Missouri, state, United States: French Exploration and Settlement

Missouri's recorded history begins in the latter half of the 17th cent. when the French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet descended the Mississippi River, followed by Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, who claimed the whole area drained by the Mississippi River for France, calling the territory Louisiana. When the French explorers arrived the area was inhabited by Native Americans of the Osage and the Missouri groups, and by the end of the 17th cent. French trade with the Native Americans flourished.

In the early 18th cent. the French worked the area's lead mines and made numerous trips through Missouri in search of furs. Trade down the Mississippi prompted the settlement of Ste. Geneviève about 1735 and the founding of St. Louis in 1764 by Pierre Laclede and René Auguste Chouteau, who were both in the fur-trading business. Although not involved in the last conflict (1754–63) of the French and Indian Wars, Missouri was affected by the French defeat when, in 1762, France secretly ceded the territory west of the Mississippi to Spain. In 1800 the Louisiana Territory (including the Missouri area) was retroceded to France, but in 1803 it passed to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

French influence remained dominant, even though by this time Americans had filtered into the territory, particularly to the lead mines at Ste Geneviève and Potosi. By the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition (1803–6), St. Louis was already known as the gateway to the Far West.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• World War I to the Present
• Slavery, Civil War, and a New Missouri
• Territorial Status and Statehood
• French Exploration and Settlement
• Government, Politics, and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures
• Bibliography

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