Flag of Assiniboia
What we call the Métis Flag has its origins in the Assiniboia settlements that in TTL became the State of Assiniboia. So its blue version furnishes the state flag. The red version is the war (militia) flag.
Flag of Ohio
Now this is a flag I made for Ohio. I played with other symbols of peace and alliance: fires, calumets, bowls. But nothing looked as good as three white bands suggesting wampum belts, the same symbolism as on the flag of Poutaxia. Green suggests neutrality among the major states (which tend to use a lot of red or blue), and it also represents fertile land and all that.
Writing the history of Ohio took a while, and there are probably still some changes to make. Ohio helped make a lot of ASB history more clear. There are a lot more Actual Dates now than there used to be for the fateful years between 1760 and 1820.
History of Ohio
Peopling the Ohio Country
As a distinct region, Ohio’s history goes back to the middle of the 17th century and the era of the fierce Iroquois attacks against seemingly everyone living west of their homeland. Sparked by competition over the fur trade and sustained by the need to avenge and recoup losses through the abduction of enemies, the wars lasted twenty years and ranged all over the Ohio country and Great Lakes. When the dust settled, Ohio was almost totally emptied, its inhabitants having relocated to refugee settlements in the Upper Country - or been carried off to Iroquoia. The Iroquois became the de facto rulers of the vacant land, using it mainly as a hunting ground. They claimed in their dealings with Europeans to be its rulers by right of conquest.
New groups began to arrive in Ohio after 1700. Empty land meant new opportunities, especially for young leaders from outside the traditional power structures of tribe and empire. Many Huron-Petun people left Huronia and established the Wyandot tribe during this era; similarly, many Iroquois left their people to found the tribe known as the Mingo. Members of existing tribes, in particular the Lenape, Miami and Shawnee, also came and established themselves during these decades, while others came from southern peoples such as the Cherokee. These disparate people gathered together in villages that lacked any clear ethnic identity, often under charismatic leaders, many of Métis background. By the 1740s a number of small republics had cropped up in the region. One lay along the White River in the center and west of the Ohio country; another dominated the Forks of the Ohio. The republics were troublesome to all the established powers of the continent. They rejected alliance with any empire and pursued an independent course.
Imperial competition was on the rise. Dutch and some English traders were coming west in greater numbers in search of furs. This challenged the power of France: the Iroquois may have considered Ohio to be their own hinterland, but the French felt the same way about it. Now they had to build up their presence to resist the challenge from their rivals. Early French settlements included Ouiatenon and Vincennes, both on the Wabash. These were somewhat awkwardly placed within the French empire. Though founded by Canada, these posts were along rivers with easy access to Louisiana. So Louisiana and Canada, the two centers of French power, soon found themselves in a rivalry of their own. Commanders of the forts, though chosen by Canada, generally also had to be acceptable to officials in Louisiana. The actual habitants around the forts eventually were largely Métis, with both French and indigenous backgrounds. Like the leaders of the republics, these habitants began the process of building a separate, independent identity in the Ohio country. Not to be ignored is the small but not insignificant population of slaves, former slaves, and free children of slaves, all of them forming a part of the community of the French settlements.
English settlers came a little later. Once the Crown gave its approval to Virginian settlement past the mountains, a trickle of people began moving west intent on agricultural settlement. They entered the complex society of Ohio with help from allied Indian groups, especially Cherokee, who accompanied them and built new villages not far from the new English centers. Settlement was managed by a few land companies, but at this point these companies engaged more in speculation than actual settlement. The English pioneers built villages that were largely self-sufficient and cut off from Virginia itself. For most of the 18th century the English population mostly stayed south of the river in what today is Upper Virginia.
So by the late 18th century, Ohio was a dynamic region of bewildering human diversity. It was a place where competing imperial ambitions contrasted with emerging local cultures wanting to govern themselves.
Wars of empire and revenge
Ohio was also a place of violence. With no clear authority and lots of rival factions, it did not take much for disputes to lead to feuds and feuds to wars. An example is the Fox War of the 1740s. It began in Detroit but spread to consume the Ohio and Illinois countries. Fought between the Fox tribe and the French alliance of the Upper Country, it had no real economic cause, but arose from ethnic conflict and perceived slights. The cycle of revenge lasted for years until it was finally spent, and the Fox were driven west of Lake Michigan.
Imperial wars also made themselves felt in Ohio. The eighteenth century in this timeline was not quite as polarized as our own: England and France were rivals, certainly, but their wars were not quite so numerous, and their colonists had less of a sense of being locked in an eternal fight to the death. And anyway, as in our timeline, imperial wars influenced politics and fighting in Ohio, but they did not drive it directly. England and France could fight in Europe while life in Ohio continued almost like normal, and by the same token fighting in Ohio could break out between the colonists or their allies even as the kings in Europe were trying to get along. And all the while, republics, neutral tribes, and traders did their best to avoid the imperial conflicts, or use them to their advantage.
