The history of Ohio as a state began when
the Northwest Territory was divided in 1800 and
the remainder reorganized for admission to the
union in March, 1803 as the 17th state of the
United States. The recorded history of Ohio began
in the late 17th century when French explorers
from Canada reached the Ohio River, from which the
"Ohio Country" took its name, a river the Iroquois
called O-y-o, "great river". Before that, Native
Americans speaking Algonquin languages had
inhabited Ohio and the central midwestern United
States for hundreds of years until displaced by
the Iroquois in the latter part of the 17th
century. Other cultures not generally identified
as "Indians", including the Hopewell "mound
builders", preceded them. Human history in Ohio
began a few millennia after formation of the
Bering land bridge about 14,500BCE - see Clovis
Culture.
By the
mid-18th century, a few American and French fur
traders engaged historic Native American tribes in
present-day Ohio in the fur trade. The Native
Americans had their own extensive trading networks
across the continent before the Europeans arrived.
American settlement in the Ohio Country came after
the American Revolutionary War and the formation
of the United States, with its takeover of former
British territory. Congress prohibited slavery in
the Northwest Territory which presaged Ohio and
the five states of the Territory entering the
Union as free states. Ohio's population increased
rapidly after United States victory in the
Northwest Indian Wars brought peace to the Ohio
frontier. In 1803, Ohio was admitted to the union
as the 17th state. Settlement was chiefly by
migrants from New England, New York and
Pennsylvania. Southerners settled along the
southern part of the territory, arriving by travel
along the Ohio River from the Upper South.
Yankees, especially in the "Western reserve" (near
Cleveland), supported modernization, public
education, and anti-slavery policies. The state
supported the Union in the American Civil War,
although antiwar Copperhead sentiment was strong
in southern settlements.
After the
Civil War, Ohio developed as a major industrial
state. Ships traveled the Great Lakes to deliver
iron ore and other products from western areas.
This was also a route for exports, as were the
railroads. In the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, the fast-growing industries created
jobs that employed hundreds of thousands of
immigrants from Europe. In World War I Europe was
closed off to passenger traffic. A new wave of
migrants came from the South, with rural whites
from Appalachia, and African Americans in the
Great Migration from the Deep South, to escape Jim
Crow and violence.
The cultures
of Ohio's major cities became much more diverse
with the traditions, cultures, foods, and music of
the new arrivals. Ohio's industries were integral
to American industrial power in the 20th century.
In the later 20th century, economic restructuring
in steel, railroads, and other heavy manufacturing
cost the state many jobs as heavy industry
declined. American Revolution
During the
American Revolutionary War, Native Americans in
the Ohio Country were divided over which side to
support. For example, the Shawnee leader Blue
Jacket and the Delaware leader Buckongahelas sided
with the British. Cornstalk (Shawnee) and White
Eyes (Delaware) sought to remain friendly with the
rebellious colonists. There was major fighting in
1782. American colonial frontiersmen often did not
differentiate between friendly and hostile
Indians, however. Cornstalk was killed by American
militiamen, and White Eyes may have been. One of
the most tragic incidents of the war — the
Gnadenhutten massacre of 1782 — took place in
Ohio.
With the
American victory in the Revolutionary War, the
British ceded claims to Ohio and its territory in
the West as far as the Mississippi River to the
new nation. Between 1784 and 1789, the states of
Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut ceded
their earlier land claims to the Ohio territories
to Congress, but Virginia and Connecticut
maintained reserves. These areas were known as the
Virginia Military District and Connecticut Western
Reserve.
War of
1812 Ohio played a key role in the
War of 1812, as it was on the front line in the
Western theater and the scene of several notable
battles both on land and in Lake Erie. On
September 10, 1813, the Battle of Lake Erie, one
of the major battles, took place in Lake Erie near
Put-in-Bay, Ohio. The British eventually
surrendered to Oliver Hazard Perry.
