Editing History of Missouri (section)

==European exploration, conquest, and colonization (1673–1803)==
{{Main|Colonial history of Missouri|New France|Louisiana (New France)|French and Indian War|Treaty of Paris (1763)|New Spain|Louisiana (New Spain)|Treaty of Aranjuez (1801)|Louisiana Purchase}}
In May 1673 the French Jesuit priest [[Jacques Marquette]] and French trader [[Louis Jolliet]] paddled down the [[Mississippi River]] in canoes along the area that would later become the state of [[Missouri]].<ref name="foley 1989 1">Foley (1989), 1.</ref>

During the late 1680s and 1690s the French pursued colonization of central North America – not only to promote trade, but also to thwart the efforts of England on the continent.<ref name="foley 1989 4-5">Foley (1989), 4–5.</ref> [[Pierre-Gabriel Marest]], a Jesuit priest, in late 1700 established a mission on the west bank of the Mississippi at the mouth of the [[River Des Peres]].<ref name="foley 1989 6">Foley (1989), 6.</ref><ref name="christensen dictionary of mo 519">Christensen (1999), 519.</ref> Marest established his mission station with a handful of French settlers and a large band of the [[Kaskaskia]] people, who fled from the eastern Illinois Country to the station in the hope of receiving French protection from the Iroquois.<ref name="foley 1989 6"/> The Mississippi-Missouri river system waterways were the main means of communication and transportation in the region.

During the 1710s the French government again began to pursue a course of increased development of the region, which Native Americans, imperial officials, and local European settlers conceived of the region as being part of the "Illinois Country," referring to the confederacy of Native communities that dominated the region. .<ref name="foley 1989 15">Foley (1989), 15.</ref> Boisbriand ordered the construction of [[Fort de Chartres]] about eighteen miles north of Kaskaskia as the base of operations and headquarters for the company in the area.<ref name="foley 1989 16">Foley (1989), 16.</ref> After the construction of Fort de Chartres, the company directed a series of prospecting expeditions to an area 30 miles west of the Mississippi River in present-day [[Madison County, Missouri|Madison]], [[St. Francois County, Missouri|St. Francois]], and [[Washington County, Missouri|Washington]] counties.<ref name="foley 1989 16"/> These mining operations generally focused on discovering either lead or silver ore. Despite severe financial losses in late 1720, in January 1722 the company's directors sent [[Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont]] to Missouri to protect the company's trade networks on the Missouri River from Spanish influence.<ref name="foley 1989 20">Foley (1989), 20.</ref> In November 1723, Bourgmont and the party arrived in present-day [[Carroll County, Missouri|Carroll County]] in northern Missouri, where they constructed [[Fort Orleans]].<ref name="foley 1989 21">Foley (1989), 21.</ref> Within a year, Bourgmont negotiated alliances with indigenous tribes along the Missouri River. The quick abandonment of the fort after its construction was necessitated by the general retreat on the part of the company after the financial losses of 1720, and in 1731, the company returned its charter and control of Louisiana to royal authority.<ref name="foley 1989 23">Foley (1989), 23.</ref> During the 1730s and 1740s, French control over Missouri remained weak, and no permanent settlements existed on the western bank of the Mississippi River.<ref name="foley 1989 23"/>

French settlers remained on the east bank of the Mississippi at Kaskaskia and Fort de Chartres until 1750, when the new settlement of [[Ste. Genevieve, Missouri]] was constructed. Though in present-day Missouri, the settlement at Ste. Genevieve was still thought of as part of the Illinois Country. During its early years, Ste. Genevieve grew slowly due to its location on a muddy, flat, floodplain, and in 1752, the town had only 23 full-time residents. The people were farmers. Using enslaved Africans and Native peoples, the settlement primarily grew wheat, corn and tobacco.<ref name="foley 1989 25">Foley (1989), 25.</ref><ref name="Bonnie Stepenoff 2006">Bonnie Stepenoff, ''From French Community to Missouri Town: Ste. Genevieve in the Nineteenth Century'' (2006)</ref>

