The Ohio Country (sometimes called the Ohio Territory or Ohio Valley by the French) was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie. This area was disputed in the mid-18th century by France and Great Britain. The eponymous name is based on a 1740 act of the colonial Virginia legislature when the colony claimed many of the trans-Allegheny territories and monied interests actively tried to encourage settlement west of the Ohio River hoping to gain that Ohio River watershed with enabling legislation forming the Ohio Company.