showing earlier established colonial borders before the
French And Indian War. In the 18th century,
British land speculators several times attempted to colonize the
Ohio Valley, most notably in 1748 when the
British Crown granted a petition of the
Ohio Company for 200,000 acres (800 km2) near the "
Forks of the Ohio" (present-day
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). The
French and Indian War (1754–63) and
Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–66) delayed settlement of the region. After Pontiac's Rebellion, merchants who had lost their trade items during the conflict formed a group known as the "suffering traders", later to become the Indiana Company. In the
Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768), the British required the
Iroquois to give the "suffering traders" a grant of land. Those who benefited the most were
Samuel Wharton and
William Trent. Known as the
"Indiana Grant", this land was located along the Ohio River and included part of the Iroquois' hunting ground, which they had controlled since the 17th century. When Wharton and Trent sailed to England in 1769 seeking to have their grant confirmed, they joined forces with the Ohio Company to form the
Grand Ohio Company, also called the Walpole Company. The Grand Ohio Company eventually received a larger area of land than the Indiana Grant. The development companies planned a new colony, initially called "
Pittsylvania" (Wright 1988:212) but later known as Vandalia, in honor of the British queen
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744–1818), who was thought to be descended from
Vandalic tribesmen. Opposition from rival interest groups and the outbreak of the
American Revolutionary War (1775–83) prevented the development of Vandalia as a full colony. During the Revolutionary War, some settlers in the region petitioned the American
Continental Congress to recognize a new province to be known as
Westsylvania, which had approximately the same borders as the earlier Vandalia proposal. As both the states of Virginia and Pennsylvania claimed the region, they blocked recognition of a new state. The Indiana Company presented a bill in equity against the State of Virginia concerning their claims, but the ruling in
Chisholm v. Georgia led to the Eleventh Amendment forbidding suits by citizens of another State, and the Supreme Court dismissed the Indiana Company's suit, holding the constitutional amendment applied retroactively. The
formation of the state of Kentucky in 1792 and the
separation of West Virginia from Virginia in 1863, established the present political borders in the region. ==See also==