Part I, Chapter VII: The American War of Independe

By the end of 1775, the Thirteen Colonies were in complete and utter revolt against Great Britain. The skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts in April had given the Colonials two early key victories against the British, and the "shot heard 'round the world" had started a course of events that once set in motion could no longer be undone. The British Pyrrhic victory at Bunker Hill in Charlestown had cemented the idea that the Colonies would not win independence in a few short months, and the British besieged Boston until eventually being uprooted by George Washington, the commander of American forces in the northern theater, after his emplacement of artillery on Dorchester Heights in March of 1776. The early victories in the Massachusetts campaign were offset, however, by the defeat of the Colonist's attempts to invade Canada, and despite capturing Montreal, they were unable to take Quebec, and they were forced back into New York in October of 1776.



In July of 1776, the Thirteen Colonies had officially become the United States of America. The young Republic lacked a formal government beyond the Continental Congress, which was little more than elected officials representing all thirteen of the original colonies. Washington and his fellow founders knew, however, that the war would be impossible to win without international assistance, and attempts to become recognized by both France, Spain and the Netherlands quickly went underway. These attempts, however, were in vain, as all three of the nations saw little interest in helping the Colonists in what they perceived as a fool-hardy endeavor with little benefit for intervening. In August of 1776, the British renewed their offensives and invaded Long Island, and was quickly in control of the entirety of New York City by late September. Washington quickly gathered his tattered Army and fled to New Jersey, and the British gave chase, until Washington retreated into Pennsylvania and remained encamped there in December. His quick offensive into New Jersey before the onset of a full New England winter ended in a much needed victory, and by January of 1777 both the Americans and British had gone into winter quarters. In September and October of 1777, the British Army from Canada had been soundly beaten by the Americans at Saratoga, and Washington remained eternally elusive, fighting a battle of delay against the British, attempting to stop their march into Philadelphia. The end of the Northern Front at Saratoga did little to help Washington, however, as he was unable to stop the British advance, and they marched into Philadelphia unopposed in October of 1777. In December of 1777, both armies once again withdrew into winter quarters, with the American forces encamped at Valley Forge, some 20 miles from Philadelphia.



In February of 1778, however, the French had agreed to enter the war, emboldened by the American victory at Saratoga. The British, unable to consolidate their gains in Pennsylvania, and in fear of being cut off from the coast due to French entry into the war, withdrew to New York, and Washington retook Philadelphia as the Americans emerged from Valley Forge in the summer of 1778. Unable to make further progress in New England, the British strategy turned to the southern colonies, where they invaded and captured Savannah, Georgia in December of 1778. By May of 1780, the majority of the American southern front had been shattered, and the British captured Charleston, South Carolina with relative ease, consolidating their gains in the south. The British gave chase to the remnants of the American forces, who had withdrawn to North Carolina, but the Americans were able to defeat a sizable contingent of the armies of the commander of the British forces in the south, Charles Cornwallis, due to the overstretching of British supply lines. Losing momentum, Cornwallis withdrew further north into Virginia, and the Americans quickly recaptured South Carolina and Georgia, although Charleston and Savannah still remained in British hands. By 1781, Cornwallis had realized his situation for further offensive operations in the south was untenable, and unable to withdraw, in June he instead encamped his army and fortified it in the peninsular hamlet of Yorktown, Virginia, and awaited the arrival of the Royal Navy, where his Army would then withdraw and launch more promising offensives elsewhere.



In early September, however, the Royal Navy in North America had been soundly defeated by the French Navy in the Battle of the Chesapeake, and Cornwallis had been trapped in his fortified position by the southern American army. The arrival of Washington's Army from New England and the French Navy in September of 1781 had completely sealed Cornwallis' fate, and he surrendered in October, effectively ending the American War of Independence. Although fighting continued between France, Spain and Great Britain following the surrender of Cornwallis, the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 regardless, and its implementation would formally end the war that same year. The Treaty had changed the spheres of influence in the continent dramatically. The United States, the clear victor, had not only won independence of its Thirteen Colonies, but had also attained the vast expanse of all territory east of the Mississippi River with the exception of Florida, which had been returned to Spain. Great Britain was no longer in any position to negotiate terms following their disastrous defeat at the hands of the Americans in 1781, and the shift in territorial possessions as a result of the Treaty had spared only Canada from the bargaining table out of all their continental settlements. Coupled with little to no British presence west of the Ohio River Valley and the suppression of the Natives living there following Pontiac's War, it was clear the Americans would eventually aim to expand into this territory (as they already had in the 1760's and 1770's even despite the Royal Proclamation of 1763) and British measures to ensure these western territories remained theirs were few and far between, as they saw little benefit in keeping them, nor did they have the means to do so if they desired.



The Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan regions had escaped any change to its demographics that the American War of Independence had brought on the continent, which was contained between New England, Canada and the southern United States. Early settlements from American expeditions into the territories in the 1770's had seen a slight increase in settlers and also the first permanent American residents in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, but at the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, business ventures from New England where these colonists had originated from had ended due to strain on the American economy. Nonetheless, by the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the regions had a combined total of 1,200 settlers, of which roughly 1,000 were French, 150 were of other European origin, and 50 were American. Fort du Luht and Fort Le Sueur on the southwest coast of Lake Superior still remained as the largest settlements in the Upper Midwest, contributing to nearly 50% of these numbers. Prarie du Chien in western Wisconsin had welcomed new settlement in 1781, mostly from French colonists from Green Bay who established several new fur trading posts in the colony. By late 1783, news had reached the settlements that the Colonists had won their independence and were now in control of all territory east of the Mississippi with the exception of Canada. Fort Beauharnois was the only settlement to not undergo a change in governance, as it still rested in Spanish controlled Louisiana, but remained unaffected in light of its strategic irrelevance. Many settlers had followed the events of the war as they unfolded closely, as the majority had supported the American idea of independence, since removal of the British from the continent was in the best interests of the French who resided there, who made up roughly 90% of the population.



Following the adoption of the Constitution of the United States in 1788, the 1789 Northwest Ordinance, signed into law by George Washington, included these regions into the newly founded "Northwest Territory." Most importantly, the Ordinance outlawed slavery in the territories. However, the majority of the settlers inhabiting the regions were permanent fur traders who owned no slaves, and by 1790 the nominal handful of slaveowners in the regions had relocated further west in fear of prosecution from the American government, and the law passed with little affect on the still profitable fur trade. Although the remoteness of the newly acquired territories in many ways prohibited large scale American investment into settlement, they sparked interest to the American government regardless, mostly due to the still increasingly profitable fur trade occurring there, as the United States had accumulated a massive amount of debt during the duration of its war with Britain and any method of stimulating its war torn economy was a welcome idea. As a result, the 1800's would see a sharp renewal in both explorers and expeditions into the Minnesota frontier - most notably one lead by a man named Zebulon Pike.