Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
War Of The Wabash Confederacy

War of the Wabash Confederacy

The Northwest Indian War (1785–1795), often known as Little Turtle's War in older reference works, was a war fought between the United States and a large confederation of Native Americans ("Indians") for control of the Old Northwest, which ended with a decisive U.S. victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. As a result of the war, territory including much of present-day Ohio was ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Although often regarded as one of the seemingly self-contained Indian Wars that occurred throughout early American history, the Northwest Indian War was actually part of long frontier struggle in the Ohio Country that included the French and Indian War (1754–1763), Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1764), Lord Dunmore's War (1774) and the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Indeed, for many Native American communities, these wars were part and parcel of a single war that spanned several generations. For example, historian Francis Jennings suggested that the Northwest Indian War was, for the Delaware (Lenape) people, the end of a Forty Years' War that began soon after the Braddock Expedition in 1755. For some American Indians, the conflict would be resumed a generation later with Tecumseh's War (1811) and the War of 1812 (hence the term Sixty Years' War) and come to an end in the era of Indian Removal.

Parties to the Indian confederacy

Note: in most cases, an entire "tribe" or "nation" was not involved in the war; Native American societies were not centralized, and involvement in warfare was decided on a village or even individual basis.
- Huron/Wyandot
- Shawnee
- Council of the Three Fires
  - Potawatomi
  - Ottawa
  - Ojibwe
- Delaware
- Miami
- Six Nations of the Grand River
  - Mohawk
  - Cayuga
  - Onondaga
  - Seneca
  - Tuscarora
  - Oneida
- Kickapoo
- Kaskaskia Some bands of Choctaws and Chickasaws, southern tribes traditionally unfriendly with the Indians of the Northwest, served as scouts for the Americans in the war.

Context of the War

Co-operation among the nations forming the Confederacy had gone back to the French colonial era and was renewed during the American Revolutionary War. The Treaty of Paris (1783) had given the United States government control, on paper, of all the land east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes; but the Native American nations actually living in this region were not party to the talks. And while the British Crown had suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Yorktown (1781), there had been no decisive defeat for their Native American allies in the west. Furthermore, the British remained in possession of the Great Lakes forts through which they continued to supply their Native American allies with trade items (including weapons). Finally, Congress sought to stabilize the dollar and pay down its war debt through the sale of western lands under Native American occupation. The Land Ordinance of 1785 gave encouragement to land speculators, surveyors, and so on, who sought to gain Native American land - sometimes through bribery or deceit - for resale to European settlers. Congress had negotiated the Treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1785 to acquire most of the eastern portion of the Ohio Country. However Connecticut settlers were already streaming into the Western Reserve which extended into the reservation set aside for the tribes. Conflict soon broke out between the two sides.

History of the Conflict

The Wabash Confederacy first came together in the autumn of 1785 at the British fortress at Detroit, proclaiming that the parties to the Confederacy would deal jointly with the United States, rather than individually. This determination was renewed in 1786 at the village of the Hurons, where the Confederacy further insisted on the Ohio River as the boundary between their lands and those of the American settlers. The Hurons were the nominal "fathers" or senior guaranteeing nation of the Confederacy, but Shawnees and Miamis provided the greatest share of the fighting force. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 gave Native Americans title, under US law, to enjoy whatever lands had not been taken from them, but it continued to encourage the influx of US settlers beyond the Ohio. Localized engagements between those settlers and Native Americans continued to rage. the failure of the 1789 Treaty of Fort Harmar to address underlying grievances between the two sides exacerbated the problems and made widespread conflict inevitable. In 1790, the US government launched a major western offensive. Under Josiah Harmar, the Americans burnt Kekionga, the main village of the Miamis, but were ambushed by Confederates under Little Turtle and fell back. The governor of the Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair, was given command of a second offensive in 1791. St Clair built a number of forts along the same general route as Harmar had taken, but at a battle at what is now Fort Recovery, Ohio, Confederates from the Shawnee, Delaware, and Huron nations among others ambushed the Americans and killed many hundreds of them. St Clair withdrew in defeat. "Mad Anthony" Wayne was given command of the new Legion of the United States late in 1793. He advanced into Indian country and built Fort Recovery on the site of St Clair's defeat. In June 1794 Little Turtle again led the attack on the Americans at Fort Recovery, but without success, and Wayne's Legion advanced deeper into the territory of the Wabash Confederacy. Blue Jacket replaced Little Turtle in overall command, but could not prevent the Native American's defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794. Fleeing from the battlefield to regroup at the British-held Fort Miamis, Blue Jacket's forces found that the British had locked them out of the fort. The British and Americans were reaching a close rapprochement at this time to counter Jacobin France. Two treaties in 1795 sealed the new state of affairs. The Treaty of Greenville required the Confederates to cede most of Ohio and a slice of Indiana to the US; to recognize the US, rather than Britain, as the suzerain powers in the Old Northwest; and to give ten chiefs to the US as hostages until all prisoners were returned in guarantee. Jay's Treaty, which had already been signed, provided for the British withdrawal from the western forts.

