Between the 1673 journey of Jolliet and Marquette and 1763, the French exerted colonial influence in the Illinois Country, an area that connected France's Canadian province with Louisiana, and that is shown in this geographically inaccurate 1795 map. At the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, France surrendered all of its North American claims. Britain had conquered Canada; Spain received Louisiana. The Illinois Country, although nominally part of Britain's holdings, was far from its control, except through the influence it exerted through the fur trade. As a part of the 1795 Greenville Treaty, the American government took land at sixteen strategic locations, including Chicago. Not until the end of the War of 1812, however, did the government begin to exert control over the region that would become Chicago.

Thomas Valentine
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-14169)