page_title: History of Michigan
section_title: From 1776 to 1837
hierarchical_section_title: History of Michigan / From 1776 to 1837
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a map showing state land claims and cessions from 1782-1802 that I made.The disputed territory between New Hampshire and New York formed, in 1777, the independent country of 'New Connecticut' (later renamed 'Vermont') which eventually gained admission as the 14th state in 1791. Boundary disputes between states that were resolved before U.S. independence are not shown.
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: During the American Revolution, the local European population, who were primarily American colonists that supported independence, rebelled against Britain. The British, with the help of local tribes, continually attacked American settlements in the region starting in 1776 and conquered Detroit. In 1781, Spanish raiders led by a French Captain Eugene Poure travelled by river and overland from St Louis, liberated British-held Fort St Joseph, and handed authority over the settlement to the Americans the following day. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, and Michigan passed into the control of the newly formed United States of America. The states of New York, Virginia, Massachusetts then Connecticut ceded their territorial rights over the land. In 1787, the region became part of the Northwest Territory. The majority of Indians did not recognize the new government and instead formed the Western Confederacy. General Anthony Wayne with his Kentucky marksmen won the Battle of Fallen Timbers which led to the end of hostilities and treaties recognizing federal government sovereignty. The British, however, continued to occupy Detroit and other fortifications. 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.
  The land which is now Michigan was made part of Indiana Territory in 1800. Most was declared as Michigan Territory in 1805, including all of the Lower Peninsula. During the War of 1812, British forces from Canada captured Detroit and Fort Mackinac early on, giving them a strategic advantage and encouraging native revolt against the United States. American troops retook Detroit in 1813 and Fort Mackinac was returned to the Americans at the end of the war in 1815.
  Over the 1810s, the indigenous Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes increasingly decided to oppose white settlement and sided with the British against the U.S. government.
  After their defeat in the War of 1812, the tribes were forced to sell all of their land claims to the U.S. federal government by the Treaty of Saginaw and the Treaty of Chicago. After the war, the government built forts in some of the northwest territory, such as at Sault Ste. Marie. In the 1820s, the U.S. government assigned Indian agents to work with the tribes, including arranging land cessions and relocation. They forced most of the Native Americans to relocate from Michigan to Indian reservations further west.
  In the 1820s and 1830s migrants from New England began moving to what is now Michigan in large numbers (though there was a trickle of New England settlers who arrived before this date).  These were "Yankee" settlers, that is to say they were descended from the English Puritans who settled New England during the colonial era.  While most of them came to Michigan directly from New England, there were many who came from upstate New York.  These were people whose parents had moved from New England to upstate New York in the immediate aftermath of the American Revolution.  Due to the prevalence of New Englanders and New England transplants from upstate New York, Michigan was very culturally contiguous with early New England culture for much of its early history.  The Yankee migration to Michigan was a result of several factors, one of which was the overpopulation of New England. The old stock Yankee population had large families, often bearing up to ten children in one household.  Most people were expected to have their own piece of land to farm, and due to the massive and nonstop population boom, land in New England became scarce as every son claimed his own farmstead.  As a result, there was not enough land for every family to have a self-sustaining farm, and Yankee settlers began leaving New England for the Midwestern United States.  This resulted in Michigan's population expanding rapidly in the 1820s.  The Erie Canal caused s
caption: Map of the original 13 colonies and their territories, note that Michigan was the object of multiple claims
exif: {}