In recorded history, the territory that is now Fabius Township has been part of three nations, three territories, five different counties, and three earlier townships. This does not count its pre-history under the Pottawatomies, who had been living in the area for more than 200 years when the first Europeans visited the area, and their earlier mound-building predecessors. French explorers, missionaries, and trappers first entered the valley of the St. Joseph River in the 1660’s. All of what is now Michigan, as well as most of Canada and the entire Great Lakes region, was claimed by France and was considered part of New France from 1622 to 1760. Following the defeat of the French by the British at the Battle of Quebec in 1760, these lands became possessions of the British Empire. In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act, which extended the boundaries of that Canadian province west to the Mississippi and south to the Ohio River, thus making Michigan part of Quebec.