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88-590: The Basin is at the center of the Great Lakes region . The basin is home to 37 million people. It hosts seven of Canada's 20 largest census metropolitan areas , namely Toronto , Hamilton , Kitchener – Cambridge – Waterloo , London , St. Catharines – Niagara , Windsor , and Oshawa . Also, the American cities of Duluth , Milwaukee , Chicago , Gary , Detroit , Toledo , Cleveland , Erie , Buffalo , Rochester , and Syracuse , among others, are located in

176-1146: A concentration of economic power , industrial workers organized the Congress of Industrial Organizations , a coherent agricultural cooperative movement, and the Progressive politics led by Wisconsin's Governor and Senator Robert M. La Follette . State universities, professional social work, and unemployment and workers' compensation were some of the region's permanent contributions to American social policy. The Great Lakes region has produced globally influential breakthroughs in agricultural technology, transportation and building construction. Cyrus McCormick 's reaper, John Deere 's steel plow, Joseph Dart ( Dart's Elevator ), and George Washington Snow's balloon-frame construction are some of innovations that made significant, global impact. The University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University figured prominently in developing nuclear power . Automobile manufacture developed simultaneously in Ohio and Indiana and became centered in

264-452: A depression in the upland area, independent of the overlap of Palaeozoic strata. The western half of the basin occupies a trough of synclinal structure. The Great Lakes receive the drainage of a small peripheral land area, enclosed by a water-parting from the rivers that run to Hudson Bay or the Gulf of Saint Lawrence on the north and to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. The three lakes of

352-768: A distinctive historical, economic, and cultural identity. A portion of the region also encompasses the Great Lakes megalopolis . State and provincial governments are represented in the Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers , which also serves as the Secretariat to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Compact and the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement . The Great Lakes region takes its name from

440-807: A fabled Northwest Passage to Asia generated sporadic but intense competition among the three most powerful northwest Europe imperial nations to control the territory. A century and a half of naval and land wars among France, The Netherlands and Britain resulted finally in British control of the region, from the Ohio River to the Arctic, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Beyond the region, North American claims remained disputed among Britain, France, Spain and Russia. Britain defeated France decisively at

528-554: A fall of 326 feet (99 m) (160 feet (49 m) at the cataract) in 30 miles (48 km), is thought to have been of recent origin, as an older river would have a mature valley. The original valley that is thought to have connected the two depressions through the Niagara Escarpment is thought to have been at the present route of the Welland Canal , and to have been completely filled with glacial drift . The same

616-554: A result of industrialization, the population became more concentrated into urban areas. In part to balance democratic representation against the economic and political power of these corporations, the region hosted industrial labor organization, consolidated agricultural cooperatives and state educational systems. The Big Ten Conference memorializes the nation's first region in which every state sponsored major research, technical-agricultural, and teacher-training colleges and universities. The Congress of Industrial Organizations grew out of

704-672: A strong, established Lutheran tradition (as established by populations from Nordic and Germanic countries), but this tradition has become more diversified in recent years. Large professional sports leagues such as the National Football League (NFL), the Canadian Football League (CFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Soccer (MLS) have team franchises in several cities in

792-535: Is 1,344,200 square kilometres (518,998.5 sq mi), of which 839,200 km (324,016.9 sq mi) is in Canada and 505,000 km (194,981.6 sq mi) is in the United States. The basin covers parts of Ontario and Quebec in Canada, parts of Minnesota , Wisconsin , Illinois , Indiana , Ohio , Pennsylvania , New York , Vermont , and nearly the entirety of the state of Michigan in

880-533: Is a binational Canadian – American region centered around the Great Lakes that includes the U.S. states of Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , Minnesota , New York , Ohio , Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario . Canada's Quebec province is at times included as part of the region because the St. Lawrence River watershed is part of the continuous hydrologic system. The region forms

968-536: Is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean . Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence , traversing Ontario and Quebec in Canada and New York in the United States. A section of the river demarcates the Canada–U.S. border . As the primary drainage outflow of

