KANSAS BECOMES A PART OF THE UNITED STATES
=The French.= While the Spaniards were searching for wealth in the
southern part of North America the French were trading with the
Indians in the northern part along the St. Lawrence River and around
the Great Lakes. Among the French were many Catholic priests, called
Jesuits, who came to carry their religious faith to the Indians. In
1673, one of these Jesuits, Father Marquette, accompanied a trader
named Joliet on an expedition to explore the Mississippi River. They
launched their canoes on the great river and floated downstream for
hundreds of miles, between shores that in some places were thickly
wooded, and in others were grassy plains. They went as far south as
the mouth of the Arkansas River, and then turned and began the long,
hard task of paddling back.
=La Salle and Louisiana, 1682.= Among those who heard of the journey
of Marquette and Joliet was a young Frenchman, La Salle. He planned to
explore the whole Mississippi basin and to take possession of it in
the name of the King of France. In 1682, with a few companions, he
floated down the Mississippi to its mouth. Here, with much ceremony,
they planted a cross, buried a leaden plate inscribed with the arms of
France, and declared that all the land drained by the Mississippi
River and its tributaries should belong to France, and should be named
Louisiana in honor of the French King, Louis XIV. Thus in 1682, nearly
two centuries after the discovery of America, Kansas came into the
possession of the French.
=The End of Spanish and French Explorations.= The French soon planted
a few colonies and forts along the Mississippi River and sent out
explorers, some of whom may have entered the present bounds of Kansas.
This roused the Spaniards in Mexico, who wished to hold the territory
for Spain, and they also sent expeditions. The armies of both nations
suffered severely at the hands of the Indians and the exploration of
the Kansas country was given up by both Spain and France, and for
nearly a century more it lay almost forgotten. The next exploration of
this territory was by people of another nation.
=The English.= While the Spaniards were busy in the South and the
French in the North, another people, the English, began to make
explorations in the new continent. They did not come to hunt for gold,
nor to trade with the Indians, but to found homes. They settled along
the Atlantic coast between the French in Canada and the Spaniards in
Florida, and claimed the country westward to the Pacific Ocean.
=Conflict of French and English Claims.= As time went on and the
settlements increased in number, the claims of the French and the
English conflicted and caused much strife between the colonies of the
two countries. The question of the ownership of the land was not
settled until the close of the French and Indian War in 1763. As a
result of this war France gave up all her claims in America,
practically everything east of the Mississippi to England, and that
west of it to Spain. In 1800 Spain ceded her portion of America back
to France.
=The Louisiana Purchase, 1803.= In the meantime the English colonies
had fought the Revolutionary War and become an independent nation. In
1803, when Thomas Jefferson was President, the United States bought
from France her tract of country lying west of the Mississippi River.
This was known as the Louisiana Purchase, and the date is one to be
remembered, for it marks the end of French claims in America, and it
marks the time when what is now Kansas became a part of the United
States.[2]
=One Century More.= More than three centuries of American history had
passed and the country west of the Mississippi River remained
unsettled and practically unknown. The Spaniard and the Frenchman had
come and gone, but the Indian still hunted the buffalo on the
prairies. The white man had not yet made his home in the Kansas
country.
SUMMARY
Spain explored in the South in search of wealth, France in
the North to trade in furs with the Indians, and England
along the coast between these two to establish homes. Spain
claimed the Kansas country because of the exploration by
Coronado, France through the claims of Marquette and La
Salle, and England through the ocean-to-ocean claim. None of
the nations succeeded in accomplishing anything here, and
the Kansas country was left alone for nearly a century after
it came into the possession of France. At the close of the
French and Indian War the country west of the Mississippi
was ceded to Spain. Later it came again into the hands of
France, and was purchased by the United States in 1803.
REFERENCES
Elson, History of the United States, pp. 161, 384.
Fiske, Discovery of America, vol. II, chap. XII.
Foster, A History of the United States.
Prentis, History of Kansas, pp. 24-40.
Parkman, La Salle and the Great West.
Spring, Kansas, pp. 19-20.
Historical Collections, vol. IX, p. 250; vol. X, p. 336.
Wilder, Annals of Kansas, pp. 15-18.
QUESTIONS
1. Who were the Jesuits? What can you say of Marquette? Joliet?
La Salle?
2. Contrast the motives of the French and Spanish in coming to
America.
3. Why did the English come to the New World?
4. What territory was claimed by the French? By the Spanish? By
the English?
5. To what nations did what is now Kansas successively belong?
How and when did it first become a part of the United States?
How long was this after the discovery of America?