Several motivating factors were behind the development of the French colony in North America, New France. First, the French government—and private investors—wished to profit economically from this colony. It soon became clear that the most important way that they could exploit the resources of the continent was through the fur trade. Second, they hoped to locate usable mineral resources like lead, silver, or copper. Third, the Catholic Church and missionaries from both the Jesuit and Recollect communities were eager to convert Native Americans to Christianity.
And finally, the French wanted to find a route to the Pacific Ocean to facilitate trade with China and the rest of Asia, which was already a valuable market for European trade. It was this final goal—discovering a route to the Pacific or the Western Sea, as the French sometimes called it—that was a prime motivator for the first documented European visitor to what is today Indiana, René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. As he explored this territory, La Salle proposed to establish forts that would facilitate the trade in furs and bring income.
In 1679, La Salle—who had come to North America in 1667—had managed to gain permission from Louis XIV to explore a vast area of North America to the south and west of the Great Lakes, between the Spanish possessions of Mexico and Florida. His trip would take place on water: he set out with his party in August of 1679 and after heading south in Lake Michigan, built a small fort—Fort Miami, named for the Native people who were resident in the region—at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, at present St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Michigan.
To head toward points west and south, they proceeded upstream on the St. Joseph and, near today’s South Bend, Indiana, portaged to the Kankakee River. The trip down the Kankakee took them through the Great Kankakee Marsh (today drained) and then to the Illinois River. At a spot on the Illinois River, likely near present-day Peoria, he and his men built the small Fort Crèvecoeur and spent the winter there, but La Salle then returned to Fort Frontenac (today’s Kingston, Ontario, Canada). After another drama-filled trip down the Kankakee to the Illinois River in 1680, La Salle set out west and south yet again with a party of some 40 people in 12 to 15 canoes, leaving the mouth of the St. Joseph River in December 1681.
It is on this trip that he and his party reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, and on April 9, 1682, La Salle declared, in the name of King Louis XIV, that he was taking possession of “this country of Louisiana,” including the entire Mississippi drainage from the mouth of the Ohio River south, with all of the territory’s “nations, cities, streams, and rivers.” Of course, this did not take into account the territorial rights of any of the many Native peoples living in this vast area nor their point of view as to who possessed what. But the stage was set for the division of the colony of New France into two administrative districts—Canada and Louisiana—which would become official in the first decades of the 18th century. What is today central and southern Indiana would be part of the administrative district called Upper Louisiana by the French.
Indiana Pages