Ohio
French explorers from Canada reached the Ohio River in the late 17th century, establishing French presence in the region known as the Ohio Country. Britain conquered the area from France in the French and Indian Wars, and the region served as part of the British Province of Quebec through the Revolutionary War. The United States gained the territory through the Treaty of Paris of 1783, and Congress established it as the Northwest Territory in 1787 through the Northwest Ordinance. Following American victory in the Northwest Indian Wars, Ohio was admitted to the Union as the 17th state on March 1, 1803.
Pre-contact era
Before European contact, Native Americans speaking Algonquin languages inhabited Ohio and the central midwestern United States for hundreds of years, until displaced by the Iroquois in the latter part of the 17th century. Other cultures not generally identified as 'Indians', including the Hopewell 'mound builders', preceded them. Human history in Ohio began a few millennia after formation of the Bering land bridge about 14,500 BCE.
Colonial history
French presence was primarily exploratory and commercial; by the mid-18th century a few American and French fur traders engaged historic Native American tribes in present-day Ohio in the fur trade. There were a handful of French colonial settlements remaining 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.
The Northwest Territory was the nation's first post-colonial organized incorporated territory. Conflicts between settlers and Native American inhabitants resulted in the Northwest Indian War, culminating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which opened the way for settlement particularly in southern and western Ohio. Connecticut retained a Western Reserve in the northeastern portion, which it sold to the Connecticut Land Company.
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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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