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1056-680: Is home to the Thousand Islands . Today, the St. Lawrence River begins at the outflow of Lake Ontario and flows adjacent to Gananoque , Brockville , Morristown , Ogdensburg , Massena , Cornwall , Montreal , Trois-Rivières , and Quebec City before draining into the Gulf of St. Lawrence , often given as the largest estuary in the world. The estuary begins at the eastern tip of Île d'Orléans , just downstream from Quebec City. The river becomes tidal around Quebec City. The St. Lawrence River runs 3,058 kilometres (1,900  mi ) from

1144-523: Is served by Interstate 94 , Interstate 75 , Ontario Highway 401 , Amtrak Lake Shore Limited and VIA rail services. The three largest international airports in the Great Lake region are Chicago O'Hare , Toronto Pearson , and Detroit Metro Airport . All three airports are major airline hubs that provide nonstop connectivity to other regions and continents. St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River ( French : Fleuve Saint-Laurent )

1232-588: Is that country's sixth oldest surviving European place-name. The earliest regular Europeans in the area were the Basques , who came to the St Lawrence Gulf and River in pursuit of whales from the early 16th century. The Basque whalers and fishermen traded with indigenous Americans and set up settlements, leaving vestiges all over the coast of eastern Canada and deep into the St. Lawrence River. Basque commercial and fishing activity reached its peak before

1320-524: Is the second longest river in Canada. Lake Champlain and the Ottawa , Richelieu , Saint-Maurice , Saint-François , Chaudière and Saguenay rivers drain into the St. Lawrence. The St. Lawrence River is in a seismically active zone where fault reactivation is believed to occur along late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic normal faults related to the opening of the Iapetus Ocean . The faults in

1408-692: Is true for the St. Lawrence , where there may not have been an original valley. The Ontarian River that was a precursor to Lake Ontario is thought to have drained westward, and the St. Lawrence drainage to have been created by subsidence due to the weight of the ice sheet. Paleo-Indian cultures were the earliest in North America, with a presence in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE. Prior to European settlement, Iroquoian people lived around Lakes Erie and Ontario , Algonquian peoples around most of

1496-694: The Armada Invencible ' s disaster (1588), when the Basque whaling fleet was confiscated by King Philip II of Spain . Initially, the whaling galleons from Labourd were not affected by the Spanish defeat. Until the early 17th century, the French used the name Rivière du Canada to designate the St. Lawrence upstream to Montreal and the Ottawa River after Montreal. The St. Lawrence River served as

1584-817: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City in 1759, and the Treaty of Paris (1763) that ended The Seven Years' War , known in America as the French and Indian War ceded the entire region to the victor. Indian Reserve is the historical term for this largely uncolonized area set aside in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 for use by Native Americans , who already inhabited it. The British government had contemplated establishing an Indian barrier state in

1672-1012: The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc"), which is owned, along with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) by Chicago's CME Group . The CME Group, in addition, owns the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the Commodities Exchange Inc. (COMEX), and the Dow Jones Indexes ., as well as headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (the Seventh District of

1760-512: The Detroit area of Michigan . Henry Ford 's movable assembly line drew on regional experience in meat processing , agricultural machinery manufacture, and the industrial engineering of steel in revolutionizing the modern era of mass production manufacturing. Chicago -based Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck companies complemented mass manufactures with mass retail distribution. Chicago , Detroit , and Cleveland carry important roles in

1848-605: The Georgian Bay from Lake Huron . From there, it heads westward through the land-arm between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and southwestward into the narrow points dividing Green Bay from Lake Michigan. Finally, it fades away with the thinning out of the limestone and is hardly traceable across the Mississippi River . The arrangement of the Great Lakes closely matches the course of the lowlands worn on

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1936-539: The Great Lakes Basin , defines a unit of sub-national political entities defined by the U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario encompassing the Great Lakes watershed, and the states and province bordering one or more of the Great Lakes. The Palaeozoic strata are parts of a great area of similar layers hundreds of feet in thickness. These strata decline gently southward from the great upland of

