began under the rule of Francis I, King of France . In 1524, Francis sent Italian-born Giovanni da Verrazzano to explore the region between Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the Pacific Ocean. He would find parts of New York Harbor . The French would take narrow land ports of

5335-407: The Ohio Company, a post he held for forty years until his death in 1792. In 1748–1750, the Ohio Company hired Thomas Cresap , who had opened a series of trading posts along the Potomac River at Long Meadow, Oldtown and Will's Creek (on the foot of the eastern climb up the Cumberland Narrows along what was soon to be called the Nemacolin Trail ). Cresap contracted to blaze a small road over

5432-528: The Ohio Valley, most notably at Fort Duquesne . Dinwiddie responded by sending a military unit under the command of George Washington to the region, which led to the outbreak of the French and Indian War . In 1763, the Ohio Company sent a representative to petition the British Crown for a grant renewal. The plans for settlement and military development continued, with Henry Bouquet 's 1764 plans to construct military posts around prospective western settlements. However, following Pontiac's War , land claims west of

5529-412: The Sioux as does Tongo, or to the Miami-Illinois as missisipioui ( the great river ). They reached the mouth of the Arkansas and then up the river, after learning that it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico and not to the California Sea (Pacific Ocean). In 1682, the Normand Cavelier de la Salle and the Italian Henri de Tonti came down the Mississippi to its Delta. They left from Fort Crevecoeur on

5626-442: The Spanish from St. Augustine . An attempt to settle convicts on Sable Island off Nova Scotia in 1598 failed after a short time. In 1599, a sixteen-person trading post was established in Tadoussac (in present-day Quebec ), of which only five men survived the first winter. In 1604 Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain founded a short-lived French colony, the first in Acadia , on Saint Croix Island , presently part of

5723-412: The area around the mouth of the Mississippi. He stopped between Isle-aux-Chats (now Cat Island) and Isle Surgeres (renamed Isle-aux-Vascular or Ship Island) on February 13, 1699, and continued his explorations to the mainland, with his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to Biloxi . He built a precarious fort, called 'Maurepas' (later 'Old Biloxi'), before returning to France. He returned twice in

5820-501: The area from the 12,500 BC era. Peoples of later cultures continued to live along the valley and heights. Those of the Adena culture built at least 50 earthwork mounds and 10 enclosures in the area between Charleston and Dunbar , as identified by an 1882 to 1884 survey by the Bureau of Ethnology (later part of the Smithsonian Institution ). Three of their mounds survive in the valley, including Criel Mound at present-day South Charleston, West Virginia . Evidence has been found of

5917-401: The city of Rio de Janeiro on March 1, 1565, and fought the Frenchmen for two more years. Helped by a military reinforcement sent by his uncle, on January 20, 1567, he imposed final defeat on the French forces and decisively expelled them from Brazil, but died a month later from wounds inflicted in the battle. Coligny's and Villegaignon's dream had lasted a mere 12 years. Equinoctial France was

SECTION 60

#1732765111832

6014-443: The coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River . He founded New France by planting a cross on the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula . The French subsequently tried to establish several colonies throughout North America that failed, due to weather, disease, or conflict with other European powers. Cartier attempted to create the first permanent European settlement in North America at Cap-Rouge (Quebec City) in 1541 with 400 settlers but

6111-414: The colonial years. Eventually the settlers took over by right of conquest . The watershed contains significant deposits of coal and natural gas . As of 1998, about 7 percent of the coal mined in the United States came from the Kanawha River watershed. A thriving chemical industry along the river banks provides a significant part of the local economy. In colonial times, the wildly fluctuating level of

6208-418: The colony by calling for more colonists in 1556. He sent one of his ships, the Grande Roberge , to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin. After one ship was sent to France to ask for additional support, three ships were financed and prepared by the king of France and put under the command of Sieur De Bois le Comte,

6305-531: The condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana. The newly married couples were chained together and taken to the port of embarkation. In May 1720, after complaints from the Mississippi Company and the concessioners about this class of French immigrants, the French government prohibited such deportations. However, there was a third shipment of prisoners in 1721. The Mississippi Company arranged for hundreds of German immigrants to move to Louisiana by ships in 1721. Charles Frederick d'Arensbourg

