This guy here with another episode of the History Unplugged podcast, the people most known

for the European colonization of North America include conquistadors, Puritans, and Virginia

tobacco farmers.

But one of the most important players, European colonization, especially in the 17th century,

were Jesuit priests and ferdrapers.

They mapped out the major rivers of the American interior, did the first anthropological investigations

of the Indian tribes there, and learned many Indian languages, and did a ambassador

work that set up positive relationships with these tribes that led to all sorts of trade

going up and down the Mississippi River.

And for that reason, lots of Midwestern towns have exotic French-towny names, like Duplane,

Detroit, Des Moines, despite the lack of French presence there today.

French colonization of the Mississippi Valley was kicked off by the Marquette and Jolie

exposition of 1673, but the reason for the success of this mission hasn't been well understood

until recently, when historians could make use of new archaeological findings of settlements

along the Mississippi, discoveries of trade goods that have been mapped out, and even

climate data that showed the little ice age that drove animals south from Canada to warmer

environments, allowing the economy to flourish there.

To talk about this new investigation of the Marquette and Jolie exposition that places

it in the context of world history, the today's guest, Mark Walsinski, author of Jolie

and Marquette, a new history of the 1673 expedition.

But look at little-known exploits of these two explorers along with those of traders,

soldiers, and missionaries, who created the political and religious environment to

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