 Chicago was a typical frontier settlement  Dirty fur trappers, wealthy speculators, and fugitives  Animals wandered on dirt roads  French outdoorsmen, British colonists, and Native Americans

 Chicago passed from French control, to British authority, and finally to American control (30 years)  Chicago started to look like and Anglo- American town by the early 1800s for the first time  Britain hoped to weaken the French so they engaged them in a war around the world  In America the war was know as the French and Indian War

 Britain defeated France in the war in 1763 and took control of Chicago and surrounding area  Chicago was a low priority of the British b/c it was a dirty, small, and swampy place  When the newly formed country, the U.S.A., defeated the British in 1783 everything from the Ohio river Valley to the Mississippi River was won by the U.S.A.  In the 1780s Illinois had about 1,000 white settlers

 Non-native first: Jean Baptiste Pointe Du sable  Most likely was a mulatto of French and Hatian ancestry  Believed to be very well-educated  Built large house, store, and barn along the Chicago River and present-day Mich. Ave.

 Chicago was officially surrendered by the Potawatomi in 1795 after their defeat of Fallen Timbers (Treaty of Greenville)  Ft. Dearborn was built at present-day Wacker Dr.and Mich.Ave. in 1803  The order to build was give by Pres. Thomas Jefferson to show the British and Natives that America intended on protecting the region  Chicago was now transforming from a local gathering place/frontier settlement into an American town.