The Wars of Independence in the English colonies shook Ohio far more. When the Anglo-American world shattered, new rivalries appeared that made themselves felt in the west. Several of the colonies had had claims in Ohio that they had not tried hard to enforce before, but now that land seemed much more important. In 1772 Virginia sent an expedition of militia down the river, building blockhouses and crude forts all along the way. This had the effect of angering the French in their small forts; so while the French in Canada eagerly supported revolutionaries in the north, Virginia got little sympathy from the French in Louisiana. But the blockhouses became the seeds of a new generation of settlements; by 1800 Virginia thoroughly dominated the land south of the river. Revolutionary Connecticut, too, sent an expedition to seize Fort Sanduskey, the most important English post on Lake Erie. Though they seized the fort, the English troops crossed the bay and dug in to new positions.
Alliances extended the fighting to a wider area. The Iroquois themselves stayed out of the Wars of Independence, trying to stay on friendly terms with both sides. They signed an accord with Virginia ceding to them their claim to much of Upper Virginia, and they kept up trade with Crown posts. But other groups did take sides. The Connecticuter force that attacked Sanduskey was in fact more than half Indian or Mixed, recruited from settlements on the Cuyahoga. The defenders included a large force of Miamis. A delegation of Virginians and allies to the White River republic turned violent when the leaders there refused to give their support to the newly independent state; the militia attacked the village and ultimately were forced to retreat back to their base on the Ohio River. At Ouiatenon, fighting between pro-republican and pro-loyalist Indians grew heated. Following orders from Quebec, the commander let the republican sympathizers into the fort and closed the gate, but he did not let them onto the ramparts to attack their foes. They left after a few days; Ouiatenon itself was spared of further violence, but skirmishes continued in the countryside.
The peace after independence
The Wars of Independence drifted to a halt rather than build to a climax. In the south they degenerated into skirmishes and petty violence along the Virginian-Carolian border, while in the north the English shored up their support in southern New England and relied on diplomacy and politics to lure other states back into the fold. The real coup was in Connecticut, which elected a loyalist majority to its General Assembly in 1781. This had repercussions in the Ohio country, especially along Lake Erie. Most of the Yankees who had settled there were anything but Loyalists, and the restoration upset them. It stiffened the independent impulse in their political culture that would eventually lead Upper Connecticut to become its own state, not part of Ohio or any of its other neighbors. In the short term the change eliminated the republican English presence to Ohio’s north, reducing tensions there.
Furthering the cause of peace were the actions of Pennsylvania and the Iroquois, whose diplomats worked tirelessly to convince English leaders on both sides of the Wars of Independence to restore friendly relations. The two states had an interest in keeping the English divided (so as not to pose a threat to either one’s independence) and peaceful (to encourage the growth of population and trade). Their entreaties were convincing enough, and the first postwar Anglo-American Congress met in Huntingdon, Connecticut, on Long Island, in the summer of 1782. The Congress and its successors solved numerous problems related to the Ohio, most importantly negotiating a border between Virginia and the Allegheny territories, in whose government the Iroquois were now taking a much more active interest. Significantly, in that agreement all parties recognized Virginia’s western territory as the land between the Ohio River and the Cherokee Nation. Carolina and England still hoped that they could reduce that land to nearly zero by helping the Cherokee push their border northward; and Virginia still expected to occupy and gain control of a good deal of land north of the Ohio River; but the treaty, passed as an act of Congress, helped clarify the limits of Ohio. From then on, south of the river would be Virginian country, while north of it would be the crazy quilt of English, French, Indian, and Mixed settlements that had taken shape over the last century.
Ohio enjoyed about twenty years of peace, a consequential time for the entire region. Ohio had never been merely a venue for imperial ambition; its independent tribes, republics and villages had existed between and outside the empires throughout the colonial era. But now, with so many more players, the local elements came to the forefront of Ohio’s political and social life. These elements had emerged when Ohio was contested by England, France, and Iroquoia. Now, the list included Canada and Louisiana (now rivals as much as partners), independent Virginia and Pennsylvania, arrivals from New Netherland and the Illinois Country and the Council of Three Fires, a vibrant and growing Moravian Church, and a motley group of immigrants from such places as Scotland and the Caribbean. People from all of these backgrounds came to the Ohio Country to find a place within the existing society, which was largely dominated by people and structures of mixed Indian and European descent. Growth was quick and steady, but not explosive. This was not the world of our own Frontier, where a man could come in with a few dollars and plant some acres of beans. But it was a world where a man could come in with some skills and some trade goods, get to know the people in town, ideally marry someone’s daughter, and get permission to farm some land belonging to the village. If he and his prospered, he might eventually be able to purchase his land outright, depending on where he was and what local laws were in effect. In this way the local communities of Ohio grew, attracting new people on their own terms.
As the settlements in the Ohio country grew, they became more complex. Ohio was still primarily a kin-based society of hunters and farmers, but many new types appeared, some from outside, others from within. They were smiths and artisans, brewers and distillers, priests and ministers, teamsters and keelboatmen, teachers and printers and lawyers. These last were becoming increasingly in demand. The region’s overlapping systems of English and French and traditional law were starting to cause problems as the towns became larger and more interconnected.
