From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michigan (IPA: /ˈmɪʃɨgən/, roughly ˈmi-shi-gən or MI-shih-ginn)[2] is a Midwestern state of the United States of America, located in the east north central states, as defined by the United States Census Bureau. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigami, meaning "large water" or "large lake".[3][4]
Bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair, Michigan has the longest freshwater shoreline in the world.[5] In 2005, Michigan ranked third for the number of registered recreational boats, behind California and Florida.[6]
A person in Michigan is never more than 85 miles (137 km) from open
Great Lakes water and is never more than six miles (10 km) from a
natural water source. The Great Lakes that border Michigan from east to
west are Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
Michigan is the only state to consist entirely of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula of Michigan,
to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is sometimes dubbed
"the mitten," owing to its shape. When asked where in Michigan one
comes from, a resident of the Lower Peninsula may often point to the
corresponding part of his or her hand. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as The U.P.) is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km)-wide channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The Upper Peninsula (whose residents are often called "Yoopers") is economically important for tourism and natural resources.
The Upper and Lower Peninsulas are connected by the five-mile (8 km)-long Mackinac Bridge, which is the third longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the world.[7] The bridge has given rise to the nickname of "trolls" for residents of the Lower Peninsula, for they live "under" (south of) the bridge.
History
- See also: Timeline of Michigan history, History of railroads in Michigan, and History of Detroit
A Chippewa family, circa 1821
Michigan was home to various Native Americans centuries before colonization by Europeans. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous and influential tribes were Algonquian peoples—specifically, the Ottawa, the Anishnabe (called "Chippewa" in French, after their language, "Ojibwe"), and the Potawatomi. The Anishnabe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the most populous.
Although the Anishnabe were well-established in Michigan's Upper
Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula, they also inhabited northern Ontario, northern Wisconsin, southern Manitoba, and northern and north-central Minnesota.
The Ottawa lived primarily south of the Straits of Mackinac in northern
and 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 and east, were the Mascouten, the Menominee, the Miami, and the Wyandot, who are better known by their French name, "Huron".
17th century
French voyageurs explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what later became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlé's expedition in 1622. The first European settlement was made in 1641 on the site where Father (Père, in French) Jacques Marquette established Sault Sainte-Marie in 1668.
Saint Ignace was founded in 1671 and 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 and 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.-U.K. 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.
18th century
In 1701, French explorer and 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 and 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 and repel British aspirations.
The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent[8][9] (about .85 acre, the equivalent of just under 200 feet (61 m) per side) and 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
and shipping post. The “Église de Saint-Anne,” or Church of Saint Ann,
was founded the same year. While the original building does not
survive, the congregation of that name continues to be active today.
At the same time, the French strengthened Fort Michilimackinac
at the Straits of Mackinac to better control their lucrative
fur-trading empire. By the mid-eighteenth century, the French also
occupied forts at present-day Niles and Sault Ste. Marie. However, most of the rest of the region remained unsettled by whites.
From 1660 to the end of French rule, Michigan was part of the Royal Province of New France.[10] In 1759, following the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in the French and Indian War (1754–1763), Québec City fell to British forces. Under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, Michigan and the rest of New France passed to Great Britain.
During the American Revolutionary War,
Detroit was an important British supply center, but most of the
inhabitants were either Native Americans or French Canadians. Because
of imprecise cartography and unclear language defining the boundaries
in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, the British retained control of Detroit
and Michigan. When Quebec was split into Lower and Upper Canada in 1790, Michigan was part of Kent County,
Upper Canada. It held its first democratic elections in August 1792 to
send delegates to the new provincial parliament at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake).[11]
Under terms negotiated in the 1794 Jay Treaty,
Britain withdrew from Detroit and Michilimackinac in 1796. Questions
remained over the boundary for many years, and the United States did
not have uncontested control of the Upper Peninsula and Drummond Island until 1818 and 1847, respectively.
19th century
During the War of 1812, Michigan Territory
(effectively consisting of Detroit and the surrounding area) was
captured by the British and nominally returned to Upper Canada.
American forces forced the British out in 1813 and pushed into Canada.