Key figures

For the US


- George Washington, President of the United States
- Henry Knox, Secretary of War
- Josiah Harmar, general
- Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, major general
- Anthony Wayne, major general

For the Indian confederacy


- Little Turtle (Miami)
- Blue Jacket (Shawnee)
- Buckongahelas (Lenape)
- Roundhead, aka Stayeghtha (Wyandot)
- Egushawa (Ottawa)

References


- Dowd, Gregory Evans. A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University, 1992.
- Jennings, Francis. The Founders of America. New York: Norton, 1993.
- Sugden, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
- Sword, Wiley. President Washington's Indian War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1790-1795. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.
- White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. Cambridge University Press, 1991. Category:Northwest Indian War Category:Wars of the United States

1785

1785 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 1 The first issue of the Daily Universal Register, later known as The Times, is published in London.
- January 7 - Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.
- January 27 The University of Georgia founded
- July 6 - The dollar is unanimously chosen as the money unit for the United States. This is the first time a nation has adopted a decimal coinage system.
- August 1 - Fleet of French explorer Jean Francois de Galoup, count la Përouse leaves Paris for circumnavigation
- August 15 - Cardinal de Rohan is arrested in Paris - the necklace affair comes into open
- November – Drought in Haiti
- University of New Brunswick founded in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
- Coal gas first used for illumination
- Louis XVI of France signs to a law that a handkerchief must be square
- British government establishes a permanent land force in the Eastern Caribbean, based in Barbados

Births


- January 4 - Jakob Grimm, German philologist, folklorist, and writer (d. 1863)
- January 4 - Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (d. 1831)
- February 10 - Claude-Louis Navier, French engineer and physicist (d. 1836)
- March 27 - Louis XVII of France (d. 1795)
- April 4 - Bettina von Arnim, German poet (d. 1859)
- April 26 - John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (d. 1851)
- May 18 - John Wilson, Scottish writer (d. 1854)
- July 6 - William Jackson Hooker, English botanist (d. 1865)
- August 15 - Thomas de Quincey, English writer (d. 1859)
- August 23 - Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (d. 1819)
- November 18 - David Wilkie, Scottish artist (d. 1841)

Deaths


- January 3 - Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (b. 1706)
- January 19 - Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar and critic (b. 1713)
- January 23 - Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician (b. 1717)
- April 14 - William Whitehead, English writer (b. 1715)
- May 8 - Etienne Francois, Duke of Choiseul, French statesman (b. 1719)
- June 2 - Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, French mathematician (b. 1713)
- June 30 - James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (b. 1696)
- August 17 - Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (b. 1710)
- August 26 - George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (b. 1716)
- August 28 - Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (b. 1714)
- October 4 - David Brearly, delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention (b. 1703)
- November 18 - Louis Philip I, Duke of Orléans, French soldier and writer (b. 1725)
- November 19 - Bernard de Bury, French composer (b. 1720)
- November 25 - Richard Glover, English poet (b. 1712)
- December 29 - Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian author (b. 1742) Category:1785 ko:1785년 ms:1785 simple:1785

