Michigan, in the Midwestern United States, is named after Lake Michigan. It is the French pronunciation of the Ojibwa word mishigami, meaning “big water”. Ojibwa is spoken by Native Americans in Canada and the north of the United States. Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline in the world, bordering four of the five Great Lakes and Lake Saint Clair. Michigan is the only state in the USA that consists of two peninsulas. The southern peninsula (Lower Peninsula) is also known as “the mitten” (the middle) because of its shape. The Northern Peninsula (Upper Peninsula) is separated from the Southern Peninsula by the Strait of Mackinac, a 5-mile (8 km) wide canal. The Strait of Mackinac connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The Mackinac Bridge crosses the waterway and connects both parts of Michigan. Between the two pillars, the suspension bridge has one of the longest spans in the world. Centuries before the country was colonized by Europeans, it was populated by a wide variety of Native Americans. Among them were such tribes as the Ottawa, Anishnabe, Potawatone, Mascouten, Miami, Wyandot (better known as the Huron). The French, with the discoverer Étienne Brûlé, came to the country as the first Europeans in 1622. The first settlements emerged in 1641. During the American Revolutionary War, Detroit developed into an important supply base for the British. Due to inaccurate maps and unclear language in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, the British retained control of Detroit and Michigan. With the division of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada in 1790, Michigan became part of Kent County in Upper Canada. In 1813 American forces pushed the British into Canada and the Treaty of Ghent agreed that Michigan remained American. After disputes with Ohio, but settled without force of arms, Michigan received the western portion of the Upper Peninsula, and formally joined the Union on January 26, 1836. Far-reaching changes in the economy of the state took place on the threshold of the 20th century. Henry Ford’s first car factory in Highland Park marked the beginning of a new era. The car has fundamentally changed people’s lives. The auto industry settled in and around Detroit and became the state’s main industry. Check topschoolsoflaw.com for brief history of the state of Michigan.