Editing Kaskaskia, Illinois (section)

===French settlement===
In 1703, [[French people|French]] [[Jesuit]] missionaries established a mission with the goal of converting the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] to [[Catholicism]]. The congregation built its first stone church in 1714. The French also had a [[fur trading]] post in the village.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archTheBicentennial/Symposium2001/Papers/Faherty_FrWilliam. "Father William Faherty Papers"], Symposium 2001, National Park Service, accessed April 14, 2010.</ref> [[Canadien]] settlers moved in to farm and to exploit the lead mines on the opposite side of the river (now in [[Missouri]]).
 
Favorably situated on a peninsula on the east side of the Mississippi River, Kaskaskia became a large settlement center attracting a large proportion of the region's Native American population. It became the capital of [[Upper Louisiana]] and the French built [[Fort de Chartres]] nearby in 1718. In the same year they imported the first [[Atlantic slave trade|enslaved Africans]], shipped from [[Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic|Santo Domingo]] in the Caribbean, to work as laborers in the [[lead]] [[Mining|mines]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Wedel, Mildred Mott |title= Claude-Charles Dutisne: A Review of His 1719 Journeys |journal=Great Plains Journal |volume= 12 |issue=1 |date=Fall 1972 |pages=4–25}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Wedel, Mildred Mott |title=Claude-Charles Dutisne: A Review of His 1719 Journeys |journal=Great Plains Journal |volume=12 |issue=2 |date=Winter 1973 |pages=147–173}}</ref>

In the years of early French settlement, Kaskaskia was a multicultural village, consisting of a few French men and numerous [[Illinois Confederation|Illinois]] and other [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indians]]. In 1707, the population of the community was estimated at 2,200, the majority of them Illinois who lived somewhat apart from the Europeans. Writing of Kaskaskia about 1715, a visitor said that the village consisted of 400 Illinois men, "good people"; two [[Jesuit]] missionaries, and "about twenty French [[voyageurs]] who have settled there and married Indian women."<ref>Norall, Frank. ''Bourgmont, Explorer of the Missouri'', 1698-1725.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. p. 107</ref> Of 21 children whose birth and baptism was recorded in Kaskaskia before 1714, 18 had mothers who were Indian and 20 had fathers who were French. One devout Catholic, full-blooded Indian woman disowned her [[mixed-race]] son for living "among the savage nations".<ref>Ekberg, Carl J. ''French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times'', Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000. pp. 153-154</ref>

Many of the [[Canadiens]] and their descendants at Kaskaskia became voyageurs and [[coureurs des bois]], who would explore and exploit the [[Missouri River]] country for fur trading. The Canadiens had the goal of trading with all the Prairie tribes, and beyond them, with the [[Spanish people|Spanish]] colony in [[New Mexico]]. The Spanish intended to keep control of the latter trade. The Canadien goals stimulated the expedition of [[Claude Charles Du Tisne]] to establish trade relations with the [[Plains Indians]] in 1719.

[[File:Kaskaskia Bell 3321.jpg|thumb|right|The bell donated by King Louis XV in 1741, later called the "Liberty Bell of the West", after it was rung to announce the U.S. victory in the Revolution]]
King [[Louis XV]] sent a [[Kaskaskia Bell State Memorial|bell]] to Kaskaskia in 1741 for its church, one of several constructed there.<ref name="ChurchVisitorsGuide">[http://www.greatriverroad.com/stegen/randattract/kaskchurch.htm "Visitors' Guide: Immaculate Conception Church"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090825142937/http://www.greatriverroad.com/stegen/randattract/kaskchurch.htm |date=2009-08-25 |df=mdy-all}}, Great River Road, accessed November 9, 2009.</ref> During the years of French rule, Kaskaskia and the other agricultural settlements in the [[Illinois Country]] were critical for supplying [[Lower Louisiana]], especially [[New Orleans]], with [[wheat]] and [[maize|corn]], as these staple crops could not be grown in the Gulf climate. Farmers shipped tons of flour south over the years, which helped New Orleans survive.

The French settlers raised [[Fort Kaskaskia]] around 1759; the fort stood atop the bluff that overlooked the frontier village.[1] "Fort Kaskaskia" is not technically a "fort", but an earthen redoubt. Frontier settlers throughout Woodland North America often built such redoubts for defense during times of threat from Native Americans.

In 1763, the French ceded the Illinois country, including Kaskaskia and the redoubt, to Great Britain after being defeated in the Seven Years' War (known as the French and Indian War on the North American front). The British did not use the redoubt but from 1766 through 1772, maintained a rotating detachment of around 25 men under a junior officer, from Fort de Chartres. They used the Jesuit compound as their base.

Rather than live under British rule after France ceded the territory east of the river, many French-speaking people from Kaskaskia and other colonial towns moved west of the Mississippi to [[Ste. Genevieve, Missouri|Ste. Genevieve]], [[St. Louis]], and other areas. In May 1772, when the British abandoned Fort de Chartres, Kaskaskia continued to survive as a primarily French-speaking village on the Mississippi River frontier.