What's special about Michigan?

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

The state of Michigan is located in the northern part of the region, indicated on the geographical maps of the United States of America as the Midwest. Its territory is rich in minerals and other natural resources. The state is interesting both for its history and natural recreational potential, which attracts many tourists every year to the shores of the Great American Lakes.

From history

As a certain territory with the corresponding name, the state of Michigan took shape only at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Before that, the French, the British and the tribes of the indigenous inhabitants of these places competed for control over it. During the United States War of Independence, the Great Lakes were occupied by the British. Michigan acquired the status of a full-fledged state of the United States of America only in 1837, two years after the adoption of its own constitution and the settlement of territorial disputes with neighboring states. He was destined to become the twenty-sixth state that became part of the United States. The middle of the nineteenth century was marked by a stormyeconomic development of the Midwest. Not least, this was due to the construction of a waterway linking the American Great Lakes through the Erie Canal with the Hudson River. This federal project attracted significant material, financial and human resources to the region. During the Civil War, Michigan fought on the side of the North.

Geography and natural resources

The state of Michigan has, if not unique, then a highly peculiar geographical position. Its territory is divided into two large parts, washed by the waters of four of the five Great American Lakes. The natural system of these unique reservoirs is one of the world's largest reservoirs of fresh water. Its total volume is comparable only to the Siberian Lake Baikal. The two peninsulas that make up the bulk of Michigan's territory are separated by a water barrier. They are connected only by the Mackinac Bridge, built in 1957 in the narrowest part of the strait between the two lakes. The state has deposits of iron ore, which is a necessary basis for the development of metallurgy and heavy industry. On the territory of Michigan there are reserves of hydrocarbon energy carriers - oil and gas.

Economy and industry

The states of the Midwest have been the industrial heart of America since the mid-nineteenth century. It was in the northern part of the country that the basis of the economic power of the United States was concentrated for a significant historical period. State of Michiganplays an important role in it. It entered the history of the world economy due to the fact that here at the beginning of the twentieth century the principle of conveyor production was first applied in practice. This technology, pioneered at the Ford assembly plant in Detroit, has revolutionized not only the economy of the United States, but the face of human civilization as a whole.

Automotive Capital

Detroit is by far the largest and most famous city in the world in the state of Michigan. But today we have to talk about his title of the automobile capital only in the past tense. Back in the eighties of the last century, there was a tendency for the decline in automotive production. This does not mean that fewer cars have been produced. But there was a systemic restructuring of the industry, as a result of which most of the assembly plants moved to other regions of the world. And in the Detroit area, the headquarters of the leading automobile concerns and the infrastructure for ensuring the technological development of production remained. The management of the enterprises remained in Detroit, but the city of two million people is currently going through far from the best of times. It has a high level of unemployment, crime and social tension. Many historical buildings and entire neighborhoods are in disrepair and are gradually being destroyed.

Tourism

The state of Michigan, whose cities have been the country's largest industrial centers for two centuries,famous not only for the technological level of its industry. A significant segment of the state's economy is tied to its natural recreational potential. The unique geographical region of the American Great Lakes attracts many tourists from the interior of the continent and from other countries. To serve them, a deployed service infrastructure has been created, dispersed along the entire coast. In recent years and decades, significant funds have been invested in the protection of the unique ecosystem of the Great Lakes. And these investments gave the expected result - the ecological situation in the region has improved markedly. However, this is also due to the curtailment of a number of industrial production in the industrial area of Detroit.