2024-507: The Great Lakes Basin , the St. Lawrence has the second-highest discharge of any river in North America (after the Mississippi River ) and the 16th-highest in the world. The estuary of St. Lawrence is often cited by scientists as the largest in the world. Significant natural landmarks of the river and estuary include the 1,864 river islands of the Thousand Islands , the endangered whales of Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park , and

2112-729: The Gulf of St. Lawrence : Flowing through and adjacent to numerous Indigenous homelands, the river was a primary thoroughfare for many peoples. Beginning in Dawnland at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the river borders Mi'kma'ki in the South (what is today known as the Canadian Maritimes ), and Nitassinan in the North, the national territory of the Innu people . On the south shore beyond

2200-507: The Hudson River . The Accommodation with ten passengers made her maiden voyage from Montreal to Quebec City in 66 hours, for 30 of which she was at anchor. She had a keel of 75 feet, and a length overall of 85 feet. The cost of a ticket was eight dollars upstream, and nine dollars down. She had berths that year for twenty passengers. Within a decade, daily service was available in the hotly-contested Montreal-Quebec route. Because of

2288-496: The Laurentian Highlands of eastern Canada. The visible upland area of today was a small part of the primeval continent with the remainder of it still buried under a Palaeozoic cover. The visible part was the last part of the primeval continent to sink under the advancing Palaeozoic seas. This district may be considered an ancient coastal plain. The weaker layers are worn down in sub-parallel belts of lower land between

2376-866: The Mi'kmaw district of Gespe'gewa'ki , the river passes Wolastokuk (the Maliseet homeland), Pαnawαhpskewahki (the Penobscot homeland), and Ndakinna (the Abenaki homeland). Continuing, the river passes through the former country of the St. Lawrence Iroquois and then three of the six homelands of the Haudenosaunee : the Mohawk or Kanienʼkehá꞉ka , the Oneida or Onyota'a:ka , and the Onondaga or Onöñda’gaga’ . In

2464-696: The Thousand Islands chain near Alexandria Bay, New York and Kingston, Ontario ; the Hochelaga Archipelago , including the Island of Montreal and Île Jésus ( Laval ); the Lake St. Pierre Archipelago (classified a biosphere world reserve by the UNESCO in 2000) and the smaller Mingan Archipelago . Other islands include Île d'Orléans near Quebec City and Anticosti Island north of the Gaspé . It

2552-967: The original thirteen . Five states evolved from its provisions: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The northeastern section of Minnesota, from the Mississippi to St. Croix River , also fell under ordinance jurisdiction and extended the constitution and culture of the Old Northwest to the Dakotas . The surge of settlement generated tension culminating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Britain, fearing that fast American settlement could lead to annexation of its western provinces, countered with The Constitution Act of 1791 , granting limited self-government to Canadian provinces and creating two new provinces out of Canada: Lower Canada (today's Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario). Settlement and economic expansion on both sides accelerated after

2640-601: The 10th of August feast day for Saint Lawrence in 1535. Indigenous people use the following names: In winter, the St. Lawrence River begins producing ice in December, with the formation of ice cubes between Montreal and Quebec City . The prevailing winds and currents push this ice towards the estuary, and it reaches the east of Les Méchins at the end of December. Ice covers the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence in January and February. Ice helps navigation by preventing

2728-482: The 1825 opening of The Erie Canal , an astonishingly successful public venture that effectively integrated markets and commerce between the Atlantic seaboard and the region. The region on both sides of the border became a vast research and design laboratory for agricultural machinery and techniques. Owner-operator family farms transformed both demographics and ecology into a vast terrain of farmlands, producing primarily wheat and corn. In western New York and northeast Ohio,

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2816-740: The Agreements of 2005. While not a part of the Great Lakes Basin, Quebec's position along the Saint Lawrence Seaway makes it a partner in water resource management with Ontario and the eight US states mentioned above. There are many nuclear power plants in the Great Lakes Basin, including twenty on the Canadian side. The International Joint Commission has a report on the nuclear power plants. Nuclear Report 2019 Corrected.pdf Great Lakes region 14,755,211 (Canada) The Great Lakes region of Northern America