The War of the League of St. Joseph
Despite the appearance of peace and prosperity, the game of power politics continued in Ohio. The rise of a new Métis elite gave the four strongest powers - Virginia, Pennsylvania, French Canada, and the English Crown - new opportunities to try and extend their influence. All four sent agents to the main towns to give ritual gifts, create or strengthen alliances, and try to outmaneuver agents from the other powers. In general, the locals gave these agents a wary welcome. Though traditionally uneasy about imperial interference, many genuinely needed help with arranging long-distance trade deals and arbitrating disputes with neighboring communities. George Morgan, one of the most successful merchant-diplomats of the era, convened several councils of Ohio chiefs and magistrates in the Lenape town of Coshocton. He seemed to be on the way to creating in Ohio a Pennsylvanian version of the alliance that France had forged over a century earlier in the Upper Country.
By the 1790s, two states, Virginia and Canada, were drawing closer together. In part this was a reaction to Morgan’s success. It also flowed from Virginia’s ongoing disputes with England over its southern border, over the status of Bermuda, and even over a final settlement for its war of independence, which England still dragged its feet over so many years later. These matters were a source of strain within the community of English-speaking states. This was a time of ever greater cooperation among those states through the Congress, which by now was a permanent institution. But while Virginians felt that their state ought to be the natural leader of the Congress, the others frequently ignored the many unresolved issues between it and England. Feeling isolated from its ostensible allies, Virginia looked to Canada. The two states complemented each other well; Canada had unmatched experience in village politics and a network of allies, while Virginia had a large population and a strong military and militia.
Virginia and Canada first cooperated on an ad hoc basis, leading alliance councils at various points in the disputed territory. But in 1802 at Fort St. Joseph, they drafted an agreement that divided most of Ohio between them into spheres of influence. They kept their plans quiet, but word soon got out. The other English speaking states were outraged. Demands and threats followed. Virginia militiamen spread throughout the Ohio, building fortified stations to defend the settlements that were part of its new alliance. Loyalists and Pennamites arrived on the scene, and they built forts of their own. Fort Defiance was established on the River Miami-du-Lac to challenge Canadian control there, while troops from the Dominion of New England strengthened their positions on Lake Erie. It was not long before some of these forces crossed paths, and soon Ohio was aflame again.
The course of the fighting was long and convoluted and ranged north into Lakes Huron and Michigan, south into West Florida, and out to sea with the Virginian expedition to Bermuda. At times the fighting seemed about to spend itself, only to flare up again. New Netherland and Iroquoia, who had just recently begun to form ties with the Anglo-American Congress, were ambivalent; while individual bands joined with one side or the other, the states themselves stayed out of the fighting. We will skip over most of the military details for now. What is important is that Ohioans themselves were instrumental in bringing about an end to it. Where just a little earlier they had looked to the Europeans to arbitrate disputes among them, they now stepped in as arbiters in the war. Some of the pro-neutrality chiefs convened a Great Council of the Ohio in the town of Mississinewa on the upper Wabash. First meeting in 1806, it is considered the predecessor of the State of Ohio. Later Great Councils met in other towns with representatives of the warring parties in attendance, and it was at these councils that the eventual peace terms were worked out.
The southern theater of the war came to an end with the Treaty of Bath in 1808. The war in the north took a little longer to stop. By 1808 all parties had agreed to a basic plan for a neutral alliance of all the Ohio settlements, and Virginian and Pennamite forces had ceased fighting. However, English Loyalists and Canadians kept the fight going in the Lakes and the Upper Country for two more years.
From alliance to state
The War of the League of St. Joseph was the last major convulsion to rock Boreoamerica. None of the combatants achieved their goals. Canada remained the suzerain over the Upper Country, but it was treaty bound to stay out of its internal affairs and allow autonomy to non-French people living there. Virginia regained its lost territories of Bermuda and Albemarle, but it could not satisfy its ambitions in Cherokee and Ohio. After this final conflict, the major states of this part of the continent stopped trying to make war on one another and went back to the proven strategies of alliance and diplomacy.
In Ohio, a local alliance stepped into the place that empires and commanders had once had. The Great Council in the early years had to spend most of its energy on getting past wartime feuds and rivalries. After that it could turn to devising a rational legal structure for Ohio and setting up the first instututions of statewide government. It was a slow process. There was no one moment when the State of Ohio came into existence.
The continental alliance structure had a lot to do with this process. After the war, Ohioan leaders sought to restore ties with their neighbors. They accepted accepted ceremonial gifts as Onontio’s Children (the Canadian alliance) and also joined in the Iroquois Covenant Chain, symbolically extending it down the Ohio to the Mississippi. In past generations these alliances would have been mutually exclusive, but now it made sense for Ohio to be part of both. For a while the major constituents were still sending separate delagates: Ouiatenon, Coshocton, Vincennes, and so forth. By the 1830s Ohio represented itself as a unified whole. It had a permanent seat in the expanded Congress, which by now included not just the English states but also New Netherland and Iroquoia and the other new states of Poutaxia and Allegheny. The French states joined the Congress soon after, and in 1841 the alliance was made formal and permanent with the declaration of the Affiliated States of Boreoamerica with the State of Ohio as a full-fledged, coequal member.