A Little History of Chicago

The City Of Chicago
By Sharon White

A common theme of modernity, the shift from the agrarian to the metropolitan, presented itself in a far more dramatic fashion in Chicago than any of the established cities of the 19th century. The original inhabitants, the Potawatomi Indians, called the pungent, marshy region along the Lake Michigan, Chicagoua “the place of the wild onion or skunkweed.” Harmony with nature a goal, the Potawatomis avoided settlement in the unwelcoming swampland, preferring the vast plains to the west for their complex agricultural society. But, ever-industrious American pioneers saw the otherwise useless land as an ideal location between the oceans of their Manifest Destinies; and soon the Potawantomis gave up their claim to the marsh and the surrounding five million acres; plied with liquor by US Indian Agents, the marks of the tribal chiefs found a way onto the contracts.

With regard for the past firmly refused and a vision of the future undeniably ingrained, it took less than forty years for Chicago to evolve from a primordial swamp to a jungle of concrete, steel, sweat, and dreams of 300,000 urban pioneers. The story of modernity in Chicago began early in the incorporation of the city, with technological advancements making the city the world leader in grain, meatpacking, as well as the largest railroad hub in the world. But the modern city found its life in the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed over 17,000 buildings; this catastrophe cleared the way for the construction of a new era in architectural and engineering innovation--the modern era.

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