6402-453: The contemporary name given to the colonization efforts of France in the 17th century in South America, around the line of Equator, before "tropical" had fully gained its modern meaning: Equinoctial means in Latin "of equal nights", i.e., on the Equator, where the duration of days and nights is nearly the same year round. The French colonial empire in the New World also included New France (Nouvelle France) in North America, particularly in what

6499-448: The highest slave mortality rate in the western hemisphere. A 1791 slave revolt, the only ever successful slave revolt, began the Haitian Revolution , led to freedom for the colony's slaves in 1794 and, a decade later, complete independence for the country, which renamed itself Haiti . France briefly also ruled the eastern portion of the island, which is now the Dominican Republic . During the 17th and 18th centuries, France ruled much of

6596-446: The island was divided in two, a situation that persists to this day. Great Britain captured some of France's islands during the Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic Wars . Following the latter conflict, France retained control of Guadeloupe , Martinique , Marie-Galante , St. Barthélemy , and its portion of St. Martin ; all remain part of France today. Guadeloupe (including Marie-Galante and other nearby islands) and Martinique each

6693-444: The leadership of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny sent Jean Ribault and a group of Huguenot settlers in an attempt to colonize the Atlantic coast and found a colony on a territory which would take the name of the French Florida . They discovered the sound and Port Royal Island, which would be called Parris Island in South Carolina , on which he built a fort named Charlesfort . The group, led by René Goulaine de Laudonnière , moved to

6790-405: The mandate and investment of Virginia Royal Governor Robert Dinwiddie , other original members included John Hanbury, Colonel Thomas Cresap , George Mercer , John Mercer , and "all of His Majesty's Colony of Virginia." In that same year, George Mercer petitioned King George for land in the Ohio country, and in 1749, the British Crown granted the company 500,000 acres in the Ohio Valley between

6887-422: The name of Henriville, in honour of Henry II , the King of France , who also knew of and approved the expedition, and had provided the fleet for the trip. Villegaignon secured his position by making an alliance with the Tamoio and Tupinambá Indians of the region, who were fighting the Portuguese. Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who initially took little notice of his landing, Villegaignon endeavoured to expand

6984-548: The new Governor-General of Brazil, received from the Portuguese government the command to expel the French. With a fleet of 26 warships and 2,000 soldiers, on 15 March 1560, he attacked and destroyed Fort Coligny within three days, but was unable to drive off their inhabitants and defenders, because they escaped to the mainland with the help of the Native Brazilians, where they continued to live and to work. Admiral Villegaignon had returned to France in 1558, disgusted with

7081-457: The occasion of the importation of the first African slaves , transported aboard a French supply ship from the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean , where they had first been held. The population of the colony fluctuated over the next few years, growing to 279 persons by 1708, yet shrinking to 178 persons two years later due to disease. These additional outbreaks of disease and

7178-834: The orthogonal plane of the Old Square . In 1718, there were only 700 Europeans in Louisiana. The Mississippi Company arranged for ships to bring 800 more, who landed in Louisiana in 1718, doubling the European population. John Law encouraged Germans , particularly Germans of the Alsatian region who had recently fallen under French rule , and the Swiss to emigrate. Prisoners were set free in Paris in September 1719 onwards, under

7275-570: The population by sending approximately 800 young women nicknamed the " King's Daughters ". However, the low density of the population in New France remained a very persistent problem. At the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the British population in North America outnumbered the French 20 to 1. France fought a total of six colonial wars in North America, (see the four French and Indian Wars as well as Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War ). In 1562, Charles IX , under

7372-541: The population, Louis XIV sent between 800 and 900 ' King's Daughters ' to become the wives of French settlers. The population of New France reached subsequently 7,000 in 1674 and 15,000 in 1689. From 1689 to 1713, the French settlers were faced with almost incessant war during the French and Indian Wars . From 1689 to 1697, they fought the British in the Nine Years' War . The war against the Iroquois continued even after

