Province des Arques
Province of the Arques
The Arques is located along the Mississippi River between Upper and Lower Louisiana. It is largely French-speaking, and its people have origins from many different places: Louisiana Creoles, the indigenous Quapaw, Caddo and other groups fleeing Mexican expansion, German settlers, New England Mormons, and others.
The name "Arques" is of uncertain origin. It was first given to a French fort at the southern end of the present-day state. This fort was the origin point for the state's development. The name was then applied to the river and the nearby highlands; but it is not clear whether it comes from the Algonquian name for the Quapaw (Arkansea) or something else. In English it is said with the definite article and with the final -s pronounced; "Arks" remains a common and legal spelling in the state's English-speaking communities.
The name "Arques" is of uncertain origin. It was first given to a French fort at the southern end of the present-day state. This fort was the origin point for the state's development. The name was then applied to the river and the nearby highlands; but it is not clear whether it comes from the Algonquian name for the Quapaw (Arkansea) or something else. In English it is said with the definite article and with the final -s pronounced; "Arks" remains a common and legal spelling in the state's English-speaking communities.
Administrative history
The Arques separated from Louisiana to become a state, but the path it took to get there is a bit complicated. This timeline gives the changes that brought the Arques to its current shape and status.
Before incorporation:
After incorporation:
Before incorporation:
- 1719: France built a fort in the lower Illinois Country, establishing its colonial authority in Upper Louisiana. The province had its own commander and a rudimentary government, but at this point no defined borders at all.
- 1770: The capital of Upper Louisiana moved from Illinois to Saint-Louis west of the river.
- 1795: Louisiana declared independence from republican France.
- 1805: Pennsylvanian attacks on the Illinois country prompted Louisiana to join the same side as France in the War of the League of St. Joseph. This paved the way for future reconciliation.
- 1810: Louisiana consented to re-join the French empire as an autonomous part of the Kingdom of New France.
- 1818: A treaty with the Chicasaw set the Mississippi as the western boundary of that nation. Everything beyond it, including the present-day Arques, was left as a Louisianan sphere. The last phase of this negotiation happened within the Grand Council and was ratified by all the major states of Boreoamerica. At the same time, a border was finally drawn between the provinces of Upper and Lower Louisiana, and Illinois was recognized as a distinct province of Louisiana.
- 1828: Illinois separated from Louisiana to become a self-governing colony.
- 1833: For the second time, Louisiana declared independence as a republic following the collapse of the Kingdom of New France.
- 1835: Louisiana joined the Congress of the Nations, signaling greater affiliation with the Anglophone and Dutch states.
After incorporation:
- 1837: Louisiana concluded a treaty with Mexico fixing its western boundary. Immediately, it organized a new province of Middle Louisiana to govern the sparsely populated land between the new border and the middle stretch of the Mississippi River. The capital was at Les-Arques, at the southeastern corner of the territory.
- 1840: Middle Louisiana's borders were surveyed and set.
- 1849: Middle Louisiana's military governor, the Baron de Mandeville, convened its first elected assembly.
- 1852: The assembly changed the name from Middle Louisiana to Les-Arques.
- 1863: Louisiana's government approved a plan for greater autonomy for the northern provinces.
- 1868: Most power in the Arques passed from the governor to the elected government, The province for the first time sent fully separate delegations to every confederal institution.
- 1871: The provincial capital moved from the town of Les-Arques to Champ-d'Espoir on the Mississippi.
- 1876: The Arques abolished slavery, the last part of Louisiana to do so.
- 1886: Lower Louisiana renounced any and all supervisory powers over the Arques' government and laws.
- 1920: The Arques finally changed its constitution to take away from Lower Louisiana the power to name its governor, the last vestige of political control that it had in the state. Instead, the governor was to name his own successor, subject to a vote of approval by the people.