<P> French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Illinois River in 1673 . Marquette soon after founded a mission at the Grand Village of the Illinois in Illinois Country . In 1680, French explorers under René - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonti constructed a fort at the site of present - day Peoria, and in 1682, a fort atop Starved Rock in today's Starved Rock State Park . French Empire Canadiens came south to settle particularly along the Mississippi River, and Illinois was part of first New France and then of La Louisiane until 1763, when it passed to the British with their defeat of France in the Seven Years' War . The small French settlements continued, although many French migrated west to Ste . Genevieve and St. Louis, Missouri to evade British rule . </P> <P> A few British soldiers were posted in Illinois, but few British or American settlers moved there, as the Crown made it part of the territory reserved for Indians west of the Appalachians, and then part of the British Province of Quebec . In 1778, George Rogers Clark claimed Illinois County for Virginia . In a compromise, Virginia ceded the area to the new United States in 1783 and it became part of the Northwest Territory, to be administered by the federal government and later organized as states . Connecticut ceded northern Illinois in 1786 (see Connecticut Western Reserve . </P> <P> The Illinois - Wabash Company was an early claimant to much of Illinois . The Illinois Territory was created on February 3, 1809, with its capital at Kaskaskia, an early French settlement . </P> <P> During the discussions leading up to Illinois's admission to the Union, the proposed northern boundary of the state was moved twice . The original provisions of the Northwest Ordinance had specified a boundary that would have been tangent to the southern tip of Lake Michigan . Such a boundary would have left Illinois with no shoreline on Lake Michigan at all . However, as Indiana had successfully been granted a 10 - mile northern extension of its boundary to provide it with a usable lakefront, the original bill for Illinois statehood, submitted to Congress on January 23, 1818, stipulated a northern border at the same latitude as Indiana's, which is defined as 10 miles (16 km) north of the southernmost extremity of Lake Michigan . But the Illinois delegate, Nathaniel Pope, wanted more . Pope lobbied to have the boundary moved further north, and the final bill passed by Congress did just that; it included an amendment to shift the border to 42 ° 30' north, which is approximately 51 miles (82 km) north of the Indiana northern border . This shift added 8,500 square miles (22,000 km) to the state, including the lead mining region near Galena . More importantly, it added nearly 50 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and the Chicago River . Pope and others envisioned a canal that would connect the Chicago and Illinois rivers, and thus, connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi . </P>

What is the origin of the name illinois