1795

1795 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 16 - French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands.
- January 20 - French troops enter Amsterdam and later proclaim Batavian Republic.
- January 21 - Dutch fleet freezed in IJsselmeer is captured by French 8e Hussard.
- February 7 - The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.
- April 7 - France adopts the metre as the unit of length.
- April 8 - The Marriage of King George IV of the United Kingdom to Caroline of Brunswick.
- Spring - Kamehameha I of the Island of Hawaii defeats the Oahuans at the Battle of Nu'uanu Valley, solidifying his control of the major islands of the archipelago.
- May 15 - First Coalition: Napoleon I of France enters Milan in triumph.
- May and June - The Battle of Richmond Hill in the colony of New South Wales between the Darug people and British Colonial Forces.
- June 8 - Dauphin, would-be-Louis XVII dies.
- June 28 - French government announces that the heir to the French throne has died of illness - many doubt the statement.
- June 27 - British forces land of Quiberon to aid the revolt in Brittany.
- June 27 - French troops recapture St. Lucia.
- July 15 - The Marseillaise officially adopted as the French national anthem.
- August 3 - The signature of the Treaty of Greenville puts an end to the Northwest Indian War.
- October 1 - Austrian Netherlands annexed to the French Republic as the "Belgian departments."
- October 5 - Royalist riots in Paris are crushed by troops under Paul Barras and newly reinstalled artillery officer Napoleon Bonaparte.
- October 27 - The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which established the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S.
- Sweden becomes the first monarchy to recognize the French Republic.
- City of Edmonton, Alberta founded when a Hudson's Bay Company Trading Post is established with the construction of Fort Edmonton.
- Third Partition of Poland
- Failed harvest in Munich
- Large slave rebellion in Curaçao
- Spain cedes its half of Hispaniola to France.
- December 13 A meteorite fell at Wold Newton, a hamlet in Yorkshire in England. This meteorite fall was subsequently used as a literary premise by the science fiction writer Philip José Farmer as the basis for the Wold Newton family stories. See: Wold Newton meteorite.

Ongoing events


- French Revolution (1789-1799)
- French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802) First Coalition

Births


- February 3 - Antonio José de Sucre, Venezuelan revolutionary leader, general and statesman (d. 1830)
- May 19 - Johns Hopkins, American philanthropist (d. 1873)
- May 23 - Charles Barry, English architect (d. 1860)
- September 16 - Saverio Mercadante, Italian composer (d. 1870)
- October 15 - King Frederick William IV of Prussia (d. 1861)
- October 31 - John Keats, English poet (d. 1821)
- November 2 - James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States (d. 1849)
- November 12 - Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (d. 1856)
- December 4 - Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer and historian (d. 1881)
- December 10 - Matthias W. Baldwin, American locomotive manufacturer (d. 1866)

Deaths


- January 3 - Josiah Wedgwood, English potter (b. 1730)
- January 21 - Samuel Wallis, English navigator
- January 26 - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (b. 1732)
- March 4 - John Collins, American politician (b. 1717)
- March 21 - Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (b. 1714)
- April 12 - Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (b. 1710)
- May 7 - Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1746)
- May 19 - Josiah Bartlett, signer of the American Declaration of Independence (b. 1729)
- June 1 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (b. 1744)
- June 8 - King Louis XVII of France (b. 1785)
- July 3 - Louis-Georges de Bréquigny, French historian (b. 1714)
- July 3 - Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish general and governor of Louisiana (b. 1716)
- July 9 - Henry Seymour Conway, British general and statesman (b. 1721)
- August 4 - Timothy Ruggles, American-born Tory politician (b. 1711)
- August 31 - François-André Danican Philidor, French composer and chess player (b. 1726)
- October 8 - Andrew Kippis, English non-conformist clergyman and biographer (b. 1725)
- October 10 - Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, Italian theologian and historian (b. 1714)
- November 15 - Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, French painter (b. 1719)
- December 23 - Henry Clinton, British general (b. 1730) Category:1795 ko:1795년 ms:1795

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Old Northwest

:For other geographical names that use the term Northwest, see Northwest. Northwest The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and the Territory North West of the Ohio, was a government and region within the early United States. Passed by the Continental Congress on July 13,1787, the Northwest Ordinance provided for the administration of the territories and set rules for admission as a state. On August 7, 1789, the U.S. Congress affirmed the Ordinance with slight modifications under the Constitution. The territory included all the land of the United States west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River. It covered all of the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as the eastern part of Minnesota. The area covered more than 260,000 square miles (673,000 km²)