2904-485: The American Revolution, the region was contested between Britain and rebellious American colonies. Hoping for favorable claims of territorial control in an eventual peace treaty with Britain, American adventurers led by Kentucky militia leader George Rogers Clark briefly occupied village settlements, including Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Vincennes unopposed, with passive support from Francophone inhabitants. In

2992-714: The Appalachian division at all. The source of the North River in the Mesabi Range in Minnesota (Seven Beaver Lake) is considered to be the source of the St. Lawrence River. Because it crosses so many lakes, the water system frequently changes its name. From source to mouth, the names are: The St. Lawrence River also passes through Lake Saint-Louis and Lake Saint-Pierre in Quebec. The St. Lawrence River and

3080-475: The Atlantic seaports and the U.S. interior. In Wisconsin , the inner lowland is a knob of resistant quartzites, known as Baraboo Ridge, rising from the buried upland floor through the partly denuded cover of lower Palaeozoic strata. This knob or ridge can be thought of as an ancient physiographic fossil, as it is an ancient monadnock having been preserved from destructive attacks of weather by burial under sea-floor deposits. It has been recently re-exposed through

3168-1112: The Big Five, have their global operational headquarters in Toronto. Outside of Chicago and Toronto, many other cities are host to financial centers as well. Major bank headquarters are located in Ohio including Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, and KeyCorp in Cleveland. Insurance companies such as Anthem in Indianapolis, Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, American Family Insurance in Madison, Wisconsin, State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Illinois, and Progressive Insurance and Medical Mutual of Ohio in Cleveland. The Great Lakes region has

3256-422: The Federal Reserve). Toronto is an international centre for business and finance. Generally considered the financial capital of Canada, Toronto has a high concentration of banks and brokerage firms on Bay Street, in the Financial District. The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is the world's seventh-largest stock exchange by market capitalization. The five largest financial institutions of Canada, collectively known as

3344-417: The Great Lakes, the British continued to supply not only their own troops but a wide alliance of Native American nations through Detroit, Fort Niagara , Fort Michilimackinac , and so on, until these posts were turned over to the United States following the Jay Treaty (1794). During the Confederacy Period of 1781–1789, the Continental Congress passed three ordinances whose authority was unclear regarding

3432-415: The Indian population. The ordinance prohibited the establishment of state religion and established civic rights that foreshadowed the United States Bill of Rights . Civil rights included freedom from cruel and unusual punishment , trial by jury , and exemption from unreasonable search and seizure . States were authorized to organize constitutional conventions and petition for admission as states equal to

3520-464: The Peace of Paris (1784) Britain ceded what became known as the Northwest Territory , the area bounded by Great Lakes, Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and the eastern colonies of New York and Pennsylvania, to the fledgling United States. Britain, which may have entertained ambitions to repossess the area if America failed to govern it, retained control over its forts and licensed fur trade for fifteen years. By well-established trade and military routes across

3608-406: The St. Lawrence River includes: Large marine mammals travel in all the seas of the earth, the research and observations of these giants concern fishermen and shipping industry , exercise a fascination and a keen interest for laymen and, subjects of endless studies for scientists from Quebec, Canada and around the world. Thirteen species of cetaceans frequent the waters of the estuary and

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3696-424: The St. Lawrence to attack the city from the west, which they successfully did at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham . The river was used again by the British to defeat the French siege of Quebec under the Chevalier de Lévis in 1760. In 1809, the first steamboat to ply its trade on the St. Lawrence was built and operated by John Molson and associates, a scant two years after Fulton's steam-powered navigation of

3784-788: The St. Lawrence, Mohawk, and Hudson rivers provided outlets for commercial corn and wheat, while The Ohio River let agricultural products from western Pennsylvania and southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois journey downstream to New Orleans. Mining, primarily soft metals of copper, zinc, and lead; and timber to supply rapidly expanding sawmills that supplied lumber for new settlements. Agricultural and industrial production generated distinctive political and social cultures of independent republican producers, who consolidated an ideology of personal liberty, free markets, and great social visions, often expressed in religious terms and enthusiasms. The region's alliance of antislavery with free soil movements contributed troops and agricultural goods that proved critical in