===Spanish settlement and government===
[[File:ColonialMissouriCa1795.png|thumb|400px|left|Map of early Missouri settlements and trading posts]]
Disputes between France and England over control of the [[Ohio Valley]] resulted in the outbreak of the [[French and Indian War]] in 1754. The British won and France lost all its holdings. France gave Spain control of Louisiana in November 1762 in the [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762)|Treaty of Fontainebleau]].<ref>Fred Anderson, ''The war that made America: A short history of the French and Indian War'' (2006).</ref>
Meanwhile, the French governor of Louisiana granted a trade monopoly over the parts of the Illinois Country lying west of the Mississippi River to New Orleans merchant [[Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent]] and his partner, [[Pierre Laclède]].<ref name="foley 1989 26">Foley (1989), 26.</ref> In August 1763, Laclede and his stepson [[Auguste Chouteau]] departed New Orleans to establish a settlement in the Illinois Country, where in February 1764 they established [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] on high bluffs overlooking the Mississippi.<ref>James Neal Primm, ''Lion of the Valley: St. Louis, Missouri, 1764–1980'' (1990) ch 1</ref> By the 1770s, most Europeans in the region referred to the area as "Upper Louisiana." Concern about living under British rule led many French settlers east of the Mississippi River to decamp for the Louisiana on the west bank of the Mississippi.<ref name="foley 1989 29 and 32">Foley (1989), 29 and 32.</ref>

{|class="wikitable" style="float: right; margin: .46em 0 0 .2em;"
|+Early settlements in Missouri
!Settlement
!Founding
|-
|[[Mine La Motte, Missouri|Mine La Motte]]
|1717 settlement
|-
|[[Ste. Genevieve, Missouri|Ste. Genevieve]]
|1750, 1735–1785<ref name="Bonnie Stepenoff 2006"/>
|-
|[[St. Louis]]
|1764
|-
|[[Carondelet, St. Louis|Carondelet]]
|1767, St. Louis annex 1870
|-
|[[St. Charles, Missouri|St. Charles]]
|1769
|-
|[[Potosi, Missouri|Mine à Breton]]
|1770, 1760–1780<ref name="History of Mine A Breton">{{cite web |url=http://www.carrollscorner.net/Potosi,Missouri.htm |title=History of Mine A Breton / Potosi |access-date=2015-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220082922/http://carrollscorner.net/Potosi,Missouri.htm |archive-date=2015-12-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|-
|[[New Madrid, Missouri|New Madrid]]
|1783, 1789<ref name="New Madrid, 220+ Years">{{cite web |url=http://newmadridmuseum.com/city_history.html |title=New Madrid – 220+ Years Old and Counting |access-date=2014-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102004728/http://newmadridmuseum.com/city_history.html |archive-date=2014-11-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|-
|[[Florissant, Missouri|Florissant]]
|1786
|-
|[[Commerce, Missouri|Commerce]]
|1788
|-
|[[Cape Girardeau, Missouri|Cape Girardeau]]
|1792
|-
|[[Wolf Island, Missouri|Wolf Island]]
|1792
|-
|[[Saint Michel, Missouri|Saint Michel]]
|1799, now part of [[Fredericktown, Missouri|Fredericktown]]
|}
Spanish dominion over the European settlements in Upper Louisiana led to population growth in Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, as a result of French immigration from British-held Illinois and the forced migration of enslaved Africans Americans and Native Americans.<ref name="foley 1989 35">Foley (1989), 35.</ref> Ste. Genevieve continued to suffer from periodic flooding, although during the 1770s its population of 600 made it slightly larger than St. Louis.<ref name="foley 1989 35"/> While the residents of Ste. Genevieve took a balanced approach between fur trading and farming, St. Louisans had a particular focus on fur trading, which led to periodic food shortages and the city's nickname of 'Paincourt', mistakenly understood as 'short of bread' in the historical literature.<ref name="foley 1989 35"/> Robust evidence from the St. Lawrence Valley has shown otherwise, as the same place name is also found in Canada.<ref>Gendreau-Hétu (2021) "St. Louis once was P(a)in-Cour(t) – but was it ever "Short of Bread"?", ''French Colonial History'' 20, 1–28.</ref> South of St. Louis a satellite city known as [[Carondelet, Missouri|Carondelet]] was established in 1767, although it never thrived.<ref name="foley 1989 85">Foley (1989), 85.</ref> A third major settlement was established in 1769, when [[Louis Blanchette]], a Canadian trader, set up a trading post on the northwest bank of the Missouri River, which eventually grew into the town of [[St. Charles, Missouri|St. Charles]].<ref name="foley 1989 87">Foley (1989), 87.</ref>

In 1770 [[Pedro Piernas]] fully replaced St. Ange as administrator of the colony, although he retained the veteran Frenchman as an adviser.<ref name="foley 1989 35"/> Local administrators of Ste. Genevieve also were Spanish-appointed, but frequently were forced to acquiesce to local customs.<ref name="foley 1989 35"/> Throughout the 1770s, Spanish officials were forced to contend not only with the wishes of their predominantly French populations, but also with repeated incursions from British traders and hostile indigenous tribes.<ref name="foley 1989 37-40">Foley (1989), 37–40.</ref>

