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This is the master project for North Dakota and its history.
State of North Dakota
- Nickname(s): Peace Garden State, Roughrider State, Flickertail State
- Motto(s): Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable
- Demonym: North Dakotan
- Capital: Bismarck
- Largest city: Fargo
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Brief history
North Dakota is the 39th state of the United States, having been admitted to the union on November 2, 1889.
It is located in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south, and Montana to the west. The state capital is Bismarck, and the largest city is Fargo. North Dakota is the 19th most extensive but the 4th least populous and the 4th least densely populated of the 50 United States.
Native American peoples lived in what is now North Dakota for thousands of years before the coming of Europeans. Their tribes included the Mandan people, the Dakota people and the Yanktonai: the latter two from the Lakota peoples. The first European to reach the area was the French-Canadian trader Pierre Gaultier, sieur de La Vérendrye, who led an exploration party to Mandan villages in 1738. In 1762 the region became part of Spanish Louisiana until 1802.
Dakota Territory was settled sparsely by European Americans until the late 19th century, when the railroads were constructed into the region. With the advantage of grants of land, they vigorously marketed their properties, extolling the region as ideal for agriculture. An omnibus bill for statehood for North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington, titled the Enabling Act of 1889, was passed on February 22, 1889 during the administration of Grover Cleveland. His successor, Benjamin Harrison, signed the proclamations formally admitting North Dakota and South Dakota to the Union on November 2, 1889.
Unrest among wheat farmers, especially among Norwegian immigrants, led to a populist political movement centered in the Non Partisan League ("NPL") around the time of World War I, during which it ran candidates on the Republican ticket (yet merging into the Democratic Party after World War II). It tried to insulate North Dakota from the power of out-of-state banks and corporations. In addition to founding the state-owned Bank of North Dakota and North Dakota Mill and Elevator (both still in existence), the NPL established a state-owned railroad line (later sold to the Soo Line Railroad). Anti-corporate laws were passed that virtually prohibited a corporation or bank from owning title to land zoned as farmland. These laws, still in force today, after having been upheld by both state and federal courts, make it almost impossible to foreclose on farmland, as even after foreclosure, the property title cannot be held by a bank or mortgage company. Furthermore, the Bank of North Dakota, having powers similar to a Federal Reserve branch bank, exercised its power to limit the issuance of subprime mortgages and their collateralization in the form of derivative instruments, and so prevented a collapse of housing prices within the state in the wake of 2008's financial crisis.
The original North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck burned to the ground on December 28, 1930. It was replaced by a limestone-faced art deco skyscraper that still stands today. A round of federal investment and construction projects began in the 1950s, including the Garrison Dam and the Minot and Grand Forks Air Force bases.
There was a boom in oil exploration in western North Dakota in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as rising petroleum prices made development profitable. This boom came to an end after petroleum prices declined. In recent years the state has had a strong economy, with unemployment lower than the national average and strong job and population growth. Much of the growth has been based on development of the Bakken oil fields in the western part of the state. Estimates as to the remaining amount of oil vary, with some estimating over 100 years worth of oil remaining in the area. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of North Dakota was 757,952 on July 1, 2016.
Source: Wikipedia
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