page_title: History of Michigan
section_title: After 1941
hierarchical_section_title: History of Michigan / After 1941
caption_attribution_description: English: Gerald Ford's presidential portrait
context_page_description: The history of human activity in Michigan, a U.S. state in the Great Lakes, began with settlement of the western Great Lakes region by Native Americans perhaps as early as 11,000 BCE. The first European to explore Michigan, Étienne Brûlé, came in about 1620. The area was part of Canada from 1668 to 1763. In 1701, the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, along with fifty-one additional French-Canadians, founded a settlement called Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, now the city of Detroit. When New France was defeated in the French and Indian War, it ceded the region to Britain in 1763. After the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War, the Treaty of Paris expanded the United States' boundaries to include nearly all land east of the Mississippi River and south of Canada. Michigan was then part of the "Old Northwest". From 1787 to 1800, it was part of the Northwest Territory. In 1800, the Indiana Territory was created, and most of the current state Michigan lay within it, with only the easternmost parts of the state remaining in the Northwest Territory.
context_section_description: The entry of the United States into World War II in 1941 the same year ended the economic contraction in Michigan. Wartime required the large-scale production of weapons and military vehicles, leading to a massive number of new jobs being filled. After the end of the war, both the automotive and copper mining industries recovered.
  Starting during World War I, the Great Migration fueled the movement of hundreds of thousands of African-Americans from the South to industrial jobs in Michigan especially in Detroit. Migration of white southerners from Appalachia to the city increased the volatility of change. Population increases continued with industrial expansion during World War II and afterward. African Americans contributed to a new vibrant urban culture, with expansion of new music, food and culture.
  The postwar years were initially a prosperous time for industrial workers, who achieved middle-class livelihoods, fostered the Baby Boom, and sought better, more spacious housing in safer neighborhoods. These were the years of the creation and popularity of Motown Records. By late mid-century, however, deindustrialization and restructuring cost many jobs. The economy suffered and the city postponed needed changes. Neglect of social problems and urban decline fed racial conflicts. In 1967 there was a major riot in Detroit that burned out the inner city, caused tens of millions of dollars in damages, and resulted in 43 deaths with The U.S. Army being called in to stop it. The violence then spread to several other Michigan cities and was the trigger for a mass migration to the suburbs.
  The 1973 Oil Crisis caused economic recession in the United States and greatly affected the Michigan economy. Afterward, automobile companies in the United States faced greater multinational competition, especially from Japan. As a consequence, domestic auto makers enacted cost-cutting measures to remain competitive at home and abroad. Unemployment rates rose dramatically in the state.
  Throughout the 1970s, Michigan possessed the highest unemployment rate of any U.S. state. Large spending cuts to education and public health were repeatedly made in an attempt to reduce growing state budget deficits. A strengthening of the auto industry and an increase in tax revenue stabilized government and household finances in the 1980s. Increasing competition by Japanese and South Korean auto companies continues to challenge the state economy, which depends heavily on the automobile industry. Since the late 1980s, the Michigan government has actively sought to attract new industries, thus reducing economic reliance on a single sector.
caption: Gerald Ford, a politician from Grand Rapids who was elected to the House of Representatives thirteen times and also served as House Minority Leader and then Vice President, became the 38th President of the United States after the resignation of Richard Nixon.
exif: {"Image DateTime": "2019:09:06 16:38:17", "Image ExifOffset": "58", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "106", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4831"}