Robert La Salle, a French fur trader, had in 1682 claimed all lands west of the Appalachian mountains to belong to France, with the knowledge that “Illinois are lands to which one has only to put the plow.” The lands of the Midwest were extremely virtuous, so LaSalle claimed them for France. This subsequently left colonial America, a fast-growing settlement, void of expansion options. With their population prodigiously growing from 200,000 in 1700 to 2.5 million in 1775 and doubling every generation, the early settlers were running quickly out of space. To add insult to injury, 92% of all colonists at the time were still on farms. This predicament left the Americans angry at the French, but also frustrated at the British government for not helping
Robert La Salle, a French fur trader, had in 1682 claimed all lands west of the Appalachian mountains to belong to France, with the knowledge that “Illinois are lands to which one has only to put the plow.” The lands of the Midwest were extremely virtuous, so LaSalle claimed them for France. This subsequently left colonial America, a fast-growing settlement, void of expansion options. With their population prodigiously growing from 200,000 in 1700 to 2.5 million in 1775 and doubling every generation, the early settlers were running quickly out of space. To add insult to injury, 92% of all colonists at the time were still on farms. This predicament left the Americans angry at the French, but also frustrated at the British government for not helping