History

European exploration of the region began with French fur traders in the seventeenth century. The French explorer Jean Nicolet was the first recorded entry into the region in 1634. The French exercised control from a number of widely separated posts throughout the region. France ceded the territory to Britain in the Treaty of Paris (1763) which ended the French and Indian Wars. However, facing armed opposition by Native Americans (see Pontiac's Rebellion), the British issued the Proclamation of 1763 which prohibited white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in an attempt to appease the Native Americans. But this action angered American colonists interested in expansion and was a contributing factor to the American Revolution. Britain ceded the area north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachians to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War with the Treaty of Paris (1783), but the British continued to maintain a presence in the region for many years. In the Jay Treaty of 1795, British subjects agreed to leave the Great Lakes region, but that treaty was never fully implemented. The United States' claim to the region was not fully realized until the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. Several states (Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut) had competing claims on the territory. Other states, such as Maryland, refused to ratitify the U.S. Constitution so long as these states were allowed to keep their western territory, fearing that those states could continue to grow and tip the balance of power in their favor under the proposed system of federal government. As a concession in order to obtain ratification, these states ceded their claims on the territory to the U.S. government: New York in 1780, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1785. So the majority of the territory became public domain land owned by the U.S. government. Virginia and Connecticut reserved the land of two areas to use as compensation to military veterans: The Virginia Military District and the Connecticut Western Reserve. In this way, the United States included territory and people outside any of the states. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established a standardized system for surveying the land into saleable lots, although Ohio had already been partially surveyed several times using different methods, resulting in a patchwork of land surveys in Ohio. The rest of the Northwest Territory was divided into roughly uniform square townships and sections, which facilitated land sales and development. Difficulties with Native American tribes and with British trading outposts presented continuing obstacles for American expansion until military campaigns of Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne against the Native Americans culminated with victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the Treaty of Greenville of 1795. Jay's Treaty in 1794 temporarily helped to smooth relations with British traders in the region, where British citizens outnumbered American citizens throughout the 1780s. Ongoing disputes with the British over the region was a contributing factor to the War of 1812. Britain irrevocably ceded claim to the Northwest Territory with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. When the territory was created, it was inhabited by about 45,000 Native Americans and 2,000 traders, mostly French and British. Officially, American settlement began at Marietta, Ohio on April 7, 1788. Arthur St. Clair formally established the government on July 15, 1788 at Marietta. His original plan called for the organization of five initial counties: Washington (Ohio east of the Scioto River), Hamilton (Ohio between the Scioto and the Miami Rivers), Knox (Indiana), St. Clair (Illinois and Wisconsin), and Wayne (Michigan). In 1800 the Indiana Territory was carved out, reducing the Northwest Territory to the size of Ohio, to prepare for statehood. The Northwest Territory went out of existence when Ohio was admitted as a state on March 1, 1803.

Law and government

Main article: Northwest Ordinance At first the territory had a modified form of martial law. The governor was also the senior army officer within the territory and he combined legislative and executive authority. But, a supreme court was established, and he shared legislative powers with the court. County governments were organized as soon as the population was sufficient, and these assumed local administrative and judicial functions. Washington County was the first of these, at Marietta in 1788. Hamilton County at Cincinnati followed in 1790. (These areas later became part of Ohio.) As soon as the number of settlers exceeded 5,000 the Territorial Legislature was to be created, and this happened in 1798. The full mechanisms of government were put in place, as outlined in the Northwest Ordinance. A bicameral legislature consisted of a House of Representatives and a Council. The first House had 22 representatives, two elected by each district (county at the time). The House then nominated 10 citizens to be Council members. The nominations were sent to the U.S. Congress, which appointed five of them as the Council. This assembly became the legislature of the Territory, although the Governor retained veto power. Article VI of the Articles of Compact within the Northwest Ordinance prohibited the owning of slaves within the Northwest Territory. However, territorial governments evaded this law by use of indenture laws[http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/publications/terrslavery.html]. The Articles of Compact prohibited legal discrimination on the basis of religion within the territory. The township formula created by Thomas Jefferson was first implemented in the Northwest Territory through the Land Ordinance of 1785. The square surveys of the Northwest Territory would become a hallmark of the midwest, as sections, townships, counties (and states) were laid out scientifically and land was sold quickly and efficiently (although not without some speculative aberrations).

