john law attempted to colonize the mississippi river valley for france.
john law attempted to colonize the mississippi river valley for france.
who attempted to colonize the mississippi river valley for france?
john law
the first european settlement in arkansas was arkansas post, established in 1686 by henri de tonti. the post disbanded for unknown reasons in 1699 but was reestablished in 1721 in the same location. located slightly upriver from the confluence of the arkansas river and mississippi river, the remote post was a center of trade and home base for fur trappers in the region to trade their wares. the french settlers mingled and in some cases even intermarried with quapaw natives, sharing a dislike of english and chickasaw, who were allies at the time. a moratorium on furs imposed by canada severely affected the post's economy, and many settlers began to move out of the mississippi river valley. scottish banker john law saw the struggling post and attempted to entice settlers to emigrate from germany to start an agriculture settlement at arkansas post, but his efforts failed when law-created mississippi bubble burst in 1720. the french maintained the post throughout this time mostly due to its strategic significance along the mississippi river. the post was moved back further from the mississippi river in 1749 after the english with their chickasaw allies attacked, it was moved downriver in 1756 to be closer to a qua-paw defensive line that had been established, and to serve, as an repent, or trading post, during the seven years' war and prevent attacks from the spanish along the mississippi. after the war ended, the post was again moved upriver out of the floodplain in 1779 .
history of arkansas
the history of this portion of the upper mississippi river actually dates back to an origin "as an ice-marginal stream during what had been referred to as the “nebraskan glaciation.”" current terminology would place this outdated and abandoned period in the pre-illinoian stage. the level of erosion often exposes cambrian limestone of about 510 million years of age. evidence from soil borings and recent lidar imagery in the lower wisconsin river valley in the driftless area suggests that the river in the valley used to flow towards the east, rather than its present westerly course towards its confluence with the mississippi river. this has lead to the new hypothesis that the ancient upper mississippi river (also named the wyalusing river) at one time flowed east through the current wisconsin river valley and into the great lakes/saint laurence river system somewhere near the door peninsula. the hypothesis posits that the flow of the ancient wyalusing river was ultimately captured by the ancestral mississippi river to the south when that river eroded through the military ridge near wyalusing state park, possibly as a result of an ancient ice sheet in a previous continental glaciation blocking the wyalusing river to the east. the resulting proglacial lake would have filled the wyalusing river valley until it overtopped the military ridge, ultimately carving through the ridge and draining the lake. this resulted in the ancient upper mississippi river changing course and flowing south towards the gulf of mexico as it does currently instead of east into the saint lawrence river and the north atlantic ocean. the stream capture hypothesis for the upper mississippi river would have created a substantial diversion of water from the great lakes basin and the saint lawrence river, reducing the inflow of fresh water into the north atlantic with possible impacts to ocean currents and climate.
driftless area