Editing Tennessee (section)

===Exploration and colonization===
{{Further|Province of North Carolina|Watauga Association|Washington District, North Carolina|State of Franklin|Southwest Territory}}
The first recorded European expeditions into what is now Tennessee were led by Spanish explorers [[Hernando de Soto]] in 1540–1541, [[Tristán de Luna y Arellano|Tristan de Luna]] in 1559, and [[Juan Pardo (explorer)|Juan Pardo]] in 1566–1567.{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=25–26}}{{sfn|Langsdon|2000|pp=4–5}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hudson |first1=Charles M. |last2=Smith |first2=Marvin T. |last3=DePratter |first3=Chester B. |last4=Kelley |first4=Emilia |author1-link=Charles M. Hudson|title=The Tristán de Luna Expedition, 1559-1561 |journal=Southeastern Archaeology |date=1989 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=31–45 |jstor=40712896 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]}}</ref> In 1673, English fur trader [[Abraham Wood]] sent an expedition from the [[Colony of Virginia]] into [[Overhill Cherokee|Overhill Cherokee territory]] in modern-day northeastern Tennessee.{{sfn|Finger|2001|pp=20–21}}{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=27–28}} That same year, a French expedition led by missionary [[Jacques Marquette]] and [[Louis Jolliet]] explored the Mississippi River and became the first Europeans to map the Mississippi Valley.{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=27–28}}{{sfn|Finger|2001|pp=20–21}} In 1682, an expedition led by [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]] constructed [[Fort Prudhomme]] on the [[Chickasaw Bluffs]] in West Tennessee.<ref>{{cite book|last=Keating|first=John M.|author-link=|date=1888|title=History of the City of Memphis Tennessee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nGVAAAAAYAAJ|location=Syracuse, New York|publisher=D. Mason & Company|pages=24–31|id=1104767129|via=Google Books}}</ref> By the late 17th century, French traders began to explore the Cumberland River valley, and in 1714, under Charles Charleville's command, established French Lick, a fur trading settlement at the present location of Nashville near the [[Cumberland River]].{{sfn|Langsdon|2000|p=6}}{{sfn|Albright|1909|pp=18–19}} In 1739, the French constructed [[Fort Assumption]] under [[Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville]] on the Mississippi River at the present location of Memphis, which they used as a base against the Chickasaw during the [[Chickasaw Campaign of 1739|1739 Campaign]] of the [[Chickasaw Wars]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Young|first1=John Preston|last2=James|first2=A.R.|author1-link=John Preston Young|date=1912|title=Standard History of Memphis, Tennessee: From a Study of the Original Sources |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PkpAAAAYAAJ|location=Knoxville, TN|publisher=H. W. Crew & Company|pages=36–41|isbn=9780332019826|via=Google Books}}</ref>

[[File:Ftloudouninterior.jpg|thumb|left|alt=refer to caption|Reconstruction of [[Fort Loudoun (Tennessee)|Fort Loudoun]], the first British settlement in Tennessee]]
In the 1750s and 1760s, [[longhunter]]s from Virginia explored much of East and Middle Tennessee.{{sfn|Finger|2001|pp=40–42}} Settlers from the [[Colony of South Carolina]] built [[Fort Loudoun (Tennessee)|Fort Loudoun]] on the [[Little Tennessee River]] in 1756, the first British settlement in what is now Tennessee and the westernmost British outpost to that date.{{sfn|Finger|2001|p=35}}{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=32–33}} Hostilities erupted between the British and the Cherokees into [[Anglo-Cherokee War|an armed conflict]], and a [[siege of Fort Loudoun|siege of the fort]] ended with its surrender in 1760.{{sfn|Finger|2001|pp=36–37}} After the [[French and Indian War]], Britain issued the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], which forbade settlements west of the [[Appalachian Mountains]] in an effort to mitigate conflicts with the Natives.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Middlekauff |first1=Robert |title=The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-1951-6247-9 |pages=58–60 |edition=Revised Expanded |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nya0ODz-B-cC&pg=PA58 |via=Google Books}}</ref> But migration across the mountains continued, and the first permanent European settlers began arriving in northeastern Tennessee in the late 1760s.{{sfn|Langsdon|2000|p=8}}{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=43–44}} Most of them were [[English Americans|English]], but nearly 20% were [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scotch-Irish]].{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|p=106}} They formed the [[Watauga Association]] in 1772, a semi-autonomous representative government,{{sfn|Finger|2001|pp=45–47}} and three years later reorganized themselves into the [[Washington District, North Carolina|Washington District]] to support the cause of the [[Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War|American Revolutionary War]].{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=60–61}} The next year, after an unsuccessful petition to Virginia, North Carolina agreed to annex the Washington District to provide protection from Native American attacks.{{sfn|Finger|2001|pp=64–68}}

