We don’t usually associate Italians with the “winning” of the West. But some 828,000 sq. miles of middle America, known as the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, had Italian connections. The area was claimed by France starting with the voyage of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 when he reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. 

Later French explorers and colonists outflanked the English coastal colonies by claiming all the waterways from the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes and all the Mississippi River down to New Orleans.  To further consolidate these possessions, for 25 years the French employed the services of Italian-born Enrico Tonti to deal with the natives and assert French authority throughout the Mississippi basin.