Wisconsin enters the Union
Following approval of statehood by the territorys citizens Wisconsin enters the Union as the 30th state.In 1634 French explorer Jean Nicolet landed at Green Bay becoming the first European to visit the lake-heavy northern region that would later become Wisconsin.In 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian Wars the region a major center of the American fur trade passed into British control.Two decades later at the end of the American Revolution the region came under U.S.
rule and was governed as part of the Northwest Territory.However British fur traders continued to dominate Wisconsin from across the Canadian border and it was not until the end of the War of 1812 that the region fell firmly under American control.In the first decades of the 19th century settlers began arriving via the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes to exploit Wisconsins agricultural potential and in 1832 the Black Hawk War ended Native American resistance to white settlement.In 1836 after several decades of governance as part of other territories Wisconsin was made a separate entity with Madison located midway between Milwaukee and the western centers of population marked as the territorial capital.
By 1840 population in Wisconsin had risen above 130000 but the people voted against statehood four times fearing the higher taxes that would come with a stronger central government.Finally in 1848 Wisconsin citizens envious of the prosperity that federal programs brought to neighboring Midwestern states voted to approve statehood.Wisconsin entered the Union the next May.
