USA Michigan - The History : USA  

USA Michigan - The History - Travel guide

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USA Michigan - The History

The History

In 1673, Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette, fur trader Louis Jolliet and five voyageurs leave the recently established Indian mission at St. Ignace to explore a great river known by the Indians as the "Messissipi." The French have been exploring the Great Lakes since Etienne Brulé reached the St. Marys River around 1620.

Robert Cavelier Sieur de la Salle builds Fort Miami in 1679 at present-day St. Joseph.

Around 1701, French army officer, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac establishes the French settlement le détroit (the straits) . Cadillac has convinced King Louis XIV's chief minister, Count Pontchartrain, that a permanent community at present-day Detroit will strengthen French control over the upper Great Lakes and repel British advances. The one hundred soldiers and workers that accompany Cadillac build a 200-square-foot palisade and name it Fort Pontchartrain.

By the mid-eighteenth century, the French will also occupy forts at present-day Niles and Sault Ste. Marie. However, they will lose their North American empire when the British defeat them in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). By 1760 the Union Jack will fly over the Great Lakes.

After several Indian attacks, led by such leaders as Pontiac, Detroit is the only British post west of Niagara, New York, that has not fallen to the Indians. To maintain peace the British close the west to white settlement.

U.S. regulars under the command of Lt. Colonel John F. Hamtramck enter Detroit and replace the British Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes on JULY 11, 1796.

MARCH 6, 1896. Charles King of Detroit is the first person to test drive a gasoline-powered automobile in Michigan. Three months later, also in Detroit, Henry Ford drives his gasoline-powered, two-cylinder quadri-cycle. But it is Ransom E. Olds of Lansing who starts Michigan's first auto company. Like King and Ford, Olds develops a gasoline-powered engine; by 1914, 78 percent of the nation's automobiles will be produced in Michigan.

In 1935 the newly formed United Automobile Workers of America (UAW), armed with the Wagner Act that guarantees workers the right to organize and bargain collectively, has been confronting GMC--the nation's largest auto manufacturer. Despite charges of low wages and degrading working conditions, GMC has refused to recognize a single union as the worker's sole representative. The Flint sit-down strike ends in early February when GMC agrees to recognition and other demands. Other auto manufacturers soon recognize the UAW, but the Ford Motor Company will hold out until May 1941. Nevertheless, the Flint sit-down strike makes Michigan one of the nation's most powerful union states.

Michigan became the 26th State to Unite under America on January 26, 1837.