French American Influence

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Along the Mississippi River, French influence and culture is very apparent. From St. Paul near the headwaters to New Orleans at the mouth it’s quite obvious just how much the French contributed during the early years of colonization in the Americas. French culture brought along with it the Catholic faith which was the main faith of the French Empire, and French missionaries were some of the first Europeans many natives met during the quest to convert and “save” the immortal souls of the native tribesmen of the Great Plains. Even today in the St. Louis area the French influence is visible in its neighborhoods and in the heavy Catholic institutions like St. Louis University, a Jesuit college. The French came into the River valley searching for souls and fur, and were very …show more content…
Hints of Creole and French would persist in the accents of the residents of this region until nearly the mid-1800s, as the French language had been the language of the land for many years. One lesson that many French settlers gained after the fall of the French Empire was how to profit from the changing of the guard, the switching between countries or powers the rights to a piece of land. Descendants of many French settlers spread out across the West, finding new business ventures and new opportunities that would benefit them financial and eventually led to the spirit of self-reliance and self-sufficiency that many Americans pride them on. The abilities of the French to negotiate and trade with others to gain what they wanted served a valuable model for the American Government in its infancy, who before fifty years of independence had passed had fought against the British Empire twice in the American Revolution and War of 1812, as well as the Mexican Army in Texas. The French served as a model, a path to a method, which would allow the American Government to gain territory not only through conquest, but through peaceful purposes that would better serve relations with foreign powers in
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