Abstract
The territory west of the Allegheny Mountains and east of the Mississippi was under the dominion of several nations. Marquette (1673) and La Selle (1669 ~ 1682) by their voyages on the Great River gave France her claim to this part of North America. By the Treaty of Paris, 1763 Great Britain secured Florida and all the region east of the Mississippi except the marshy lowlands south of the Iberville where the city of New Orleans now stands. Great Britain also obtained from France the right for its citizens to navigate the river throughout its extent. France in 1763 gave the land west of the Mississippi and New Orleans to Spain. The possession by Spain of the land at the mouth of the river was the beginning of the Mississippi Question. Spain’s desire at the beginning, during, and after the close of the Revolutionary War, to extend her holdings east of the river led to fifteen years of struggle and diplomacy between the governments of the United States and Spain.