7469-489: The religious tension that existed between French Protestants and Catholics, who had come also with the second group (see French Wars of Religion). Urged by two influential Jesuit priests who had come to Brazil with Mem de Sá, named José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega , and who had played a big role in pacifying the Tamoios, Mem de Sá ordered his nephew, Estácio de Sá to assemble a new attack force. Estácio de Sá founded

7566-671: The river prevented its use for transportation. The removal of boulders and snags on the lower river in the 1840s allowed navigation, which was extended upriver by the construction of locks and dams by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers starting in 1875. By 1898 the project made the Kanawha the first fully controlled river navigation system in America. The river is now navigable for barge traffic to Deepwater , an unincorporated community about 20 miles (32 km) upriver from Charleston. Multiple West Virginia state record fish were caught along

7663-416: The section are Pittsburgh, PA and Charleston, WV. "Ka(ih)nawha" derives from the region's Iroquoian dialects meaning "water way" or "canoe way" implying the metaphor, "transport way", in the local language. The glottal consonant of the "ih" (stream or river, local Iroquois) dropped out as settlers and homesteaders arrived. Some say that it comes from a Shawnee word that means "new water" or that its

7760-402: The settlement was abandoned the next year after bad weather and attacks from Native Americans in the area. A small group of French troops were left on Parris Island, South Carolina in 1562 to build Charlesfort , but left after a year when they were not resupplied by France. Fort Caroline established in present-day Jacksonville, Florida , in 1564, lasted only a year before being destroyed by

7857-644: The south where they founded the Fort Caroline on the Saint John's river in Florida on June 22, 1564. This irritated the Spanish who claimed Florida and opposed the Protestant settlers for religious reasons. In 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés led a group of Spaniards and founded Saint Augustine , 60 kilometers south of Fort Caroline. Fearing a Spanish attack, Ribault planned to move the colony but

7954-455: The spring of 1604, conducted by Pierre Du Gua de Monts . It helped the foundation of a settlement on Saint Croix Island , the first French settlement in the New World, which would be given up the following winter. The expedition then founded the colony of Port-Royal . In 1608, Champlain founded a fur post that would become the city of Quebec , which would become the capital of New France. In Quebec, Champlain forged alliances between France and

8051-541: The state of Maine , which was much plagued by illness, perhaps scurvy. The following year the settlement was moved to Port Royal , located in present-day Nova Scotia . Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec (1608) and explored the Great Lakes . In 1634, Jean Nicolet founded La Baye des Puants (present-day Green Bay ), which is one of the oldest permanent European settlements in America. In 1634, Sieur de Laviolette founded Trois-Rivières. In 1642, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve , founded Fort Ville-Marie which

8148-412: The unglaciated Allegheny Plateau , through Fayette, Kanawha , Putnam , and Mason counties, past the cities of Charleston and St. Albans , and numerous smaller communities. It joins the Ohio at Point Pleasant . An environmental overview and summary of natural and human factors affecting water quality in the watershed was published in 2000. Paleo-Indians , the earliest indigenous peoples , lived in

8245-451: The valley and the heights by 10,000 BC as evidenced by archaeological artifacts such as Clovis points . A succession of prehistoric cultures developed, with the Adena culture beginning the construction of numerous skilled earthwork mounds and enclosures more than 2000 years ago. Some of the villages of the Fort Ancient culture survived into the times of European contact. The area was

8342-515: The world, and nearly as many non-native species as natives. The Kanawha River lends its name to a major geological section of the Appalachian Highlands physiographic region of the United States called a physiographic region. A physiographic region is a large portion of land that is grouped by several factors. Each region has similar geology, topography, and groups of plants and animals. There are eight physiographic divisions in

8439-554: Was a leader of the settlement called the German Coast . By the end of 1720, the Mississippi Company failed. Later, more Germans immigrated to Louisiana during the 1750s and 1770s. The last French and Indian War resulted in the dissolution of New France , with Canada going to Great Britain and Louisiana going to Spain , although mainly absent. French colonists descendants or "Canadiens" that had settled in