Leadership

Arthur St. Clair was the Territory's only governor. The original supreme court was made up of John Cleves Symmes, James Mitchell Varnum, and Samuel Holden Parsons. There were three Secretaries: Winthrop Sargent (July 9, 1788-May 31, 1798); William Henry Harrison (June 29, 1798-December 31, 1799); and Charles Willing Byrd (January 1, 1800- January 15, 1803). In 1798 the territory became eligible to send a non-voting member to the U.S. Congress. The Assembly elected this representative. Representatives were:
- William Henry Harrison 1799-1800
- William McMillan 1800-1801
- Paul Fearing 1801-1803

See also


- Northwest Ordinance
- Northwest Indian War
- State cessions
- Southwest Territory
- Illinois-Wabash Company
- Zane's trace

External links


- [http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/5.htm Text of the Northwest Ordinance]
- [http://www.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/northwest/exjournal The Territory's Executive Journal] Category:Historical regions and territories of the United States Category:Michigan history Category:Indiana history Category:Ohio history Category:Illinois history Category:Wisconsin history

Battle of Fallen Timbers

The Battle of Fallen Timbers (August 20, 1794) was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between American Indians and the United States for control of the Northwest Territory. The battle, which was a decisive victory for the United States, ended major hostilities in the region until "Tecumseh's War" and the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.

Background

An Indian confederacy—one of the strongest Native American alliances to date—had achieved major victories over the United States in 1790 and 1791, alarming the administration of President George Washington. In 1792, Washington called upon Revolutionary War veteran General "Mad Anthony" Wayne to build and command a new army. Wayne believed the previous expeditions against the Indians had failed because of the poor training and discipline, and so he began rigorous preparations. Wayne had plenty of time to train his new army, as peace negotiations were undertaken in the summer of 1793. The Americans sought to confirm possession of lands north of the Ohio River that they had claimed from Great Britain after victory in the American Revolutionary War. Indeed, the Americans were already moving into the Ohio lands. However, Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket and Delaware (Lenape) leader Buckongahelas, encouraged by their recent victories over the United States and the hope of continued British sponsorship, pressed for the Ohio River boundary line established by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768; they rejected subsequent treaties that had ceded lands north of the Ohio River to the United States. A faction of Indians led by the influential Mohawk leader Joseph Brant attempted to negotiate a compromise, but Blue Jacket and his allies would accept nothing less than an Ohio River boundary, which the United States refused.

Battle

Wayne's new army, the Legion of the United States, marched north from Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio) in 1793, building a line of forts along the way. Wayne commanded more than 3,000 men, with some Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians serving as scouts. Blue Jacket's army took a defensive stand along the Maumee River (not far from present-day Toledo, Ohio), near a number of uprooted trees ("fallen timbers") that had been leveled by a tornado or heavy storm. They reckoned that the trees would hinder the advance of the army, if they came. Nearby was Fort Miamis, a British outpost from which the Indian confederacy received provisions. The Indian army, about 1,500 strong, consisted of Blue Jacket's Shawnees and Buckongahelas's Delawares, Miamis led by Little Turtle, Wyandots, Ojibwas, Ottawas, Potawatomis, Mingos, and even some Canadian militia. The battle did not last long. Not only were the Indians greatly outnumbered—many were getting provisions from the fort when the battle began—they were also outflanked by American cavalry. The Indians were quickly routed, and fell back to Fort Miamis, only to find the gates closed. The British commander, not authorized to start a war with the Americans, refused to give shelter to the fleeing Indians. The American troops destroyed Indian villages and crops in the area, and then withdrew. Each side lost about 40 men. The defeat of the Indians led to the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which ceded much of present-day Ohio to the United States, paving the way for the creation of that state in 1803. One veteran of Fallen Timbers who did not sign the Greenville treaty was a young Shawnee war leader named Tecumseh, who would renew Indian resistance in the years ahead.

References


- Sudgen, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
- Sword, Wiley. President Washington's Indian War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest, 1790-1795. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985.

External links


- [http://www.fallentimbersbattlefield.com/fallentimbers The Fallen Timbers battlefield today]
- [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/ohc/history/h_indian/events/bfallen.shtml Ohio History Central] Fallen Timbers Category:Ohio history

1794

1794 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events


- February 11 - 1st session of the United States Senate is open to the public.
- March 14 - Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
- March 27 - The United States Government authorized the building of the first six United States Navy vessels (in 1797 the first three frigates, USS United States, USS Constellation and USS Constitution went into service), not to be confused with October 13, 1775 which is observed as the [http://www.history.navy.mil/birthday.htm Navy's Birthday].
- Apri