The things we do!

It is to be remembered, too, let me say again, that, while England held
control of one half of the Mississippi Valley for twenty years after 1763,
and Spain of the other half for twenty more, the occupation was hardly
more than nominal. Indeed, the English king, George III, in 1763 forbade
colonization--as Louis XIV at one time had wished to prevent it--beyond
the Alleghany Mountains without his special permission, and, moreover, it
was hardly more than ten years after the titular transfer to England that
the colonists declared themselves independent. As for the Spanish
sovereign, delaying five years in sending a representative to take over
the government of his unprofitable half of the wilderness, he had no need
to make a decree forbidding settlement. There were no eager settlers.
What virtually happened, therefore, was that the pioneers of France gave
the valley not to England, not to Spain, not even to the American-English
colonists, but to the pioneers of the young republic, who, whatever their
origin, were without European nationality.


Pages:
177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201