As early as the 1730's, a few British traders lived among the Chickasaw in this area, but Great Britain's brief ascendancy on the Lower Mississippi did not began until 1763. In that year, the British defeated France in the Seven Years' War and took control of French lands east of the river. The southern part of this area, which included Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi, became British West Florida. To protect this holding, Britain erected Fort Bute on Manchac bend, 115 miles north of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Hoping to control their increasingly independent-minded American colonist, the British outlawed any settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains. With the lower river above Natchez controlled by their fierce Chickasaw allies, Britain did not find it necessary to establish any military post in that region.
The American Revolution and the capture of British West Florida by Spain in 1779 ended their nominal 16-year control of the lower river. Britain's attempt to establish a strategic position in Louisiana at the close of war of 1812 was crushed by Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.
Comments 0 comments