History of Indiana

The history of human activity in Indiana, a U.S. state in the Midwest, stems back to the migratory tribes of Native Americans who inhabited Indiana as early as 8000 BC. Tribes succeeded one another in dominance for several thousand years and reached their peak of development during the period of the Mississippian culture. The region entered recorded history in the 1670s, when the first Europeans came to Indiana and claimed the territory for the Kingdom of France. After France ruled for a century (with little settlement in this area), it was defeated by the Kingdom of Great Britain in the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War) and ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River. Britain held the land for more than twenty years, until after its defeat in the American Revolutionary War. Britain then ceded the entire trans-Allegheny region, including what is now Indiana, to the newly formed United States.

The U.S. government divided the trans-Allegheny region into several new territories. The largest of these was the Northwest Territory, which the U.S. Congress subsequently subdivided into several smaller territories. In 1800, Indiana Territory became the first of these new territories established. As Indiana Territory grew in population and development, it was divided in 1805 and again in 1809 until, reduced to its current size and boundaries, it retained the name Indiana and was admitted to the Union on December 11, 1816, as the nineteenth state.

The newly established state government set out on an ambitious plan to transform Indiana from a segment of the frontier into a developed, well-populated, and thriving state.