Indiana
Indiana entered recorded history in the 1670s when the first Europeans claimed the territory for the Kingdom of France, with the region forming part of the Pays d'en Haut. After France was defeated in the French and Indian War, the territory passed to the Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the Province of Quebec in 1763, remaining under British control through the American Revolutionary War. Following Britain's defeat, the region was ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris of 1783 and organized as part of the Northwest Territory in 1787, then as Indiana Territory from 1800. On December 11, 1816, President James Madison signed the congressional act that formally admitted Indiana to the Union as the nineteenth state.
Pre-contact era
Indiana was inhabited by migratory tribes of Native Americans as early as 8000 BC. Tribes succeeded one another in dominance for several thousand years, reaching their peak of development during the period of the Mississippian culture. At the time of the Northwest Territory's creation, the land was home to several Native American cultures, including the Lenape (also Delaware), Miami, Potawatomi, Shawnee, and others.
Colonial history
France ruled for a century with little settlement in this area. The Pays d'en Haut was established in 1610 and depended on the colony of Canada until 1763. There were a handful of French colonial settlements remaining in the region at the time of the Northwest Territory's creation.
Throughout the Revolutionary War, the region was part of the British Province of Quebec and the western theater of the war. Britain held the land for more than twenty years after France's cession.
The Northwest Territory was reduced to present-day Ohio and some additional lands north and east on July 4, 1800, and ceased to exist March 1, 1803, when Ohio was admitted to the Union and the remainder attached to Indiana Territory.
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State history content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Historic sites data: National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
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