3872-425: The Union's victory. The Homestead and Morrill Acts , donating federal land to extend the agrarian economic franchise, and support state universities, modeled western expansion and education for all future states. The British-Canadian London Conference of 1866 , and subsequent Constitution Act of 1867 analogously derived from political, and some military, turmoil in the former jurisdiction of Upper Canada , which

3960-554: The United States). The Seaway (including the Welland Canal ) now permits ocean-going vessels to pass all the way to Lake Superior . During the Second World War , the Battle of the St. Lawrence involved submarine and anti-submarine actions throughout the lower St. Lawrence River and the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence , Strait of Belle Isle and Cabot Strait from May to October 1942, September 1943, and again in October and November 1944. During this time, German U-boats sank several merchant marine ships and three Canadian warships. In

4048-523: The United States. The average discharge below the Saguenay River is 16,800 cubic metres per second (590,000 cu ft/s). At Quebec City, it is 12,101 m /s (427,300 cu ft/s). The average discharge at the river's source, the outflow of Lake Ontario, is 7,410 m /s (262,000 cu ft/s). The St. Lawrence River includes Lake Saint Francis at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield , Lake Saint-Louis south of Montreal and Lake Saint Pierre east of Montreal. It encompasses four archipelagoes :

4136-412: The area are rift -related and comprise the Saint Lawrence rift system . According to the United States Geological Survey, the St. Lawrence Valley is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division, containing the Champlain section. However, in Canada, where most of the valley is, it is instead considered part of a distinct St. Lawrence Lowlands physiographic division, and not part of

4224-419: The basin. Each individual lake forms a sub-basin, such as the Lake Erie Basin , and each sub-basin consists of multiple watersheds, such as Pennsylvania's Lake Erie Watershed . The overall Great Lakes Basin is monitored by the binational Great Lakes Commission . Quebec , a portion of whose lands drain into the St. Lawrence Basin, is a signatory to the Great Lakes Charter of 1985, the 2001 Charter Annex, and

4312-443: The corresponding geological formation of the Great Lakes Basin , a narrow watershed encompassing the Great Lakes, bounded by watersheds to the region's north by the Hudson Bay , to the west by the Mississippi , and to the east and south by the Ohio . To the east, the rivers of St. Lawrence , Richelieu , Hudson , Mohawk and Susquehanna form an arc of watersheds east to the Atlantic . The Great Lakes region, as distinct from

4400-416: The early 17th century, the Huron-Wendat Nation migrated from their original country of Huronia to what is now known as Nionwentsïo centred around Wendake . Nionwentsïo occupies both the north and south shores of the river, overlapping with Nitassinan and the more western Wabanaki or Dawnland countries. Adjacent on the north shore is the Atikamekw territorial homeland of Nitaskinan and, upstream,

4488-406: The erosion of its cover. The occurrence of the lake basins in the lowland belts on either side of the Niagara escarpment is an abnormal feature. Glacial erosion has formed them through the glacial drift obstructing the normal outlet valleys and to crustal warping in connection with or independent of the glacial sheet. Lake Superior is unlike the other lakes. The greater part of its basin occupies

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4576-461: The establishment of their brand names as purveyors of consumer goods. The region's natural features, cultural institutions, and resorts make it a popular destination for tourism. Advantages of accessible waterways, highly developed transportation infrastructure, finance, and a prosperous market base make the region the global leader in automobile production and a global business location. Henry Ford 's movable assembly line and integrated production set

4664-414: The farthest headwater to the mouth and 1,197 km (743.8 mi) from the outflow of Lake Ontario. These numbers include the estuary; without the estuary, the length from Lake Ontario is c. 500 km (c. 300 mi). The farthest headwater is the North River in the Mesabi Range at Hibbing , Minnesota. Its drainage area, which includes the Great Lakes, the world's largest system of freshwater lakes,

4752-614: The field of architecture. Chicago pioneered the world's first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building designed by William LeBaron Jenney . Engineering innovation established Chicago from that time on to become one of the world's most influential epicenters of contemporary urban and commercial architecture. Equally influential was the 1832 invention of balloon- framing in Chicago which replaced heavy timber construction requiring massive beams and great woodworking skill with pre-cut timber. This new lumber could be nailed together by farmers and settlers who used it to build homes and barns throughout

