History

Various Native American tribes and peoples lived in the region where the state of Michigan is located today thousands of years before the arrival of the first Europeans. These tribes and peoples included the Chippewa, the Menomini, the Miami, the Ottawa, and the Potawatomi, indigenous tribes part of the Native American family of the Algonquins; in addition to the ferrets, who lived where the city of Detroit is located today. It is estimated that the indigenous population at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans was 15 thousand residents. The first European explorer of Michigan was the French Étienne Brûlé, who explored the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1620, departing from Quebec under the command of Samuel de Champlain. Eventually, Michigan became part of the French colonial province of Louisiana, one of the colonial provinces of New France. The first permanent European settlement in Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie, was founded by Jacques Marquette, a French missionary, in 1660. The French founded various commercial settlements, forts, and villages in Michigan in the late 17th century. Among them, the foundation of Fort Pontchartrain, current Detroit, founded by Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac stands out. However, French activities in the region were limited to hunting, commercial exchanges and catechizing of the local natives and very limited agriculture. In 1760, Michigan had only a few hundred residents during the War of Independence of the United States, much of Michigan, inhabited mainly by colonists who supported independence, rebelled against the British. These, with the help of local indigenous tribes, constantly attacked the rebel settlements in the region, and conquered Detroit. The Spanish, allies of the rebels, conquered St. Joseph from the British in 1781, and ceded control of the settlement to the rebels the next day. The war for independence ended in 1783, and Michigan came under the control of the newly formed United States of America. In 1787, the region became part of the Northwest Territory. The British, however, conquered Detroit in 1790, and only finally ceded the fort in 1796 to the United States. The growing population of Michigan began to demand the elevation of the territory of Michigan to the status of state. In 1835, the United States Congress approved the constitutional amendment that would elevate Michigan to the status of a state. Territorial disputes with Ohio, over a narrow piece of land, where the city of Toledo is located, postponed the elevation of Michigan to state status. This narrow strip became part of Ohio, by resolution of Congress, but in compensation Michigan received the Upper Peninsula. The Of January 26 of 1837, Michigan became the twenty sixth state of the Union, and with its current borders.

Geography

Abbreviated as MI by ABBREVIATIONFINDER, Michigan borders Lake Superior to the north, Lake Huron to the east, Indiana and Ohioto the south, and Lake Michigan to the west. The Canadian province of Ontario is located to the north, east and in the extreme southeast of Michigan, the states of Wisconsin and Illinois are located to the west and Minnesota is located in the northwest of Michigan. Detroit, located north of the Canadian city of Windsor, is the only major American city located north of a major Canadian city. Its territory occupies an area of ​​250,493 km², which for comparative purposes corresponds to half that of Spain. The coastline of Michigan is 5,292 kilometers long, along the Great Lakes that include about a thousand kilometers of coastline formed by islands located in these Great Lakes and by bays and estuaries along the coast of Michigan). Only Alaska, Louisiana and Floridathey have more extensive coastlines. The state is located on the edge of all the Great Lakes with the exception of Lake Ontario. No part of the state is more than 137 kilometers from the Great Lakes. Michigan also has more than 11,000 lakes. [5] No point in the state is located more than 10 kilometers from a lake. The state’s rivers are small, short, and shallow, and few are navigable. The main ones include the Au Sable, the Thunder Bay, the Cheboygan and the Saginaw, which flow into Lake Huron; the Ontonagon and the Tahquamenon, which flow into Lake Superior; and the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Grand, Muskegon, Manistee and Escanaba, which flow into Lake Michigan. Forests cover about half the state. Michigan is divided into two large peninsulas, separated by the Strait of Mackinac. The Upper Peninsula is the smaller of the two peninsulas, located in the northwest of the state. Compared to the rest of the state, it is sparsely inhabited, with only 325,000 residents. The Lower Peninsula is densely populated. About 97% of the state’s population lives in the Lower Peninsula. These peninsulas are only connected to each other by the Mackinac Strait Bridge. Michigan can be divided into two distinct geographic regions: • The Upper Highlands covers the extreme northwest of the state, or the west of the Upper Peninsula. This region has very rugged terrain. The highest point in the state, Mount Coorwood, is located in this region, with its 603 meters of altitude. This region is extremely rich in copper and iron. • The Great Lakes Plains occupy most of Michigan. This region is characterized by its low altitude, up to 174 meters on the edge of Lake Erie. This region is rich in swamps, rivers and lakes, and its soil is very fertile.

• CountryAAH: Offers a full list of cities and towns in Michigan, together with postal codes for each of them, and including capital city of Michigan.