Illinois Territory

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Illinois Territory Map (1809-1818)

The Illinois Territory was a historic territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809 through December 3, 1818. At that time, part of this territory was separated and incorporated into the Union as the 21st federal state . The name of this new state was Illinois . The territorial capital was Kaskaskia .

history

The area later known as the Illinois Territory was formerly the Illinois Country and was under French control, first as part of French Canada and later as part of Louisiana . With the Paris Treaty of 1763 , the British took control of the region and put an end to the French and Indian wars. During the later American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) General (later Colonel) George Rogers Clark took ownership of all of Illinois Country on behalf of Virginia , which gave rise to the "County of Illinois". It was an attempt to at least symbolically exercise authority over the area. However, Virginia ceded almost all of its claims to territory north of the Ohio River to meet objections from surrounding states.

The nascent Illinois Territory was once part of the great Northwest Territory that existed from July 13, 1787 to July 4, 1800, when the Indiana Territory was created as a result of the establishment of the State of Ohio . On February 3, 1809, the 10th United States Congress passed laws creating the Illinois Territory. It was the result of a multitude of petitions from residents of the westernmost areas to Congress complaining of their difficulties in territorial affairs.

The Illinois Territory originally included the areas of today's states of Illinois, Wisconsin , the eastern part of Minnesota and the western part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan . After the state of Illinois was established, the remainder of the territory was annexed to the Michigan Territory ; thus the Illinois Territory ceased to exist.

The original boundaries of the territory were defined as follows:

"... all that part of the Indiana Territory which lies west of the Wabash river, and a direct line drawn from the said Wabash river and Post Vincennes, due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada ..."
"... the entire part of the Indiana Territory, which lies west of the Wabash River and a direct line of said Wabash River and Post Vincennes to the north to the territorial border between the United States and Canada ..."

See also

Web links

Commons : Illinois Territory  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files