4840-437: The formation of waves, and therefore spray, and prevents the icing of ships. With the draining of the Champlain Sea , due to a rebounding continent from the Last Glacial Maximum , the St. Lawrence River was formed. The Champlain Sea lasted from about 13,000 years ago to about 10,000 years ago and was continuously shrinking during that time, a process that continues today. The head of the St. Lawrence River, near Lake Ontario,

4928-415: The further reaches of Anishinaabewaki, specifically the homelands of the Algonquin and Mississauga Nations. The Norse explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the 11th century and were followed by fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century European mariners, such as John Cabot , and the brothers Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real . The first European explorer known to have sailed up the St. Lawrence River itself

5016-461: The inland ports of the Great Lakes Waterway . The river has been called a variety of names by local First Nations . Beginning in the 16th century, French explorers visited what is now Canada and gave the river names such as the Grand fleuve de Hochelaga and the Grande rivière du Canada , where fleuve and rivière are two French words ( fleuve being a river that flows into the sea). The river's present name has been used since 1604 when it

5104-511: The largest city in Canada and the fourth largest city proper in North America behind Mexico City , New York City and Los Angeles. Cities along the Great Lakes have access to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway , making them international ports. Chicago is the largest economic and financial center. Chicago was named the fourth most important business center in the world in the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index. The 2017 Global Financial Centres Index ranked Chicago as

5192-401: The largest economic units on Earth (with a $ 6-trillion gross regional product). This region also contains what area urban planners call the Great Lakes Megalopolis , which has an estimated 59 million people. Chicago is emerging as the third megacity in the United States , after the New York City and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, with a metro population approaching ten million. Toronto is

5280-489: The largest tributaries of the Great Lakes . The St. Lawrence River tributaries are listed upstream from the mouth. The major tributaries of the inter-lake sections are also shown, as well as the major rivers that flow into the Great Lakes. Great Lakes tributaries are listed in alphabetical order. The list includes all tributaries with a drainage area of at least 1,000 square kilometres and an average flow of more than 10 cubic metres per second. tributary The diversity of

5368-410: The limestone monoliths of the Mingan Archipelago . Long a transportation route to Indigenous peoples , the St. Lawrence River has played a key role in the history of Canada and in the development of cities such as Montreal and Quebec City . The river remains an important shipping route as the backbone of the St. Lawrence Seaway , a lock and canal system that enables world marine traffic to access

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5456-399: The main route for European exploration of the North American interior, first pioneered by French explorer Samuel de Champlain . Control of the river was crucial to British strategy to capture New France in the Seven Years' War . Having captured Louisbourg in 1758, the British sailed up to Quebec the following year thanks to charts drawn up by James Cook . British troops were ferried via

5544-476: The middle group: Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Erie stand at practically the same level. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are connected by the Straits of Mackinac with the Mackinac Bridge spanning the straits. Lake Huron and Lake Erie are connected by the St. Clair River and Detroit River , with the small Lake St. Clair between them. The land northeast of the rivers is undergoing a slow elevation. The Niagara River connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, with

5632-438: The model and standard for major car manufactures. The Detroit area emerged as the world's automotive center, with facilities throughout the region. Akron, Ohio became the global leader in rubber production, driven by the demand for tires. Over 200 million tons of cargo are shipped annually through the Great Lakes. According to the Brookings Institution , if it stood alone as a country, the Great Lakes economy would be one of

5720-401: The nineteenth century Grange , which in turn generated the agricultural cooperatives that defined much of rural political economy and culture throughout the region. Fraternal , ethnic, and civic organizations extended cooperatives and supported local ventures from insurance companies to orphanages and hospitals. The region was the political base, and provided much leadership political parties in

5808-453: The pattern of American centralized industrial consolidation and eventual global dominance. The region hosted the world's greatest concentrations of production for oil, coal, steel, automobiles, synthetic rubber, agricultural machinery, and heavy transport equipment. Agronomy industrialized as well, in meat processing, packaged cereal products, and processed dairy products. In response to disruptions and imbalances of power resulting from so vast

