Editing Vermont (section)

===Colonial===
[[File:ConstitutionHouse WindsorVermont.JPG|thumb|The [[Old Constitution House]] at [[Windsor, Vermont|Windsor]], where the [[Constitution of the Vermont Republic|Constitution of Vermont]] was adopted on July 8, 1777]]
[[File:The Green Mountain Boys Flag.jpg|right|thumb|A c.1775 flag used by the [[Green Mountain Boys]]]]
In 1609, [[Samuel de Champlain]] led the first European expedition to [[Lake Champlain]]. He named the lake after himself and made the first known map of the area. The land that is now Vermont remained part of New France until 1763.

The French had a military presence around Lake Champlain, since it was an important waterway,<ref name="nps">{{cite web |title=Fort St. Frederic |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/explorers/sitec45.htm |access-date=March 16, 2023 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref> but they did very little colonization. In 1666, they built [[Fort Sainte Anne (Vermont)|Fort Sainte Anne]] on [[Isle La Motte]] to defend Canada from the [[Iroquois]]. It was abandoned by 1670.<ref name="desany">{{cite journal |last1=Desany |first1=Jessica |date=2006 |title=Enshrining the Past: The Early Archaeology of Fort St. Anne, Isle La Motte, Vermont |url=https://www.vtarchaeology.org/wp-content/uploads/v7_ch3_reduced.pdf |journal=The Journal of Vermont Archaeology |volume=7 |access-date=March 16, 2023}}</ref> A short-lived settlement existed at Pointe à l'Algonquin, now Windmill Point, [[Alburgh (town), Vermont|Alburgh]]. A village with a church, saw mill and fifty huts existed at the present site of [[Swanton (town), Vermont|Swanton]]. Much of the eastern shore of Lake Champlain was mapped out with [[Seignory|seigniories]], but settlers were unwilling to populate the area, possibly because of continual warfare and raiding there.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crockett |first=Walter |title=A History of Lake Champlain |publisher=Hobart J Shanley & Co. |year=1909 |location=Burlington, Vermont |pages=58–63}}</ref>

The English also made unsuccessful attempts to colonize the area in the 1600s. In 1724, they built [[Fort Dummer]] near what is now [[Brattleboro, Vermont|Brattleboro]], but it remained a small and isolated outpost, often under attack by the Abenaki.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fort Dummer |url=https://vtstateparks.com/fortdummer.html |publisher=Vermont State Parks |access-date=March 16, 2023}}</ref>

With the 1763 [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]], France ceded its claims east of the [[Mississippi River]] to the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]], making the area more attractive to settlement.<ref name="Colin Gordon Calloway-2006">{{cite book |author=Colin Gordon Calloway |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XtxG369-VHQC&pg=PA99 |title=The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780198041191 |page=99}}</ref> At the same time, New England was overcrowded; new land was needed for settlement.<ref name="vhe">{{cite web |title=The New Hampshire Grants |url=https://vermonthistoryexplorer.org/the-new-hampshire-grants |website=Vermont History Explorer |access-date=March 16, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> The territory west of the [[Connecticut River]] was the last unsettled part of New England, and both the [[Province of New Hampshire]] and the [[Province of New York]] laid claim to it.<ref name="Rife-1929" />

In 1749, New Hampshire governor [[Benning Wentworth]] began to auction land in an uncolonized area between Lake Champlain and the [[Connecticut River]].<ref name="landrigan">{{Cite web |last=Landrigan |first=Leslie |date=January 3, 2014 |title=Benning Wentworth Grabs the King's Masts, Along With Vermont |url=https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/gov-benning-wentworth-grabs-kings-masts-vermont/ |access-date=March 21, 2023 |website=New England Historical Society |language=en-US}}</ref> This area became known as the [[New Hampshire Grants]]. This westward expansion was started to increase New Hampshire's tax base and claim the timber there, [[Pinus strobus|White Pine]] in particular.<ref name="landrigan" />

There were eventually 135 [[New Hampshire Grants]]. The first of Benning Wentworth's grants included a town named after himself: [[Bennington, Vermont|Bennington]]. A typical town, it was {{Convert|6|sqmi|km2|abbr=}}, contained 48 lots, with land set aside for a school, a church, and a town center.<ref name="start-town" /> Five hundred acres of the best land was kept by Wentworth for later resale.<ref name="freeman">{{cite web |last1=Freeman |first1=Castle |title=Benning Wentworth |date=November 2004 |url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2004/11/benning-wentworth.html |publisher=Harvard Magazine |access-date=March 21, 2023}}</ref>

Settlers came from across New England, and were obliged to "Plant and Cultivate Five Acres of Land" within five years.<ref name="start-town">{{cite web |url=https://vermonthistoryexplorer.org/starting-a-town |publisher=Vermont History Explorer |title=Starting a Town|access-date=March 21, 2023}}</ref> Some settlers kept to the agreement and started farms. Others, like [[Ethan Allen]], did not. They wanted to sell the land for profit.<ref name="Colin Gordon Calloway-2006" /> Those who purchased New Hampshire Grants ran into disagreements with New York, which began selling off the same land as [[land patent]]s.<ref>{{cite web |title=The New York Patents |url=https://vermonthistoryexplorer.org/the-new-york-patents |access-date=March 21, 2023 |publisher=Vermont History Explorer |language=en}}</ref>

In 1764, [[King George III]] proclaimed the territory to be under the jurisdiction of New York, which meant that the New Hampshire Grant landowners did not have legal title.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=The Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society |title=The Green Mountain Insurgency|date=Fall 1996 |volume=64 |issue=4 |page=217 |url=https://vermonthistory.org/journal/misc/GreenMountainInsurgency2.pdf |access-date=March 16, 2023}}</ref> Meanwhile, New York continued selling large tracts of land, many of which overlapped with those already inhabited.<ref>{{cite web |title=New Hampshire Grants |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/New-Hampshire-Grants |publisher=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=March 21, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> The dispute led to [[Ethan Allen]] forming the [[Green Mountain Boys]], an illicit militia that attacked New York settlers and speculators through arson and mob violence.<ref name="Rife-1929">{{Cite journal |last=Rife |first=Clarence W. |date=1929 |title=Ethan Allen, an Interpretation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/359168 |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=561–584 |doi=10.2307/359168 |jstor=359168 |issn=0028-4866}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Freedom & Unity: The Green Mountain Boys |url=https://vermonthistory.org/freedom-unity-green-mountain-boys/ |publisher=Vermont Historical Society |access-date=March 16, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Green Mountain Boys {{!}} United States history {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Green-Mountain-Boys |access-date=March 21, 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> They eventually repelled the New Yorkers, and went on, with [[Benedict Arnold]], to fight in the [[American Revolutionary War]], where they captured [[Fort Ticonderoga]] from the British.