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Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent (also spelled Saint-Maxent) (1724 – August 8, 1794) was a merchant and military officer who played a major role in the development of French and Spanish Louisiana. Maxent was born in Longwy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, in Lorraine, France. In 1747 he moved to New Orleans, the French colonial capital of Lower Louisiana. He enlisted in the French Army and in 1749 married the wealthy Elizabeth La Roche. He used the dowry to open a business on Conti Street to supply fur traders. In 1753 he was promoted to colonel and commandant of the Louisiana Regiment, by Governor Louis de Billouart Kerlerec. He was to distinguish himself in battles defending Louisiana against incursions by the British and Chickasaws in the French and Indian War. ==Founding of St. Louis== In 1755 Kerlerec gave Maxent exclusive rights to deal with Native Americans west of the Mississippi River. Maxent's most ambitious effort was the formation of Maxent, Laclede and Company in which he gave 25 percent ownership to Pierre Laclède. In 1763 LaClede selected a site on a bluff above the west side of the Mississippi River, just south of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, for a settlement that was to be called St. Louis. According to legend, work on clearing the site began on Saint Valentine's Day of 1764. St. Louis was founded before news arrived that in the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the French and Indian War, Spain would take over France's possessions on the west of the Mississippi River and that the British were to take over French lands on the east side of the river (officially administering what was to be Native American territories). After the news arrived, French colonists on the east side of the river moved to the west side, at St. Louis. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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