8536-485: Was at that time, a fort as protection against Iroquois attacks (the first great Iroquois war lasted from 1642 to 1667). Despite this rapid expansion, the colony developed very slowly. The Iroquois wars and diseases were the leading causes of death in the French colony. In 1663 when Louis XIV provided the Royal Government , the population of New France was only 2,500 European inhabitants. That year, to increase

8633-716: Was composed of: Doctrinal disputes arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinists, especially in relation to the Eucharist, and in October 1557 the Calvinists were banished from Coligny island as a result. They settled among the Tupinamba until January 1558, when some of them managed to return to France by ship together with Jean de Léry , and five others chose to return to Coligny island where three of them were drowned by Villegagnon for refusing to recant. In 1560 Mem de Sá ,

8730-496: Was founded in 1600. Four years later, Champlain made his first trip to Canada on a trade mission for fur. Although he had no formal mandate on this trip, he sketched a map of the St. Lawrence River and in writing, on his return to France, a report entitled Savages (relation of his stay in a tribe of Montagnais near Tadoussac). Champlain needed to report his findings to Henry IV . He participated in another expedition to New France in

8827-505: Was gone by 1688. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit (modern-day Detroit ) in 1701 and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville founded La Nouvelle Orléans ( New Orleans ) in 1718. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founded Baton Rouge in 1719. The European settlement of Mobile, Alabama began with French colonists, who in 1702 constructed Fort Louis de la Louisiane , at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on

8924-474: Was moved in 1720 to Biloxi , leaving Mobile to serve as a regional military and trading center. In 1723 the construction of a new brick fort with a stone foundation began and it was renamed Fort Condé in honor of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon . In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Seven Years' War , which Britain won, defeating France. By this treaty, France ceded its territories east of

9021-580: Was one of an expedition: "18th. We surveyed 2,000 acres (8.1 km ) of Land for Col. Washington, bordered by Coal River & the Canawagh..." This area is the lower area of today's St. Albans, West Virginia . After the Treaty of Fort Stanwix , "The Kanawhas had gone from the upper tributaries of the river which bears their name, to join their kinsmen, the Iroquois in New York; the Shawnee had abandoned

9118-472: Was one of the seventy-two shareholders, as well as included Franklin's son William (then Royal Governor of New Jersey), George Croghan and Sir William Johnson, as well as Franklin's perennial London allies William Strahan and Richard Jackson . The Walpole Company, Indiana Company , and members of the Ohio Company reorganized, and on December 22, 1769, formed the Grand Ohio Company. In 1772,

9215-1010: Was organized in 1786, composed largely of New England veterans who had certificates for land from Congress for their services during the Revolution. French colonization of the Americas France began colonizing the Americas in the 16th century and continued into the following centuries as it established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere . France established colonies in much of eastern North America, on several Caribbean islands, and in South America. Most colonies were developed to export products such as fish, rice, sugar, and furs. The first French colonial empire stretched to over 10,000,000 km (3,900,000 sq mi) at its peak in 1710, which

9312-512: Was the first French Catholic parish established on the Gulf Coast of the United States . In 1704 the ship Pélican delivered 23 French women to the colony; passengers had contracted yellow fever at a stop in Havana . Though most of the " Pélican girls" recovered, numerous colonists and neighboring Native Americans contracted the disease in turn and many died. This early period was also

9409-1056: Was the second largest colonial empire in the world, after the Spanish Empire . As they colonized the New World, the French established forts and settlements that would become such cities as Quebec , Trois-Rivières and Montreal in Canada; Detroit , Green Bay , St. Louis , Cape Girardeau , Mobile , Biloxi , Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the United States; and Port-au-Prince , Cap-Haïtien (founded as Cap-Français ) in Haiti , Saint-Pierre and Fort Saint-Louis (formerly as Fort Royal ) in Martinique , Castries (founded as Carénage ) in Saint Lucia , Cayenne in French Guiana and São Luís (founded as Saint-Louis de Maragnan ) in Brazil. The French first came to

#831168