To reduce the influence of British traders, Spain renewed efforts to encourage French settlers to decamp from Illinois to Missouri, and in 1778, the Spanish offered generous land grants, basic supplies, and access to enslaved African Americans to Catholic immigrants on the east bank of the Mississippi River. However, only a small number of Illinois French pursued settlement across the Mississippi.<ref name="foley 1989 40">Foley (1989), 40.</ref> A second effort by the Spanish against the British found greater success: starting in the late 1770s, the Spanish officials began openly supporting American rebels fighting against British rule in the [[American War of Independence]].<ref name="foley 1989 40-41">Foley (1989), 40–41.</ref> Spanish officials in both St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve were instrumental in supplying [[George Rogers Clark]] during his [[Illinois campaign]] of 1779.<ref name="foley 1989 41">Foley (1989), 41.</ref>

But Spanish aid to the rebels came at a price: in June 1779, Spain declared war on England, and word reached Missouri of the war in February 1780.<ref name="foley 1989 42">Foley (1989), 42.</ref> By March 1780, St. Louis was warned of an impending British attack, and the Spanish government began preparations for a fort at the town, known as Fort San Carlos.<ref name="foley 1989 43">Foley (1989), 43.</ref> In late May, a British war party [[Battle of St. Louis|attacked the town of St. Louis]]; although the town was saved, 21 were killed, 7 were wounded, and 25 were taken prisoner.<ref name="foley 1989 44">Foley (1989), 44.</ref>

After the American victory in its war of independence, the European countries involved negotiated a set of treaties known as the [[Peace of Paris (1783)|Peace of Paris]]. The Spanish, who retained Louisiana, were forced to contend with large numbers of American immigrants crossing into Missouri from the east.<ref name="foley 1989 57">Foley (1989), 57.</ref> Rather than attempt to stifle the immigration of American Protestants, however, Spanish diplomats began encouraging it in an effort to create an economically successful province.<ref name="foley 1989 58">Foley (1989), 58.</ref>
[[File:Unfinished portrait of Daniel Boone by Chester Harding 1820.jpg|thumb|left|upright|American pioneers such as [[Daniel Boone]] with his sons [[Daniel Morgan Boone]], [[Nathan Boone]], and other family members, came to Spanish-controlled Missouri during the 1790s.]]
As part of this effort, in 1789 Spanish diplomats in Philadelphia encouraged [[George Morgan (merchant)|George Morgan]], an American military officer, to set up a semi-autonomous colony in southern Missouri across from the mouth of the [[Ohio River]].<ref name="foley 1989 61">Foley (1989), 61.</ref> Named [[New Madrid, Missouri|New Madrid]], the colony began auspiciously but was discouraged by Louisiana's governor, [[Esteban Rodríguez Miró]], who considered Morgan's infant colony as flawed due to its lack of provisos for ensuring the settlement's loyalty to Spain.<ref name="foley 1989 62">Foley (1989), 62.</ref> New Madrid's early American settlers departed, as did Morgan, and New Madrid became primarily a hunting and trading outpost rather than a full-fledged agricultural city.<ref name="foley 1989 63">Foley (1989), 63.</ref>

Despite Spanish diplomats' efforts, during the early 1790s both Governor Miró and his successor, [[Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet]], were cool toward the idea of American immigration to Missouri.<ref name="foley 1989 77">Foley (1989), 77.</ref> However, with the onset of the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1796–1808)|Anglo-Spanish War]] in 1796, Spain again needed an influx of settlement to defend the region.<ref name="foley 1989 77"/> To that end, Spain offered U.S. settlers, free land, no taxes, and religious freedom in Spanish territory. This offer proved attractive to settlers in Kentucky who could not obtain clear title to land.<ref name="foley 1989 77"/> Settlement in Spanish Missouri also proved attractive to slaveholders in Illinois, where the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 left the status of slavery uncertain. Among these [[American pioneer]]s was [[Daniel Boone]], who settled with his family after encouragement from the territorial governor.<ref name="foley 1989 77"/> In the late 1790s, a significant number of U.S. settlers moved to Spanish Missouri seeking free land, no taxes, and guarantees for slavery. In the 1790s, approximately 1/5 of Missouri's non-Native American population consisted of enslaved African Americans.

