Part I, Chapter III: Queen Anne's War

As the 17th century neared a close, the 18th century brought forth new challenges across the North American continent. The War of Spanish Succession as it was referred to in Europe or Queen Anne's War as it was referred to in the New World had started in 1702, and would drastically change the political spectrum and sphere of influence in both Europe and most importantly in northeastern North America. Due to France's reallocation of assets to fight the British in Europe and Acadia, their ability to continue the fur trade in Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota took a backseat to what was perceived as a much larger threat. This allowed private enterprise to instead march forward, and for lack of a better option, the French Kingdom was unable to refute, and by the early 18th century any new fur trading outposts and forts established in the frontier had been done primarily through private enterprise, although some were still subsidized and encouraged directly from the French government itself. These new "entrepreneurs," however, were few and far between. By the start of Queen Anne's War, even the famous Jean Nicolet (who had established Green Bay in 1634) had passed due to age, and very few of the old explorers of the new frontier remained. Louis Hennepin was nearly 80 years in age and after his published works was content on spending the rest of his days in a relatively calmer manner. Sieur de La Salle, after he laid claim to the Louisiana Territory in the name of the King, spent the rest of his days exploring Louisiana until his men mutinied, and he was slain by one of his own men in present day Texas. Only one, Sieur du Lhut, remained.



Sieur du Lhut, after exploring the sharp edge of Lake Superior and northern Minnesota, negotiating the peace between the Ojibwa and Sioux and saving Father Hennepin from likely execution in the 17th century, returned to the Wisconsin area in 1685 after winning a near-constant year long bout with gout. His journeys were also cut short due to accusations of treason, which required him to return to France in order to clear his name and be acquitted. However, prior to his return to the New World, he was able to obtain several permits from the French government, which allowed him an appropriation of funds to build new fur trading posts and forts in the Minnesota territory, which had gone relatively undeveloped in comparison to the Wisconsin frontier. Du Lhut, even despite nearing 65 years, traveled back to the edge of Superior, where he was greeted in a friendly manner by the Ojibwa and Sioux who still inhabited the area. He and his expeditionary party built Fort Dakota, a fur trading site, from permission of the Natives, and spent the rest of his career managing it in old age. Upon Sier du Lhut's passing in 1710 at Fort Dakota after a reappearance of gout, the Fort was renamed Fort du Lhut in his honor.



Sier du Lhut's passing, however, did not go in vain. Fort du Lhut was extremely lucrative in its trade, and by his passing in 1710 had over 50 permanent settlers and 200 seasonal traders, rivaling the numbers of even the Green Bay settlement. As the first permanent European settlement in the Minnesota territory, Fort du Lhut, much like the Green Bay trading post, became a stepping stone for future settlement into Minnesota. Pierre-Charles Le Sueur also traveled to the du Lhut settlement in 1701 after an unsuccessful venture to find mineral ore in the southern Sioux countries. At first believing to find copper, Le Sueur took his samples to Fort du Lhut in an effort to analyze it further, but instead found it worthless. After befriending du Lhut prior to his death, Le Sueur was promised the rights to du Lhut's fur trading permits in the event of du Lhut's passing, and upon the reappearance of his gout, this seemed inevitable. After his death in 1710, Le Sueur established two other forts in relative proximity to the settlement in search of possible iron ore in the region, Fort Le Sueur and Fort Pilante, before he also passed to illness in 1711.



As the 1710's came to a close, however, the fur trade began to feel the first effects of European "efficiency" in Wisconsin. Overhunting as a result of the introduction of firearms to the Natives had dire consequences to the "fur fever" that was once so economically lucrative in the late 16th century. The Green Bay colony and its surrounding fur trading posts felt the full effects of the shortage of pelts in this region. The Fox nation that had traveled from Ontario and now inhabited the southeastern portions of Wisconsin had widely depended on the trade of currency and goods in order to stabilize their people, and the absence of pelts highlighted this necessity. The Sioux and Ojibwa, however, regarded this trade as only a commodity, as they had long before introduced subsistence farming in the area. Slowly, tensions began to build in the Upper Midwest, and the inability of French traders to quell the Fox people's anger over the issue did little to ease the imminent future conflict. The tensions only became higher as the French asserted their claims to the Mississippi River and began to expand towards the Fox River, which the Fox natives controlled.



As the War of Spanish Succession faded in Europe as per the Treaties of Utrecht, Rastatt and Baden, so too did the war fade in North America. Its affects in Europe, however, were far reaching. As a result of the British victory in the war, the French settlements of Acadia and Newfoundland in eastern Canada were ceded to Great Britain, but most importantly the contested land of York Factory and Manitoba were also renounced. This pushed French settlement effectively back into the regions of Wisconsin and Minnesota, where they were forced to negotiate with an increasingly hostile and angry native population who were now finding it difficult to provide for their growing populations. In the Twelve (later Thirteen) Colonies, it also lead to an increase in taxation in order to repay the heavy economic toll in the war, which most (with the exception of the colonists, of course) regarded as a trivial issue.