Vandalia (colony)

With Vandalia colony a planned fourteenth British colony in North America is called the Allegheny Mountains south of the Ohio River was west. The area of the new colony included large parts of the later U.S. states of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Point Pleasant in West Virginia should be the capital of Vandalia. Although the colony was never realized, the planning was typical of land speculation were rampant in England and North America of the 18th century. Among the proponents of the project included such notables as Benjamin Franklin.

The plan emerged from a designated Indiana Country offer the Six Nations to a group of traders from Pennsylvania in 1768, in order to compensate for losses in the Pontiac uprising. Samuel Wharton and William Trent, agents of the Indiana Company, drove in the spring of 1769 to England and got the consent of the king for the land acquisition. On December 27, 1769 Grand Ohio Company was founded in 1772 which finally received approval for the purchase of an additional area of about 20 million acres (about 8100 km ) south of the Ohio river to the confluence of the Scioto River.

The new colony was named Vandalia and should follow the pattern of the other thirteen colonies get their own government. Although many associate the Grand Ohio Company occupied high positions in the British hierarchy, the project had influential opponents, especially from circles with rival speculative interests in Virginia who claimed the same territory for themselves. In 1773 the founding of the colony seemed imminent short, as hostilities broke out, which led to the American Revolutionary War. Thus ending any hopes of a speedy success. 1781 tried Wharton and other like-minded people, to convince the Congress in their favor, but eventually overruled strong opposition efforts to the creation of Vandalia.