Blackwell Reference Online

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In 1686 the French built the first white settlement in Minn, at Fort St Antoine, on Lake Pepin. The French only used the area as a source of furs and transferred possession of its eastern portion to Britain by the treaty of P aris (1763). The US acquired the remainder by the L ouisiana P urchase . In 1819 the US built Fort Snelling (near St Paul). Large-scale Anglo-American settlement began after the first major land cession by Indians in 1837. Minnesota Territory was created on 3 March 1849, and its population skyrocketed from 6,077 in 1850 to 172,023 a decade later. In 1860 it ranked 30th among states in poulation, 30th in the value of its farmland and livestock, and 31st in manufactures; 34 percent of its people were foreign-born. Minn, became the 32nd state on 11 May 1858. During the C ivil W ar , it sent 24,020 men (including 104 blacks) to the USA Army. In 1862, the first S ioux W ar temporarily threw back the frontier. Wheat became the state's main export in the 1860s, lumbering flourished in north Minn, from 1870 to 1900, and iron mines became the main US source of that metal between 1884 and 1911. In 1900, Minn, had 1,751,394 residents, of whom 66 percent were rural, 99 percent were white, and 29 percent were foreign-born; it ranked 19th among the states in population, 11th in the value of its agricultural products and 13th in manufactures. By 1990, Minn, had 4,375,099 ... log in or subscribe to read full text