 The area was also the subject of several conflicting claims by British and French colonies.The British provinces of Virginia and Pennsylvania both claimed the area, and traders from Pennsylvania had been trading with the Indians at least since the early 1740s.In 1752, representatives of the Ohio Company reached an agreement with the local Indian leaders allowing the construction of a fort and a small settlement at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers (present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), and for the establishment of some settlements south of the Ohio River.