The Mississippi valley from the Illinois river southward alone remained to France.

Vincennes on the Wabash and Fort Chartres on the Mississippi were the only posts in the hinterland occupied by French troops.

These posts were under the government of Louisiana; but even these the American colonies were prepared to claim, basing the right on their 'sea to sea' charters.
The British in America had found the strip of land between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic far too narrow for a rapidly increasing population, but their advance westward had been barred by the French.

Now, praise the Lord, the French were out of the way, and American traders and settlers could exploit the profitable fur-fields and the rich agricultural lands of the region beyond the mountains.
True, the Indians were there, but these were not regarded as formidable foes.

There was no longer any occasion to consider the Indians--so thought the colonists and the British officers in America.