Battle of Fallen Timbers

The Battle of Fallen Timbers was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between Native American tribes affiliated with the Western Confederacy and their British allies, against the nascent United States for control of the Northwest Territory. The battle took place amid trees toppled by a tornado near the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio at the site of the present-day city of Maumee, Ohio. Major General "Mad Anthony" Wayne's Legion of the United States, supported by General Charles Scott's Kentucky Militia, were victorious against a combined Native American force of Shawnee under Blue Jacket, Ottawas under Egushawa, and many others. The battle was brief, lasting little more than one hour, but it scattered the confederated Native forces and shattered their trust in their British allies. The U.S. victory ended major hostilities in the region. The following Treaty of Greenville and Jay's Treaty mandated Indian withdrawal from most of modern-day Ohio, opening it to native displacement and white settlement, along with termination of the British presence from the southern Great Lakes region of the United States.

In the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain ceded rights to the region northwest of the Ohio River and south of the Great Lakes. The Native American nations which claimed or occupied this region were not a party to the treaty, and resented settlers from the United States. The young United States formally organized the region in the Land Ordinance of 1785 and negotiated treaties allowing settlement, but the Western Confederacy of Native American nations were not party to these treaties and refused to acknowledge them. Violence erupted in the area between Native Americans and U.S. settlers in the region and in Kentucky. In George Washington's first term as President of the United States, the U.S. launched two major campaigns to subdue the confederacy. The Harmar campaign in 1790 resulted in a significant victory for the confederacy and a U.S. retreat to Fort Washington. In 1791, a follow-up campaign was led by territorial governor Arthur St. Clair, which was decimated by combined confederate forces.

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