The Treaty of Ghent
implemented the policy of "Status Quo Ante Bellum" or "Just as Things
Were Before the War." That meant Michigan stayed American, and 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 and of islands in the St. Clair River
delta was transferred from Ontario to Michigan in 1818. Mackinac Island
(to which the British had moved their Michilimackinac army base) was
transferred to the U.S. in 1847.
The population grew slowly until the opening of the Erie Canal
in 1825. This brought a large influx of settlers to Michigan because it
made transportation by ships through the Great Lakes possible. By the
1830s, Michigan had some 80,000 residents, which were more than enough
to apply for statehood.
In 1836 a state government was formed, although Congressional
recognition of the state was delayed pending resolution of a boundary
dispute with Ohio. Both states claimed a 468-square-mile (1,210 km²)
strip of land that included the newly incorporated city of Toledo on Lake Erie and an area to the west then known as the "Great Black Swamp." The dispute came to be called the Toledo War. Michigan and Ohio militia maneuvered in the area but never exchanged fire. Congress awarded the "Toledo Strip" to Ohio. Michigan received the western part of the Upper Peninsula as a concession and formally entered the Union on January 26, 1837.
Thought to be nearly valueless, the Upper Peninsula was discovered to be a rich and important source of lumber, iron, and copper. These became the state's most sought-after natural resources and generated early wealth. Geologist Douglass Houghton and land surveyor William Austin Burt
were among the first to document many of these resources. Developers
rushed to the state. Michigan led the nation in lumber production from
1850s to the 1880s. The lumber harvested in Michigan was shipped to the
rapidly developing prairie states, Chicago, to the eastern states, and even all of the way to Europe.
The Republican Party was founded in 1854 in Jackson, Michigan by abolitionist Whig Zachariah Chandler. Michigan made a significant contribution to the Union in the American Civil War and sent more than forty regiments of volunteers to the Federal armies.
20th century to present
- See also: History of Ford Motor Company
Michigan'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 Highland Park,
marked the beginning of a new era in transportation. Like the steamship
and railroad, it was a far-reaching development. More than the forms of
public transportation, the automobile transformed private life. It
became the major industry of Detroit and Michigan, and permanently
altered the socio-economic life of the United States and 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. Started because of ready sources of
lumber, the furniture industry declined in the late 20th century.
In 1910 Michigan held its first primary election.
In 1920 Detroit’s WWJ became the first radio station in the United
States to regularly broadcast commercial programs. Throughout that
decade, some of the country's largest and most ornate skyscrapers were built in the city. Particularly noteworthy are the Fisher Building, Cadillac Place, and the Guardian Building which are National Historic Landmarks.
Detroit boomed through the 1950s, at one point doubling its
population in a decade. Housing shortages and 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 shift to its suburbs, accelerating after
racial strife in the 1960s and high crime rates in the 1970s and 1980s.
Government programs such as road-building often facilitated suburban
growth.
Michigan is the leading auto producing state in the U.S even though
some of the industry has shifted to less expensive labor overseas and
in the Southern United States.[12]
Nevertheless, with more than ten million residents, Michigan continues
to grow and remains a large and influential state, ranking eighth in
population among the fifty states.
The Detroit metropolitan area
in the southeast corner of the state is the largest metropolitan area
in Michigan (roughly 50% of the population resides there) and one of
the ten largest metropolitan areas in the country. The Grand Rapids/Holland/Muskegon
metropolitan 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, and Detroit's population is still shrinking,
though strong redevelopment in central part of the cities and a
significant rise in population in the outskirts of the city are
contributing to some population inflow. A period of economic
transition, especially in manufacturing, has caused economic
difficulties in the region since the recession of 2001.
In late September 2007, Michigan faced a government shutdown over
balancing the budget. Michigan state constitution prohibits spending
money without a balanced budget by the start of the fiscal year (October 1). The state faced a $1.75 billion budget deficit. Governor Jennifer Granholm
refused to sign a budget that included cuts to public education, health
care, and public safety. About four hours after midnight on October 1,
the Republican-led Senate approved an income tax rate increase to 4.35%
(from 3.9%). The Senate also approved expanding the state’s 6% sales
tax to a broader list of services. The shutdown would have affected
35,000 state employees.[13]
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