Chicago History of Chicago Museum
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Many Indian tribes were living in the area of the Chicago river by the time the government first established historic Fort Dearborn there in 1803 as a trading and supply point at the centre of the expansion west.
The town itself Chicago was born in 1833, and quickly grew in size, as the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, that would link the city to the Mississippi River, and the Caribbean began.
When it was completed in 1848, the Chicago Board of trade was formed, and began to manage the sale of produce grown in the area to the rest of the country.
By the time the railways linked Chicago to the rest of the country, the city was already established as an important trade centre, but soon it became the most important city for the movement of freight, and the hub of the transport network, a role it fulfils to this day as the centre of the airline passenger network for American and United Airlines.
When the manufacturing and farming industries began to decline in the 1970s, Chicago reinvented itself as a major finance centre, and the construction of the Sears tower consolidated its position as a modern forward planning city.
The election of the country's first black mayor Richard J Daley in the 1970s also saw the beginning of great integration in the city, a trend followed by his son in the 1980s. And now Chicago is well on its way to becoming one of the most important cities in the country.
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