Chicago in Depth - Chicago with Kids - page 287

Appendix B:
Chicago in Depth

by Elizabeth Canning Blackwell

1 History 101
By virtue of its location, Chicago
became the great engine of America's
westward expansion. The particular
patch of land where Chicago now
stands straddles a key point along an
inland water route linking Canada, via
Lake Erie, to New Orleans and the
Gulf of Mexico by way of the Missis-
sippi River.
The French, busy expanding their
own territory in North America
throughout the 17th and 18th cen-
turies, were the first Europeans to sur-
vey the topography of the future
Chicago. The French policy in North
America was simple—to gradually set-
tle the Mississippi Valley and the
Northwest Territory (modern Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin,
and Minnesota). The policy relied on
an alliance between religion and com-
merce: The French sought a monopoly
over the fur trade with the Native
American tribes, whose pacification
and loyalty they attempted to ensure by
converting them to Catholicism.
The team of Jacques Marquette, a
Jesuit missionary, and Louis Joliet, an
explorer, personified this policy to per-
fection. In 1673 the pair found a very
short portage between two critically
placed rivers, the Illinois and the Des
Plaines. One was connected to the
Mississippi, and the other, via the
Chicago River, was connected to Lake
Michigan and then onward to Mon-
treal and Quebec.
Chicago owes its existence to this
strategic 1 1 ⁄ 2 -mile portage trail that the
Native Americans had blazed in their

Dateline
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1673 French explorers Marquette and
Joliet discover portage at Chicago link-
ing the Great Lakes region with the
Mississippi River valley.

1779 Afro-French-Canadian trapper
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable estab-
lishes a trading post on the north bank
of the Chicago River. A settlement
follows 2 years later.

■

1794 Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne
defeats the British in the Battle of Fallen
Timbers; disputed Illinois Territory is
finally ceded to the young American
Republic by treaty a year later.

■

1803 Garrison of Fort Dearborn is
established in Chicago, commanded
by the grandfather of artist James
McNeill Whistler.

■

1812 Incited by the British in the War
of 1812, Pottawatomie Indians destroy
Fort Dearborn and slay its residents.

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1816 Fort Dearborn is rebuilt.

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1818 Illinois is admitted to the Union
as the 21st state.

■

1833 Town of Chicago is officially
incorporated, with little more than
300 residents.

■

1837 Chicago is incorporated as a
city, with about 4,000 residents.

■

1847 Chicago Tribune begins
publishing.

■

1848 The 96-mile Illinois and Michi-
gan Canal is opened, linking the Great
Lakes with the Mississippi River.

■

1850 Chicago's population is roughly
30,000.

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1856 Chicago is chief railroad center
in the United States.

■

1860 Republican National Conven-
tion in Chicago nominates Abraham
Lincoln for the presidency.

■

continues