Editing Illinois Country (section)

==Location and boundaries==
[[File:Claude Bernou Carte de lAmerique septentrionale.jpg|thumb|1681 map of the New World: [[New France]] and the [[Great Lakes]] in the north, with a dark line as the [[Mississippi River]] to the west and the mouth of the river (and future New Orleans) then ''[[terra incognita]].'' The ''Pays des Illinois'' is the area to the southwest of the Great Lakes.]]
The boundaries of the Illinois Country were defined in a variety of ways, but the region now known as the [[American Bottom]] was nearly at the center of all descriptions. One of the earliest known geographic features designated as ''Ilinois'' was what later became known as [[Lake Michigan]], on a map prepared in 1671 by French [[Jesuits]]. Early French missionaries and traders referred to the area southwest and southeast of the lake, including much of the upper Mississippi Valley, by this name. ''Illinois'' was also the name given to an area inhabited by the [[Illiniwek]]. A map of 1685 labels a large area southwest of the lake ''les Ilinois''; in 1688, the Italian cartographer [[Vincenzo Coronelli]] labeled the region (in Italian) as ''Illinois country.'' In 1721, the seventh military district of Louisiana was named ''Illinois''. It included more than half of the present state, as well as the land between the [[Arkansas River]] and the line of [[43rd parallel north|43 degrees north]] latitude, between the [[Rocky Mountains]] and the Mississippi River. A royal ordinance of 1722—following the transfer of the Illinois Country's governance from Canada to Louisiana—may have featured the broadest definition of the region, making it coterminous with Upper Louisiana: all land claimed by France south of the Great Lakes and north of the mouth of the [[Ohio River]], including both banks of the Mississippi as well as the lower [[Missouri River Valley|Missouri Valley]].<ref name="Ekberg-French Roots" /> In 1723, the area around the [[Wabash River]] became a separate district.

A generation later, trade conflicts between Canada and Louisiana led to a more defined boundary between the French colonies; in 1745, Louisiana governor general [[Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnial|Vaudreuil]] set the northeastern bounds of his domain as the [[Wabash River|Wabash]] valley up to the mouth of the [[Vermilion River (Wabash River tributary)|Vermilion River]] (near present-day [[Danville, Illinois]]); from there, northwest to [[Starved Rock State Park|''le Rocher'']] on the [[Illinois River]], and from there west to the mouth of the [[Rock River (Mississippi River)|Rock River]] (at present-day [[Rock Island, Illinois]]).<ref name="Ekberg-French Roots" /> Thus, [[Vincennes, Indiana|Vincennes]] and [[Peoria, Illinois|Peoria]] were near the limit of Louisiana's reach; the outposts at [[Ouiatenon]] (on the upper Wabash near present-day [[Lafayette, Indiana]]), [[Chicago|Checagou]], [[Fort Miami (Indiana)|Fort Miami]]s (near present-day [[Fort Wayne, Indiana]]) and [[Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin|Prairie du Chien]] operated as dependencies of Canada.<ref name="Ekberg-French Roots" />

This boundary between Canada and the Illinois Country remained in effect until the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1763, after which France surrendered its remaining territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. (Although British forces had occupied the "Canadian" posts in the Illinois and Wabash countries in 1761, they did not occupy Vincennes or the Mississippi River settlements at Cahokia and Kaskaskia until 1764, after the ratification of the peace treaty.<ref name=Hamelle-StdHistWhiteCounty>{{cite book|last1=Hamelle|first1=W.H.|title=A Standard History of White County, Indiana|date=1915|publisher=Lewis Publishing Co.|location=Chicago and New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/standardhistoryo02hame/page/n486 12]|url=https://archive.org/details/standardhistoryo02hame|access-date=29 November 2014}}</ref>) As part of a general report on conditions in the newly conquered lands, Gen. [[Thomas Gage]], then commandant at [[Montreal]], explained in 1762 that, although the boundary between Louisiana and Canada was not exact, it was understood that the upper Mississippi above the mouth of the Illinois was in Canadian trading territory.<ref name="Consitutional Documents-Gage1762">{{cite book|editor1-last=Shortt|editor1-first=Adam|editor2-last=Doughty|editor2-first=Arthur G.|title=Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791|date=1907|publisher=Public Archives Canada|location=Ottawa|page=72|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ioEAAAAIAAJ|access-date=29 November 2014}}</ref>

Distinctions became somewhat clearer after the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1763, when Britain acquired Canada and the land claimed by France east of the Mississippi and Spain acquired Louisiana west of the Mississippi. Many French settlers moved west across the river to escape British control.<ref name=Carriere1939 /> On the west bank, the Spanish also continued to refer to the western region governed from [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] as the ''District of Illinois'' and referred to St. Louis as the ''city of Illinois''.<ref name="Ekberg-French Roots" />