Travelling up the Detroit River on LaSalle's ship Le Griffon, Father Louis Hennepin noted Detroit as an ideal location for a settlement. French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded a fort and settlement at Detroit called Fort Pontchartrain d'Étroit in 1701. The British gained control of the area in 1760 following the French and Indian War. Three years later, during Pontiac's Rebellion, an unsuccessful siege of Fort Detroit occurred with Native Americans, led primarily by Chief Pontiac, an Ottawa war leader. In 1796, Detroit passed to the United States under the Jay Treaty. In 1805, fire destroyed almost the entire city—a river warehouse and brick chimneys of the wooden homes were the sole structures to survive.

From 1805 to 1847, Detroit was the capital of Michigan. Detroit fell to British troops during the War of 1812 in the Siege of Detroit, was recaptured by the United States in 1813 and incorporated as a city in 1815. Prior to the American Civil War, the city's access to the Canadian border made it a key stop along the underground railroad.

Strategically located along the Great Lakes waterway, Detroit emerged as a transportation hub. The city grew steadily from the 1830s with the rise of shipping, shipbuilding, and manufacturing industries. A thriving carriage trade prompted Henry Ford to build his first automobile in 1896 in a rented workshop on Mack Avenue, and in 1904, the Model T was produced. Ford's manufacturing—and those of automotive pioneers William C. Durant, the Dodge brothers, and Louis Chevrolet—reinforced Detroit's status as the world's automotive capital. The industry spurred the city's spectacular growth during the first half of the 20th century and drew many new residents, particularly from the southern United States. Strained racial relations was evident in the trial of Ossian Sweet, a black Detroit physician acquitted of murder after he shot into a large mob when he moved from the all-black part of the city to an all-white area. With the introduction of prohibition, the river was a major conduit for Canadian spirits, organized in large part by the notorious Purple Gang.

With the factories came high-profile labor strife, climaxing in the 1930s as the United Auto Workers initiated bitter disputes with Detroit's auto manufacturers. The labor activism established during those years brought notoriety to hometown union leaders such as Jimmy Hoffa and Walter Reuther. The 1940s saw the construction of the world's first urban depressed freeway, the Davison and the industrial growth during World War II that led to Detroit's nickname as the Arsenal of Democracy.

Detroit has endured a painful decline since the 1950s, and is often held up as a symbol of Rust Belt urban blight. The 12th Street Riot in 1967 and court-ordered busing accelerated "white flight" from the city. Large numbers of buildings and homes were abandoned, with many remaining for years in a state of decay. The percentage of black residents increased rapidly, and the city's first black mayor, Coleman Young, was elected in 1973. Young's style during his record five terms in office was not well received by many whites.

The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of heroin, and a crack cocaine epidemic. Drug-related property crimes and violence among competing drug dealers rose, and urban renewal efforts led to the razing of abandoned homes. Sizeable tracts have reverted to nature, to become a form of urban prairie with wild animals spotted migrating into the city.

"Renaissance" has been a perennial buzzword among leaders since the 1967 riots, reinforced by the construction of the Renaissance Center in the early 1970s. It was not until the 1990s that Detroit enjoyed a moderate revival, much of it centered downtown. In 1996, three casinos opened: MGM Grand Detroit, Motor City Casino, and Greektown Casino. In 2000, amid controversy, Comerica Park replaced historic Tiger Stadium as the home of the Detroit Tigers. And in 2002, Ford Field brought the NFL's Detroit Lions back into Detroit from Pontiac. The 2004 opening of the Compuware Center gave downtown Detroit its first significant new office building in a decade.

Despite improvement in recent years, Detroit's crime figures are often among the highest in the U.S. The city is currently listed as the most dangerous city with more than 500,000 by the Morgan Quitno's statistics, but comes after Camden, New Jersey. Detroit is consistently in the top five for homicide rates. Murders peaked at 714 in 1974, though the highest murder rate was recorded in 1991, when there were 615 homicides and the city's population was just over a million. In 2003, there were 361 homicides, the lowest count in recent years.

Many of these problems are blamed on the widespread middle-class flight (which has contributed greatly to urban decay), poverty, de facto segregation of the region, and unemployment. Abandoned and burned out shells of buildings are a frequent sight, with some 16,037 empty houses recorded in 1999. The city lacks funding to demolish the properties and the homes are often used as crack houses.

Abandoned buildings are often left to the elements with the city government having no funds for removal. An analysis of crime in downtown Detroit by the Michigan Metropolitan Information Center at Wayne State University found crime rates in the central city lower than rates for the entire nation, state and other large Michigan metro areas - and improving. Detroit also includes middle-class neighborhoods in which crime is less prevalent than in impoverished areas.

The city has faced hundreds of arsons, often in the city's many abandoned homes, each year on Devil's Night, the evening before Halloween. The Angel's Night campaign, launched in the late 1990s, draws many volunteers to patrol the streets during Halloween week. The effort has reduced arson: while there were 810 fires set in 1984, this was reduced to 142 in 1996.

Brutality and the failure to ensure the rights of suspects has caused problems within the Detroit Police Department. In 2004, following scandals and multiple adverse legal decisions, a court-ordered reorganization of the Detroit Police Department was implemented under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

CONTRIBUTOR:
WIKIPEDIA- The Free Encyclopedia...