To better govern the region of Missouri, the Spanish split the province into five administrative districts in the mid-1790s: St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, [[Cape Girardeau, Missouri|Cape Girardeau]] and New Madrid.<ref name="foley 1989 84">Foley (1989), 84.</ref> Of the five administrative districts, the newest was Cape Girardeau, founded in 1792 by trader [[Louis Lorimier]] as a trading post and settlement for newly arriving Americans.<ref name="foley 1989 91">Foley (1989), 91.</ref> The largest district, St. Louis, was the provincial capital and center of trade; by 1800, its district population stood at nearly 2,500.<ref name="foley 1989 85"/> Aside from Carondelet, other settlements in the St. Louis district included [[Florissant, Missouri|Florissant]], located 15 miles northwest of St. Louis and settled in 1785, and [[Bridgeton, Missouri|Bridgeton]], located 5 miles southwest of Florissant and settled in 1794.<ref name="foley 1989 86">Foley (1989), 86.</ref> All three settlements were popular with immigrants from the United States.<ref name="foley 1989 86"/>

But these American settlers fundamentally changed the makeup of Missouri; by the mid-1790s, Spanish officials realized the American Protestant immigrants were not interested in converting to Catholicism or in serious loyalty to Spain.<ref name="foley 1989 78">Foley (1989), 78.</ref> Despite a brief attempt to restrict immigration to Catholics only, the heavy immigration from the United States changed the lifestyle and even the primary [[Missouri French|language of Missouri]]; by 1804, more than three-fifths of the population were immigrants from the U.S. whether black or white, free or enslaved.<ref name="foley 1989 78"/> With little return on their investment of time and money in the colony, the Spanish negotiated the return of Louisiana, including Missouri, to France in 1800, which was codified in the [[Third Treaty of San Ildefonso|Treaty of San Ildefonso]].<ref name="foley 1989 79">Foley (1989), 79.</ref>

[[File:Bateau (PSF).png|thumb|Most Missourians traveled longer distances by water, and large cargo was transported by [[bateaux]] (shown above).]]
By 1800 the non-Native American population of Upper Louisiana, approximately 20% of whom were enslaved, was primarily concentrated in a few settlements along the Mississippi in present-day Missouri. The majority of land in Missouri was controlled by Native Americans. Travel between towns was by the river. Agriculture was the primary economic activity. Most farming families produced surpluses, which were sold to merchants who shipped foodstuffs downriver to plantation settlements in the Natchez Country and Louisiana. Fur trading, lead mining, and salt making were also significant economic activities for residents during the 1790s. The use of slave labor was central to economic life in Missouri, and perhaps twenty percent of the population was black and enslaved.<ref name="foley 1989 94">Hammond (2012); Foley (1989), 93–97.</ref><ref>Loring Bullard,  "Missouri Salt: The Rise and Fall of a Frontier Industry," ''Missouri Historical Review'' 106 (Jan. 2012), 91–99.</ref>

The settlers in early Spanish Missouri, both black and white, were mostly French-speakers, and the [[Catholic Church]] was a significant part of life.<ref name="foley 1989 102">Foley (1989), 102.</ref> Through 1773, Missouri parishes lacked resident priests, and residents were served by traveling priests from the east side of the Mississippi.<ref name="foley 1989 102"/> During the 1770s and 1780s, both Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis gained resident priests. Protestant services were not allowed in the colony. However, itinerant Protestant preachers frequently visited the settlements in private, and restrictions on Protestant residency were rarely enforced. According to historian William E. Foley, Spanish Missouri lived under a "de facto form of [[religious toleration]]," with few residents demanding rigid orthodoxy.<ref>Foley (1989), 104.</ref>

There was no aristocracy. The highest class was based upon wealth and constituted of a mixed group of creole merchants linked by familial ties. Below them were the artisans and craftsmen of the society, followed by laborers of all types, including boatmen, hunters, and soldiers. At the bottom of the social system were free blacks, servants, and [[coureur des bois]], with enslaved Native Americans and Africans forming the bottom class.<ref name="foley 1989 106">Foley (1989), 106.</ref>

Women in the region were responsible for a variety of domestic tasks, including food preparation and clothing making. French women were well known for their cooking, which incorporated both French staples such as soups and [[fricassee]]s and African and Creole foods such as gumbo. The colonists also ate local meats, including squirrel, rabbits, and bear, although they preferred beef, pork and fowl. Most foods were local, although sugar and liquor were imported until the late Spanish period.<ref>Foley (1989), 108–109.</ref> Malaria particularly affecting low-lying settlements such as Ste. Genevieve.