Wisconsin Admitted to the Union
Wisconsin was admitted to the United States as the 30th state on May 29, 1848, marking a significant milestone in the expansion of the Union. The area, previously part of the Northwest Territory acquired after the American Revolution, saw early European exploration and trade beginning with Jean Nicolet’s visit in 1634. France and later England influenced the region's history, particularly through the fur trade and interactions with Native American tribes. Following the American Revolution, Wisconsin gradually transitioned to U.S. governance, marked by treaties that ceded Native American land to American settlers.
As settlers poured into Wisconsin, driven by mining and agricultural opportunities, the territory was established in 1836, with Madison designated as its capital. The path to statehood included drafting a constitution, which underwent revisions to better reflect public sentiment. The successful adoption of a more acceptable constitution culminated in Wisconsin's official statehood in 1848, integrating it into the growing fabric of the United States. This event is a reflection of the complex interactions among European powers, indigenous populations, and American settlers that shaped Wisconsin's identity and development.
Wisconsin Admitted to the Union
Wisconsin Admitted to the Union
Wisconsin, the 30th state, entered the Union on May 29, 1848. It was the last state to be formed in its entirety from the old Northwest Territory, which the United States had acquired after the American Revolution. Including the whole area north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, the territory held within its boundaries the present-day states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, parts of Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Jean Nicolet, a Frenchman, was the first known European to visit Wisconsin. Nicolet's sojourn at Green Bay in 1634 began a highly profitable fur trade between his countrymen and the native tribes of the region. In 1654 and 1655 Médart Chouart de Groseilliers, and Pierre-Esprit Radisson explored the Green Bay region of present Wisconsin. From 1659 to 1660 they investigated the Lake Superior section of Wisconsin. In 1660 seven French traders went to Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior, and between 1679 and 1689 Daniel Greysolon Duluth, investigated the lands west of Lake Superior and some tributaries of the Mississippi River. Nicolas Perrot in the same era built posts, extended French influence among the native tribes, and officially claimed the whole upper Mississippi for the king of France in 1689.
Roman Catholic priests were among the earliest Europeans in Wisconsin. The Jesuit Réne Ménard, who accompanied the Chequamegon Bay exploration in 1660, was the first of many missionaries who worked in what is now Wisconsin among such tribes as the Winnebago, Chippewa, Menominee, Fox, Sauk, and Potawatomie. Father Claude Allouez founded a mission at Chequamegon Bay in 1665, and later established a successful mission at De Pere. Father Jacques Marquette, forced to abandon the Chequamegon mission in 1671, went on to found the mission of St. Ignace on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinac. There he was joined by Louis Joliet in December 1672. The next spring the two embarked on an expedition of the upper Mississippi territory.
Early in the 18th century, England emerged as France's primary adversary in the Wisconsin area. Native allies of the French killed a band of the Fox near Detroit in 1712, and a series of wars lasting until 1740 between the French and the area tribes ensued. In the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1763, England ultimately defeated the French and drove them from North America. The English then solidified their control of the region by putting down the native insurgency led by Chief Pontiac in1765 and by taking over operation of the fur trade.
Wisconsin's traders remained loyal to England during the American Revolution. One of them, the mixed-blood Charles Michel de Langlade, who had fought against the English in the French and Indian War, led raids against American settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains in the later conflict. The efforts of the pro-British traders were to no avail, however, and Wisconsin became part of the United States by the Treaty of Paris, which concluded the American Revolution in 1783. British traders from Montreal nevertheless continued to exploit the fur trade in the area until the conclusion of the War of 1812.
United States Army garrisons erected at Fort Howard (Green Bay) and Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) in 1816 gave evidence of increased American activity in Wisconsin. The area was part of the Indiana Territory from 1800 until 1809 and part of the Illinois Territory from 1809 to 1818. In 1818 Wisconsin became part of the Michigan Territory until 1836, sending representatives to the legislature's sessions in Detroit after 1824. Between 1829 and 1848, 11 treaties extinguished Native American titles to Wisconsin land and increased the acreage available to American settlers.
Americans began to go to Wisconsin in significant numbers after the War of 1812. Members of the American Fur Company capitalized on an 1816 law excluding foreigners from the pelt trade. After 1822 miners poured into the southwestern sector of Wisconsin to search for lead deposits; their numbers reached 2,500 by 1830. Many of the miners returned south every autumn to avoid the harsh winters, and they earned the nickname “suckers” after a Mississippi River fish with similar habits. The more hardy adventurers, who passed the winters in hillside caves in Wisconsin, gained the sobriquet “badgers,” and this tenacious creature became a nickname for the state and its people.
Pioneers continued to enter Wisconsin, especially after the Black Hawk War of 1832 broke the remaining power of the Native Americans. The government opened public land offices at Mineral Point in 1834 and at Green Bay in 1835. By the end of 1836 settlers, many of whom came from eastern states, purchased 878,014 acres. These newcomers gravitated towards the southeast region of Wisconsin and founded Milwaukee and other cities along the Lake Michigan shore.
Wisconsin gained territorial status in 1836, with its territory extending all the way west to the Missouri River. Henry Dodge, a hero in the Black Hawk War, became governor. The first legislature, which met at Old Belmont in Lafayette County, selected Madison as the permanent capital. Although it shrank in size when the Iowa Territory, extending west from the Mississippi to the Missouri, was carved out of it in 1838, the Wisconsin Territory continued to grow in population. On August 10, 1846, Congress authorized the convocation of a constitutional convention, a key step on the road to statehood. The electorate rejected the first proposed constitution, which had controversial provisions concerning women's rights and an elective judicial system. A second convention drew up a frame of government more acceptable to the voters, and Wisconsin entered the Union on May 29, 1848.