History of Chicago

American history · Midwest · cities · transportation

French explorers arrived. In the late 1600s, French fur traders and missionaries came to the Chicago area and met the Potawatomi Native Americans who already lived there.

First permanent settler. Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Black freeman, became the first non-indigenous person to stay permanently in Chicago by 1790.

Fort Dearborn built. A fort was completed in 1804 to protect the small settlement, but it was abandoned during the War of 1812 when soldiers and settlers had to retreat.

City incorporated in 1837. Northern businessmen officially founded modern Chicago as a city in 1837, and it grew super fast because of real estate deals and its perfect location for transportation.

Transportation hub. Chicago became huge because it sat right between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, controlling how goods and people traveled between the eastern states and the western frontier.