MTTC 105 SS Michigan History Exam
Questions with Correct Answers
After France's defeat in the French and Indian War, - Answer-fears that the British
would turn the area over to English farmers from the coastal colonies, with the
consequent destruction of the Indian way of life, led the Indians at Detroit to rebel in
May 1763, under the leadership of the Ottawa chief Pontiac.
Pontiac - Answer-gave up his siege of Detroit after six months, and by 1764 the British
were in firm control. Nevertheless, the British authorities did not attempt to settle the
area. The need to protect the fur trade placed the people of Michigan solidly on the
British side during the American Revolution, since a rebel triumph would likely mean the
migration of American farmers into the west, converting the wilderness to cropland.
The British - Answer-occupied Michigan and other western areas for 13 years after the
Treaty of Paris in 1783 had assigned these territories to the new United States. The US
finally got possession of Michigan in the summer of 1796.
Michigan became a center of action in the War of 1812. - Answer-The capture of Detroit
by the British on 16 August 1812 was a crushing defeat for the Americans. Although
Detroit was recaptured by the Americans in September 1813, continued British
occupation of the fort on Mackinac Island, which they had captured in 1812, enabled
them to control most of Michigan. The territory was finally returned to American
authority under the terms of the Treaty of Ghent at the end of 1814. With the opening in
1825 of the Erie Canal, which provided a cheap, all-water link between Michigan and
New York City, American pioneers turned their attention to these northern areas, and
during the 1820s settlers for the first time pushed into the interior of southern Michigan.
In 1835, - Answer-Michigan militia defeated the efforts of Ohio authorities to take over
the disputed area during the so-called Toledo War, in which no one was killed.
Nevertheless, Ohio's superior political power in Congress ultimately forced Michigan to
agree to relinquish the Toledo Strip. As part of the compromise that finally brought
Michigan into the Union on 26 January 1837, the new state was given land in the upper
peninsula west of St. Ignace as compensation for the loss of Toledo.
Stevens T. Mason, - Answer-who had led the drive for statehood, became Michigan's
first elected governor, but he and the Democratic Party fell out of grace when the new
state was plunged into financial difficulties during the depression of the late 1830s. The
party soon returned to power and controlled the state until the mid-1850s. In Michigan,
as elsewhere, it was the slavery issue that ended Democratic dominance.
In July 1854, - Answer-antislavery Democrats joined with members of the Whig and
Free-Soil parties at a convention in Jackson to organize the Republican Party. In the
, elections of 1854, the Republicans swept into office in Michigan, controlling the state,
with rare exceptions, until the 1930s.
Zachariah Chandler - Answer-was one of the leaders of the Radical Republicans in the
US Senate who fought for a harsh policy toward the South during Reconstruction.
Agriculture - Answer-sparked the initial growth of the new state and was responsible for
its rapid increase in population. By 1850, the southern half of the lower peninsula was
filling up, with probably 85% of the state's population dependent in some way on
agriculture for a living.
exploitation of vast pine forests in northern Michigan - Answer-had made the state the
top lumber producer in the US. Settlers were also attracted to the same area by the
discovery of rich mineral deposits, which made Michigan for a time the nation's leading
source of iron ore, copper, and salt around 1868
Toward the end of the 19th century, - Answer-as timber resources were being
exhausted and as farming and mining reached their peak stages of development, new
opportunities in manufacturing opened up. Such well-known Michigan companies as
Kellogg, Dow Chemical, and Upjohn had their origins during this period. The furniture
industry in Grand Rapids, the paper industry in Kalamazoo, and numerous other
industries were in themselves sufficient to ensure the state's increasing industrial
importance.
Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi Native Americans - Answer-three Michigan earliest
tribes
first Europeans in Michigan - Answer-the French and French-Canadians in the 1600s
and early 1700s, British in the late 1700s
early 1800s - Answer-New Englanders moved into Michigan's southern counties in large
numbers attracted to the state's lumber, mining and automobile industries
Michigan's major industries - Answer-manufacturing, tourism and agriculture
Michigan government - Answer-follows the federal plan of three branches-executive,
legislative and judicial. In both the executive and legislative branches, elected state
officials are limited in the number of terms they can serve in particular positions.
mining in Michigan - Answer-Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula mines produced more
native copper ore than any other mining area in North America.
mining in Michigan - Answer-Michigan's Lake Superior region has geologic formations
containing large concentrations of iron.
mining in Michigan - Answer-Oil and gas fields are found in 64 of Michigan's 83 counties
