How is it that we had to purchase territory from France, if the British colonist

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   Lady Guinevereposted 10 years ago

   How is it that we had to purchase territory from France, if the British colonists here here first?
   
   I was watching Aerial America lst night that was on the Dakota territory and we had to purchase the land from France.  If we were here first then how is it that we had to purchase the land from France?  They had to have had it first.  So how did they get here before the British?

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   dahoglundposted 10 years ago

   Different parts of what is now the United States were  settled by different counties.France had claimed much territory that was explored by French explorers, fur traders etc. Spain and the Conquistadors claimed much of the Southwest. The English claimed New England and so forth. This is vastly oversimplified and sort of leaves out various folks who were here already.

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      Rod Marsdenposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree dahoglund different parts of what is now the USA were first settled by different European powers. Doesn't Los Angeles sound Spanish? San Francisco also Spanish? Baton Rouge  sounds French. Orleans is a city in France hence New Orleans...

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      Lady Guinevereposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Rod and Dahoglund, I appreciate your additions to this question.  Yes, lots of places sound like they are Fr. & Spanish.  Much around here is American Indian.

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   Ericdierkerposted 10 years ago

   A Dutchman bought Manhattan. Spanish, French and Mexicans owned the land my home is on. And that was living next to Native Americans for a long time. I think a whole lot of this land was actually bought from the Holy See in some form or another.
   Where I grew up the Homestead title was bought from Paiute peoples.
   
   New Orleans was bought from Napoleon for 3 million and the rest for 15 million ---- and hence Lewis and Clark.
   (Napolean sold it to fund a war -- typical)

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      Lady Guinevereposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, he would do that as far as history tells us of him.  Sounds kind of familiar with what is going on the int Middle East and our very own Military Generals. Put it this way..we need no other country's oil.

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   junksellerposted 10 years ago

   The French where very active early explorers of the continent. Jacques Cartier was the 'first' to explore and map the St. Lawrence River and surrounding lands and claimed them for France.
   
   The first successful settlements on the continent included a couple of French ones at Port Royal (1605) and Quebec (1608). The first successful British colony was Jamestown (1607).
   
   From Quebec, France extended its influence along the St. Lawrence River and into the Great Lakes region and eventually further west to include land which is now the Dakotas, Minnesota, etc. Part of this territory is what was bought by the US in the Louisiana Purchase.

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      Lady Guinevereposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for all that information.  I am now wondering what we were taught in school and are they teaching all the right things now.

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      MizBejabbersposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Lady G. I think that is a big concern right now. We have so much history that is being rewritten for political correctness. I don't think this is the right thing to do. We need to know our history, warts and all.

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      Lady Guinevereposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      MizB, I got some information a while ago that they now say that Columbus did NOT discover the North America.  I also have read that the Viking were the first.  I just wonder what the correct info is and are we being taught something else??

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   alancaster149posted 10 years ago

   Louisiana and Florida were Spanish terrirories like Texas and everywhere west of that and as far up on the west coast as Oregon. The Spaniards sold off the territory named by the French as Louisiana after their king at the time, and Florida (the territory kept its Spanish name under new ownership).
   British territory only went down the east coast as far as Georgia and as far in as West Virginia. Land west of that between the Mississippi and Missouri were French held. After the former British colonies were granted their independence (sooner than bleed us dry here), we took on the French in Quebec and with military and technological advantages over the French (including copper-bottoming our ships to combat the growth of barnacles).
   The saga doesn't end there, the business about the Alamo, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie etc., and the Spanish territories between Louisiana and California being gradually taken by American settlers.
   We got Canada and raided Washington DC as a result of attacks on the colony named York after the end of the war against Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815.

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      Lady Guinevereposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for all that information. Interesting about the copper bottom boats.  I never heard of that.

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      alancaster149posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Barnacles reduced the speed of ships, the growths interrupting the flow of water against ships' keels. Copper-bottoming was introduced in the late 18th Century, thus we out-sailed and out-manoeuvred  the French who hadn't yet - or never experimented

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      Lady Guinevereposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yes I could understand this.  Thanks for the added information.

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   Old-Empresarioposted 10 years ago

   The French entered North America at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River at the modern-day New Brunswick/Quebec part of Canada. Their colonists traveled up the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. They explored up the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico and colonized up and down the watersheds of the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio Rivers (which are all connected). The French once claimed control of all land in eastern Canada, the Great Lakes, today's states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan; as well as all land west of the Mississippi as far as the Rockies.
   
   The British colonized the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Georgia and slowly pushed west. The French lost Canada and the Ohio River region to Britain in the 1760s. To keep their western lands out of British hands, France gave them to Spain. Later, Spain was coerced by Napoleon of France to give the western lands to France so that he could sell them to the now-independent US of the eastern seaboard and Appalachia.

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