In 1775, [[Richard Henderson (jurist)|Richard Henderson]] negotiated a series of treaties with the Cherokee to sell the lands of the Watauga settlements at [[Sycamore Shoals]] on the banks of the [[Watauga River]]. An agreement to sell land for the [[Transylvania Colony]], which included the territory in Tennessee north of the Cumberland River, was also signed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Henderson|first=Archibald|author-link=Archibald Henderson (professor) |date=1920|title=The Conquest of the Old Southwest: The Romantic Story of the Early Pioneers Into Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, 1740–1790 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=no5BAAAAYAAJ|location=New York |publisher=[[The Century Company]] |pages=212–236|via=Google Books}}</ref> Later that year, [[Daniel Boone]], under Henderson's employment, blazed a trail from [[Fort Chiswell]] in Virginia through the [[Cumberland Gap]], which became part of the [[Wilderness Road]], a major thoroughfare into Tennessee and Kentucky.{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|p=197}} The Chickamauga, a Cherokee faction loyal to the British led by [[Dragging Canoe]], opposed the settling of the Washington District and Transylvania Colony, and in 1776 attacked [[Fort Watauga]] at Sycamore Shoals.{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=65–67}}{{sfn|Satz|1979|p=66}} The warnings of Dragging Canoe's cousin [[Nancy Ward]] spared many settlers' lives from the initial attacks.<ref name="king07">{{cite book|editor-last=King|editor-first=Duane H.|title=The Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake: The Story of a Soldier, Adventurer, and Emissary to the Cherokees, 1756-1765|date=2007|publisher=Museum of the Cherokee Indian Press|location=Cherokee, NC|isbn=9780807831267|page=122|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHr-cf5j0AEC&pg=PA122|access-date=March 28, 2015|via=Google Books}}</ref> In 1779, [[James Robertson (explorer)|James Robertson]] and [[John Donelson]] led two groups of settlers from the Washington District to the French Lick.{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|p=53}} These settlers constructed [[Fort Nashborough]], which they named for [[Francis Nash]], a [[Brigadier general (United States)|brigadier general]] of the [[Continental Army]].{{sfn|Albright|1909|pp=49-50}} The next year, the settlers signed the [[Cumberland Compact]], which established a representative government for the colony called the [[Cumberland Association]].{{sfn|Albright|1909|pp=68-72}} This settlement later grew into the city of Nashville.<ref>{{cite web |title=Founding of Nashville |url=http://www.nashvillearchives.org/nashville-founding.html |website=Nashville Metropolitan Government Archives |publisher=Nashville Public Library |access-date=May 2, 2021}}</ref> That same year [[John Sevier]] led a group of [[Overmountain Men]] from Fort Watauga to the [[Battle of Kings Mountain]] in South Carolina, where they defeated the British.{{sfn|Finger|2001|pp=84–88}}

[[File:Southwest Territory Counties (1790).svg|thumb|left|upright=1.8|alt=Map of the Southwest Territory in 1790|The Southwest Territory in 1790]]
Three counties of the [[Washington District]] broke off from [[North Carolina]] in 1784 and formed the [[State of Franklin]].{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=73–74}} Efforts to obtain admission to the [[Perpetual Union|Union]] failed, and the counties, now numbering eight, rejoined North Carolina by 1788.{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=81–83}} North Carolina ceded the area to the federal government in 1790, after which it was organized into the [[Southwest Territory]] on May 26 of that year.{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=86–87}} The act allowed the territory to petition for statehood once the population reached 60,000.{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=86–87}} Administration of the territory was divided between the Washington District and the Mero District, the latter of which consisted of the Cumberland Association and was named for Spanish territorial governor [[Esteban Rodríguez Miró]].{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=56–57, 90}} President [[George Washington]] appointed [[William Blount]] as territorial governor.{{sfn|Langsdon|2000|pp=16–17}} The Southwest Territory recorded a population of 35,691 in the [[1790 United States census|first United States census]] that year, including 3,417 slaves.{{sfn|Lamon|1980|p=4}}