A History of Michigan

Michigan was home to various Native Americans centuries before colonization by Europeans. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous & influential tribes were Algonquian peoples—specifically, the Ottawa, the Anishnabe (called "Chippewa" in French, after their language, "Ojibwe"), & the Potawatomi. The Anishnabe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 & 35,000, were the most populous. Although the Anishnabe were well-established in Michigan's Upper Peninsula & northern Lower Peninsula, they also inhabited northern Ontario, northern Wisconsin, southern Manitoba, & northern & north-central Minnesota. The Ottawa lived primarily south of the Straits of Mackinac in northern & western Michigan, while the Potawatomi were primarily in the southwest. The three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. Other First Nations people in Michigan, in the south & east, were the Mascouten, the Menominee, the Miami, & the Wyandot, who are better known by their French name, "Huron".

1600s
French voyageurs explored & settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what later became Michigan were Étienne Brûlé's expedition in 1622. The first European settlement was made in 1641 on the site where Father (or Père, in French) Jacques Marquette established Sault Sainte-Marie in 1668.

Saint-Ignace was founded in 1671, & Marquette in 1675. Together with Sault Sainte-Marie, they are the three oldest cities in Michigan. "The Soo" (Sault Ste. Marie) has the distinction of being the oldest city in both Michigan & Ontario. It was split into two cities in 1818, a year after the U.S.-Canada boundary in the Great Lakes was finally established by the U.S.-UK Joint Border Commission.

In 1679, Lord La Salle of France directed the construction of the Griffin, the first European sailing vessel on the upper Great Lakes. That same year, La Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph.

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1700s
In 1701, French explorer & army officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Le Fort Ponchartrain du Détroit or “Fort Ponchartrain on-the-Strait” on the strait between Lakes St. Clair & Erie, known as the Detroit River. Cadillac had convinced King Louis XIV's chief minister, Louis Phélypeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain, that a permanent community there would strengthen French control over the upper Great Lakes & repel British aspirations.

The hundred soldiers & workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent (about .85 acre, the equivalent of just under 200 feet on a side) & named it Fort Pontchartrain. Cadillac's wife, Marie Thérèse, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first white women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. The town quickly became a major fur-trading & shipping post. The “Église de Saint-Anne,” or Church of Saint Ann, was founded the same year, & while the original building does not survive, it remains an active congregation today. At the same time, the French strengthened Fort Michilimackinac at the Straits of Mackinac in order to better control their lucrative fur-trading empire. By the mid-eighteenth century, the French had also occupied forts at present-day Niles & Sault Ste. Marie. However, most of the rest of the region remained unsettled by whites.

From 1660 to the end of French rule, Michigan (along with Wisconsin, eastern Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, two-thirds of Georgia, & small parts of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, & Maine) was part of the Royal Province of New France, administered from the capital city of Québec. In 1759, following the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in the French & Indian War (1754–1763), Québec City fell to British forces. Under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, Michigan & the rest of New France passed to Great Britain.

Detroit was an important British supply center during the American Revolutionary War, but most of the inhabitants - almost all of them - were either Aboriginal people or French Canadians. Because of imprecise cartography & unclear language defining the boundaries in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, the British retained control of Detroit & Michigan. When Quebec was split into Lower & Upper Canada in 1790, Michigan was part of Kent County, Upper Canada, & held its first democratic elections in August 1792, to send delegates to the new provincial parliament at Newark, (Now Niagara-on-the-Lake). Under terms negotiated in the 1794 Jay Treaty, Britain withdrew from Detroit & Michilimackinac in 1796. However, questions remained over the boundary for many years & the United States did not have uncontested control of the Upper Peninsula & Drummond Island until 1818 & 1847, respectively.

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1800s
During the War of 1812, Michigan Territory (effectively consisting of Detroit & the surrounding area) was captured by the British & nominally returned to Upper Canada until the Treaty of Ghent, which implemented the policy of "Status Quo Ante Bellum" or "Just as Things Were Before the War." That meant Michigan stayed American, & the agreement to establish a joint U.S.-UK boundary commission also remained valid. Subsequent to the findings of that commission in 1817, control of the Upper Peninsula & of islands in the St. Clair River delta was transferred from Ontario to Michigan in 1818, & Drummond Island (to which the British had moved their Michilimackinac army base) was transferred in 1847.

The population grew slowly until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which brought a large influx of settlers. By the 1830s, Michigan had some 80,000 residents, which was more than enough to apply for statehood. A state government was formed in 1836, although Congressional recognition of the state languished because of a boundary dispute with Ohio, with both sides claiming a 468 square mile (1,210 km²) strip of land that included the newly incorporated city of Toledo on Lake Erie & an area to the west then known as the "Great Black Swamp." The dispute came to be called the Toledo War, with Michigan & Ohio militia maneuvering in the area but never coming to blows. Ultimately, Congress awarded the "Toledo Strip" to Ohio, & Michigan, having received the western part of the Upper Peninsula as a concession, formally entered the Union on January 26, 1837.

Thought to be useless at the time, the Upper Peninsula was soon discovered to be a rich & important source of lumber, iron, & copper, which would become the state's most sought-after natural resources. Geologist Douglass Houghton & land surveyor William Austin Burt were among the first to document & discover many of these resources, which led to a nation-wide increase of interest in the state. Michigan lead the nation in lumber production from 1850's to the 1880's.

Michigan made a significant contribution to the Union in the American Civil War, sending over forty regiments of volunteers to the Federal armies.

Henry Ford in the Quadricycle, 1905Michigan's economy underwent a massive change at the turn of the 20th century. The birth of the automotive industry, with Henry Ford's first plant in the Highland Park enclave of Detroit, marked the beginning of a new era in transportation. It was a development that not only transformed Detroit & Michigan, but permanently altered the socio-economic climate of the United States & much of the world. Grand Rapids, the second-largest city in Michigan, is also a center of automotive manufacturing. Since 1838, the city had also been noted for its thriving furniture industry (which has since declined substantially).

1900s to the present
In 1910 Michigan held its first primary election.

In 1920 Detroit’s WWJ begins commercial broadcasting of regular programs, the first such radio station in the United States.

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1920s skyscrapers in downtown Detroit.Detroit boomed through the 1950s, at one point doubling its population in a decade. In the 1920s some of the country's largest & most ornate skyscrapers were built in the city. Housing shortages & racial tension led to outward movement starting after World War II. After the 1950s, with suburban sprawl prevalent across the country, Detroit's population began to decline, & the rate increased after further racial strife in the 1960s & high crime rates in the 70s & 80s. Government programs such as road-building often enabled the sprawl.

Since the 1970s, Michigan's industrial base has eroded as the auto industry began to abandon the state's industrial parks in favor of less expensive labor found overseas & in the southern U.S. states. Nevertheless, with more than 10 million residents, Michigan continues to grow & remains a large & influential state, ranking eighth in population among the 50 states.

The Detroit metropolitan area in the southeast corner of the state remains the largest metropolitan area in Michigan (roughly 50% of the population resides there) & one of the 10 largest metro areas in the country. The Grand Rapids/Holland/Muskegon metro area on the west side of the state is the fastest growing metro area in the state presently, with over 1.3 million residents as of 2006.

Metro Detroit's population is growing, & Detroit's population is still shrinking, though strong redevelopment in central part of the cities, & a significant rise in population in the southwest part of the city, is contributing to some population inflow. A period of economic transition, especially in manufacturing, has caused economic difficulities in the region since the recession of 2001.

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