Coweta was a critical place of interaction between Creeks and Europeans throughout the colonial era. Situated at the intersection of regional trading routes and the claims of expanding Spanish, English, and French colonial empires, it became a location for international diplomacy as early as the seventeenth century. Colonial officials sought to strengthen their claims to the region through profitable trade and military alliances with the Creeks, while the Creeks worked to turn this rivalry to their advantage by playing one group against another to secure favorable trade terms and preserve their sovereignty. This unofficial neutrality made Coweta a central site for international negotiations, and because of its importance among Lower Creek towns, European representatives visited frequently during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the summer of 1739, James Oglethorpe came to Coweta to seek Creek approval for establishing the colony of Georgia, and his visit ended with the Treaty of Coweta, by which the Creeks formally ceded land to Georgia and allied themselves with the British. Trade became the key factor in these diplomatic relationships. Europeans brought manufactured goods such as weapons, clothing, fabrics, jewelry, cooking ware, tools, salt, sugar, coffee, and liquor, while Creeks paid with cattle, hogs, herbs, hickory oil, corn, and especially deerskins, which were sent to Europe for use in products including clothing, gloves, and book bindings. After establishing themselves on Florida’s Atlantic coast by the late 1500s, the Spanish moved westward and northward in the 1600s, built a fort near what is now Phenix City by the early 1680s, and kept regular contact with Coweta. The English, established at Charleston in 1670, moved southward and westward into the Southern backcountry, and traders from Charleston were visiting Coweta by the 1680s if not earlier. The French, who entered the Chattahoochee Valley later, established themselves on the Gulf Coast in 1699 and were in communication with Coweta by the 1720s. In 1685, the English trader Henry Woodward visited the Chattahoochee Valley and secured friendly economic ties with Creek towns near Coweta. When Spanish authorities in Florida learned of his efforts, they sent soldiers and Apalachee warriors to arrest him; failing to capture him, they eventually ordered Coweta and several other Creek towns burned as a warning against trading with the English. The Creeks nevertheless continued trading with the English, and many in the Chattahoochee Valley, preferring English goods and seeking to avoid conflict between European rivals, moved eastward closer to the English on the Atlantic coast around 1690, a shift that lasted for twenty-five years.