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The first permanent settlement was founded in 1781 by Jean Baptiste
Point du Sable, an African American from Santo Domingo. The location
at the mouth of the Chicago river was chosen for its strategic value
for a trading post as the river connected the Lake with the Mississippi
river. Later the area at the mouth of the Chicago river was occupied
by a military base, Fort Dearborn. The Fort was regularly atacked by
Native Americans, until Chief Black Hawk was defeated in 1832. One year
later, Chicago was officially incorporated as a town and four years later,
when the population reached 4170, as a city. Its name was derived from
the native indian's word describing the area.
With the arrival of the railroads, the city of Chicago really started
to boom reaching a population of 300,000 in 1870. One year later, disaster
struck with the Great Chicago Fire laying the city in ashes. The fire destroyed
about 17450 buildings, but the Chicagoans quickly started to rebuild the
city. Just 6 weeks after the fire, construction of more than 300 buildings
had already begun. And in 1893 Chicago had recovered well enough to host
the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, commemorating the discovery by Columbus
of America 400 years ago.
The foundations of todays Chicago were laid out by some of the leading
architects reconstructing the city after the Great Fire.Daniel Burnham
designed the first visionary urban plan for a city, the 1909 Chicago plan.
It was nicknamed 'Paris on the Prairie' and included wide boulevards and
parks. |