5896-611: The political protocols by which American states south of the lakes would enter the union as political equals with the original thirteen colonies. The ordinance, adopted in its final form just before the writing of the United States Constitution , was a sweeping, visionary proposal to create what was at the time a radical experiment in democratic governance and economy. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery , restricted primogeniture , mandated universal public education , provided for affordable farm land to people who settled and improved it, and required peaceful, lawful treatment of

5984-518: The portion of the reserve west of the Appalachian Mountains , and bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes . Britain's claims were intensely disputed by a confederation of Indians during Pontiac's Rebellion , which induced major concessions to still sovereign Indian nations; and by the Iroquois Confederacy , whose six member nations- Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Cayuga , Seneca and Tuscarora -never conceded sovereignty to either Britain or, later, The United States. During

6072-500: The region became the global epicenter of motorized land vehicles, including cars, trucks and jeeps, as well as a major supplier of engine, transmission, and electrical components to the wartime aeronautics industry. Despite extreme labor shortages, the region increased mechanization, and absorbed large numbers of women and immigrant labor, to increase its food production. Navigable terrain, waterways, and ports spurred an unprecedented construction of transportation infrastructure throughout

6160-493: The region's coal and iron mines; steel, automobile and rubber industries; and breakthrough strikes and contracts of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. The role of government also grew during the early 20th century. In the rural areas, most people obtained food and manufactured goods from neighbors and other people they knew personally. As industry and commerce grew, goods such as food, materials, and medicines were no longer made by neighbors, but by large companies. During World War II ,

6248-510: The region's governance on the American side. The Land Ordinance of 1784 established the broad outlines of future governance. The territory would be divided into six states, which would be given broad powers of constitutional instituting, and admitted to the nation as equal members. The Land Ordinance of 1785 specified the manner in which land would be distributed in the Territory, favoring sale in small parcels to settlers who would work their own farms. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 defined

6336-511: The region. Blue collar industry traditionally represent in the Great Lakes region. In the United States, it is a stronghold of the Democratic Party although in recent years many states in Great Lakes region have become swing states . In Ontario , it has long been divided between rural and urban districts, with many rural ridings voted more conservative, and larger urban and Suburban areas voting Liberal or NDP. The Great Lake region

6424-439: The region. The region's greatest institutional contributions were major corporate, labor, educational and cooperative organizations. It hosted some of the most influential national and international corporations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century monopoly age, including John Deere Plow, McCormack Reaper, New York Central and Erie railroads, Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel, International Harvester and Standard Oil. As

6512-681: The region. The region is a global leader in advanced manufacturing and research and development, with significant innovations in both production processes and business organization. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil set precedents for centralized pricing, uniform distribution, and controlled product standards through Standard Oil, which started as a consolidated refinery in Cleveland. Cyrus McCormick 's Reaper and other manufacturers of agricultural machinery consolidated into International Harvester in Chicago. Andrew Carnegie 's steel production integrated large-scale open-hearth and Bessemer processes into

6600-573: The rest, and a variety of other indigenous nation-peoples including the Menominee , Ojibwa , Illinois , Pottawatmie , Huron , Shawnee , Erie , Fox , Miami , Meskwaki and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago). With the first permanent European settlements in the early seventeenth century, all these nation-peoples developed an extensive fur trade with French, Dutch, and English merchants in the St. Lawrence, Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, and Hudson's Bay, respectively. The prospects of fur monopolies and discovery of

6688-400: The side towards the upland, and a long gentle slope on the other side. Its relief is seldom more than 200 or 300 feet (91 m) and is generally small. Its continuity and its contrast with the associated lowlands on the underlying and overlying weak strata make it an important feature. The escarpment would lie straight east–west if the slant of the strata were uniformly to the south. However,

6776-603: The single lowland is continued under the name of the Mohawk Valley . This is an east–west longitudinal depression that has been eroded on a belt of relatively weak strata between the resistant crystalline rocks of the Adirondacks on the north and the northern escarpment of the Appalachian Plateau ( Catskills - Helderbergs ) on the south. Early in U.S. history, this provided a vital economic route between

