The Founding of Detroit
In the 18th century, the Detroit River and the surrounding areas were one community. There were no borders. Families lived on both sides of the river for access to the water, with the vast majority living just outside of Fort Detroit or Fort Pontchartrain, which was established by Antoine Laumet de Lamonthe Cadillac in 1701. Detroit's foundations are a part of the international politics of late 17th-century Europe. In 1699, Cadillac returned from Canada to Paris—he hoped to obtain royal permission to found a new settlement along the Detroit River between Lake Erie and Lake Huron. Cadillac's proposal including the strategic necessity of the location and the value of Detroit's position for the fur trade. In 1700, Cadillac finally persuaded the king’s minister of marine, Jérôme Phélypeaux Comte de Pontchartrain, to authorize a settlement in "le detroit" or "the strait" connecting Lakes Erie and Huron.
Cadillac's proposal detailed several reasons as to why the foundation of a settlement in that region would be crucial to French success in the New World. In making his argument to the French King, Louis XIV, Cadillac emphasized the military aspect and stategic necessity of the settlement; however, French policy also depended on the price of fur and the influence of the Jesuit missionaries in the region.
Whenever war with England was imminent or declared, the French government routinely sought to harass the British colonies in North America by both expanding its Canadian territory and by supporting aggression against the British by France's Indian allies. In times of peace, however, the government in Paris was far less likely to promote expansion or support Indian aggression. Although it was less common, Paris occasionally curtailed Canadian expansion and Indian aggression to avoid the "minor provocations" against the English that increasing the territory of New France would inevitably entail.
When fur prices were high, there was great economic incentive, voiced by the French trading community, to expand the number of pelts taken by pushing farther into the Great Lakes region. The consequences of expanding the fur trade went beyond national concerns because senior French government officials, both in Canada and Paris, fully expected to gain personally from this trade. However, when the market was flooded with furs, the incentive shifted to harvesting animals from a more limited area in order to cut back on supply. Thus the market price of furs greatly influenced the opinions of the French government's ministers regarding expansion.
Finally, the Jesuits, who felt it their special mission to convert the Indians to Catholicism, consistently opposed the expansion of French military and particularly French economic activity in Canada. They believed the "corrupting" presence of fur traders among the Native Americans, and especially their promiscuous use of liquor, made "God's work" far more difficult. To further the conversion of Native Americans to Catholicism, the Jesuits used their influence at the French court to establish or maintain policies intended to keep fur traders in a limited area to ensure that they had minimal contact with the native population.
Cadillac made sure to address strategic directives in his proposal. French military policy at the time was dependant on the state of affairs in mainland Europe. Colonial policy tended to reflect this as it shifted back and forth between expansion and containment of colonial assets in Canadian territory. In peacetime, France was less likely to pursue a policy of expansion. Since the prospect of war with Britain was looming over the settlement of the Spanish Succession, Louis XIV approved the venture, determined to put his grandson on the throne in Spain. The outpost at Detroit would be advantageous and offer a useful defensive position and an advanced post from which to supply raiding parties to attack the British colonials. With control of traffic on the river, the French could effectively control trade from Lake Huron to Lake Erie. The French now saw an advantage in reestablishing a garrison in the straits area. Thus, despite the opposition of traders, who opposed the economic implications of Cadillac's plan, and the Jesuits, who simply opposed the idea in principle, Cadillac received royal authority to found Detroit and through it control the river for France's benefit. The fort was finally built where the river was about half a mile wide and deemed defensible.
When Cadillac had served as commander of Fort Michilimackinac from 1694 to 1699, he had profited substantially from the fur trade. Thus, when documents were drawn up for his new settlement, Cadillac took care to be appointed both commandant of the soldiers and seigneur of the settlement. When his flotilla of 25 ships arrived from Montreal, the chosen post for the fort rested on the narrowest part of the river, on a high point, unfettered by islands, meaning that it was easily defensible and accessible. The first complete building at the settlement was St. Anne's Catholic Church. Cadillac—as seigneur—had the authority to appropriate and grant land parcels to settlers. In 1707, he awarded land parcels that extended perpendicularly from the river. These plots were known as "ribbon lands," some of whose boundaries are represented by street names of modern-day Detroit that were named after the original settlers. The river served as transportation for social and commerical purposes.
None of the settlers who came with Cadillac in 1701 came for agricultural reasons, as Detroit was a military outpost and fur-trading center. All of the settlers were artisans, since that fit with Cadillac's agenda to profit from the outpost. It was not until five years later in 1706 that seeds were imported for growing purposes. The native warriors whom Cadillac brought with him on his initial arrival created a ready pool of warriors to supplement the French soldiers. Settlements around the fort included Tribal communities who were encouraged by Cadillac to settle near the fort. In an effort to persuade as many Indians as possible to live near the community, Cadillac ignored common sense and brought into close proximity tribes with longstanding animosities toward one another. This led to conflict. As early as 1703, tribal conflict had caused issues at the fort, with violence reaching a high point in 1708. In the end, four native villages remained within the area near Detroit. The fur trade through Detroit remained insignificant compared to that of Michilimackinac until the 19th century. Fur trade centers in the northern territories were better situated for French trade and the northern lakes.
La Riviere du Détroit depuis le Lac Sainte Claire jusqu'au Lac Erié: Plan du Fort du Détroit.
Detroit became an important military outpost during the Seven Years War. By 1747, the garrison had assumed an important role in preparing raiding parties. Beyond the conflict, France offered special supplies and concessions to those who agreed to inhabit the settlement. The formal declaration of war in 1754 ultimately led to the loss of the Detroit River region and Canada to the British. During the American Revolution, Detroit served the British as it had the French a generation earlier—as an important staging area for Indian raiding parties. Although the Indians had risen in revolt against the British in 1763, a decade later they understood that an independent thirteen colonies disposed to aggressively settle western lands was far more of a threat to them. Indeed, the British government since 1763 had made significant efforts to limit white settlement and mollify tribal sentiment. Although Detroit's economic value became less important to the British, that community as well as the other western posts became diplomatic bargaining chips as the United States and Britain argued over the implementation of various clauses of the peace treaty. Both sides claimed the other was ignoring provisions in the treaty, and both sides justified not taking actions called for in the treaty, such as turning Detroit over to the Americans, by saying that before they would act the other side must make good on allegedly unfulfilled promises. As the stalemate dragged on, Britain continued to govern Detroit and actually included it in the civil government of Quebec. In 1791, when the British divided Quebec into two provinces, Detroit was placed in "Upper Canada." In 1792, the community participated in its first election—choosing delegates to the British provincial assembly of Upper Canada.
