“If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.”

Michigan (MI) is a state in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions of the United States of America, whom they joined as its 26th state in 1837. The two peninsula region is best known for housing the city of Detroit, who once housed its capital before it relocated to Lansing in 1847.

After the last glacial period, some humans ventured forth into the Americas and some bands or tribes would settle in the Northeastern Woodlands. The first European explorers would then arrive in the 17th century, noting that this certain region was home to several Anishinaabe tribes. From there, this land was taken into New France's Canada or Pays d'en Haut and the interactions began.

Then in the 1650s, the Iroquois began the Beaver Wars for the Dutch and English, pushing the native Anishinaabe tribes out. It later ended with a stalemate and the 1701 Nanfan Treaty releasing the region over to the British, but the French assumed control, then a historically significant Seven Years' War gave it to British Quebec with the signing of the 1763 Treaty of Paris.

The Statesian Revolution occurs shortly after, thus the Statesians called it the Northwest Territory and Indiana Territory before it became Michigan Territory in 1805. Detroit was temporarily captured by the British in the War of 1812, but the Statesians regained control in the Battle of Lake Erie. For the 1830s, Michigan sought statehood and broke apart from what became Wisconsin Territory next.

However, the Toledo War boundary dispute with Ohio impeded this. Michigan rightfully owned the Toledo Strip, but the odds were against them politically, so the state was forced to settle with the remainder of the upper peninsula and statehood. There was a Statesian Civil War, then in 20th century, Michigan became a hotspot for automotive jobs and drew in migrants of varying backgrounds.

Detroit became the United States' fourth-largest city by the 1920s, then the Great Depression hit and left people without jobs, but it also left a need for the United Auto Workers labor union in 1935. The world entered World War II, then this post-war economic boom allowed industrial workers to have comfortable middle-class lifestyles and southerners would help form a unique culture in the city of Detroit.

It all fell apart once deindustrialization hit the Rust Belt region and politicians were useless, choosing to feed race tensions as jobs were lost and triggering the 1967 Detroit riot. The 1973 oil crisis followed and the automotive industry took a hit from non-domestic competitors rising in Japan and South Korea, so the state was now scrambling to attract industries it could shift its economic stress onto.

But NAFTA and the Great Recession served the finishing blow, jobs moved and human capital flight took place, mostly to the Sun Belt region who tax businesses less and don't really have labor unions.

In 1854, Jackson, Michigan saw the birth of the Republican Party who had a strong grip on the state until the Great Depression. Once that happened, Michigan alternated between Democratic and Republican. We later see Michigan in the blue wall, but the Democratic Party have always lacked political strength within the swing stage, so they broke apart in 2016 while electing a Democratic governor.

^{Note: TV stations marked with an asterisk (*) are owned or operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, a television station operator that has been accused and criticized for spreading Orwellian-like conservative propaganda to its local news stations.}

• It's a place within the United States of America that starts with the letter “M”.¹⁾ :)
  • There was supposed to be more to this article. I wanted to do more with media and transportation, but I couldn't do much, so I apologize if the history and politics took up half the page.
• The demonym for Michigan residents is “Michigander” or “Michiganian”.
  • The alleged controversy with “Michigander” stems from the rumor that Abraham Lincoln used it as an insult²⁾ against Lewis Cass during the 1848 U.S. presidential election.
  • In the past, this was a way to tell if a person read the Detroit Free Press or The Detroit News as the latter refused to use “Michigander”.³⁾ Today, “Michigander” is winning.
• The state animal is the wolverine and they are not endangered, just extremely rare in Michigan, possibly as a result of the entire wolverine fur trade between the natives and the colonists.
• It is home to the world-famous Michigan left, also known as a Michigan J-turn, a median U-turn, etc.
• Despite housing the “Automotive Capital”, their underfunded infrastructure means bad roads.⁴⁾
• The city of Detroit has teams in all four major sports leagues, but most of them are in the process of rebuilding at the time of this writing, so there's not much to be excited for. FUCK 🚫HI🚫.
• I do not forgive former governor Rick Synder for watering down the minimum wage bill in 2018. We could've had a $12/hr minimum wage by 2024, but now we have to wait until the 2030s.⁵⁾⁶⁾⁷⁾

• Michigan on Wikipedia