6864-478: The strata are somewhat warped and so the escarpment's course is strongly convex to the north in the middle, gently convex to the south at either end. The escarpment begins where its determining limestone / dolomite begins, in west-central New York . There, it separates the lowlands that separate Lake Ontario from Lake Erie . It curves to the northwest through the Ontario province to the island belt that divides

6952-473: The twenty-fourth most competitive city in the world, behind Toronto, also in the Great Lakes region, at seventh. The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first ever standardized "exchange traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts . As a world financial center it is home to major financial and futures exchanges , including the Chicago Stock Exchange ,

7040-465: The two belts of weaker strata on either side of the Niagara escarpment. Lake Ontario, Georgian Bay and Green Bay occupy depressions in the lowland on the inner side of the escarpment. Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan lie in depressions in the lowland on the outer side. When the two lowlands are traced eastward, they become confluent after the Niagara limestone has faded away in central New York, and

7128-485: The upland and the belts of more resistant strata, which rise in uplands . Illustrations of this type of forms are found in the district of the Great Lakes . The chief upland belt or escarpment is formed by the firm Niagara limestone/dolomite , which takes its name from the gorge and falls cut through the upland by the Niagara River . The Niagara Escarpment has a relatively strong slope or enfacing escarpment on

7216-469: The virtually impassable Lachine Rapids , the St. Lawrence was once continuously navigable only as far as Montreal. Opened in 1825, the Lachine Canal was the first to allow ships to pass the rapids. An extensive system of canals and locks, known as the St. Lawrence Seaway , was officially opened on 26 June 1959 by Elizabeth II (representing Canada) and President Dwight D. Eisenhower (representing

7304-551: The western prairies and plains. Wisconsin-born, Chicago-trained Sullivan apprentice Frank Lloyd Wright designed prototypes for architectural designs from the commercial skylight atrium to suburban ranch house. German-born Pennsylvania immigrant John A. Roebling invented steel wire rope, a pivotal part of suspension bridges he designed and whose construction he supervised in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Buffalo, based on earlier successful canal aqueducts. His most famous project

7392-466: The world's most efficient and profitable mills. The largest, most comprehensive monopoly in the world, United States Steel , consolidated steel production throughout the region. Many of the world's largest employers began in the Great Lakes region. Mass marketing in the modern sense was born in the region. Two competing Chicago retailers— Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck —developed mass marketing and sales through catalogues, mail-order distribution, and

7480-415: Was Jacques Cartier . At that time, the land along the river described as "about two leagues, a mountain as tall as a heap of wheat" was inhabited by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians . During Cartier's second voyage in 1535, because Cartier arrived in the estuary on Saint Lawrence 's feast day 10 August, he named it the Gulf of Saint Lawrence . The St. Lawrence River is today partly within the U.S. and as such

7568-465: Was recorded on a map by Samuel de Champlain Champlain opted for the names Grande riviere de sainct Laurens and Fleuve sainct Laurens in his writings, supplanting the earlier names. In contemporary French, the name is rendered as the fleuve Saint-Laurent . The name Saint-Laurent (Saint Lawrence) was originally applied to the eponymous bay by Jacques Cartier upon his arrival into the region on

7656-505: Was renamed and organized in the new dominion as the province of Ontario . Like the provisions of the ordinance, Ontario prohibited slavery, made provisions for land distribution to farmers who owned their own land, and mandated universal public education . Industrial production, organization, and technology have made the region among the world's most productive manufacturing centers. Nineteenth-century monopolies such as International Harvester, Standard Oil, and United States Steel established

7744-584: Was the Brooklyn Bridge . Contributions to modern transportation include the Wright brothers ' early airplanes, designed and perfected in their Dayton, Ohio mechanics' workshops; distinctive Great Lakes freighters , and railroad beds constructed of wooden ties and steel rails. The early nineteenth century Erie Canal and mid-twentieth century St. Lawrence Seaway expanded the scale and capacity of massive water-born freight. Agricultural associations joined

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