Pre-European settlement
→ Main article: Early history of Cleveland
The oldest traces of human settlement go back to the Palaeoindians and date from the period between 10500 and 7500 BC, about 2500 years after the end of the last ice age. The groups, probably extended families, initially lived nomadically, becoming increasingly sedentary from the Middle Archaic period after 4500 BC. A larger settlement existed in far western Cleveland, where Hilliard Boulevard crosses the Rocky River. For the first time, demarcable territories can be traced, within which seasonal migrations of now grown and socially more differentiated groups took place. They practiced simple horticulture, especially with pumpkins, nuts also played an important role.
From the Woodland period (500 B.C.-1200 A.D.), which is characterized by the emerging production of pottery, there are burial mounds as well as remains of fortified small settlements, which can be assigned to the Adena and especially the following, highly developed Hopewell culture and are mostly located on the high banks of the Cuyahoga. Large villages dominated and, from about 400, the cultivation of maize, and long-distance trade, already present at a very early date, expanded.
The Hopewell culture was followed around 1200 by the so-called Whittlesey culture, which is characterized by advanced agriculture and settlement. It was part of the Mississippi culture, which was even more prevalent further south. The population continued to increase until about 1500, and in addition, from about 1350 onward, sedentarism increased markedly and fixed territories of certain families become ascertainable.
During the Little Ice Age (1500-1640), the population apparently declined sharply, possibly as a result of climatic changes or in the wake of the Iroquois beaver wars. Thus, between 1640 and 1740, no settlement activity is recorded at all. Even with the arrival of Europeans in the late 18th century, the area was still virtually uninhabited.
Foundation and early years
In the late 18th century, the U.S. state of Connecticut claimed a tract of land in northeastern present-day Ohio called the Connecticut Western Reserve. This land was granted to settlers beginning in 1796. In the course of the land surveys by General Moses Cleaveland, he founded a harbor at the mouth of the Cuyahoga into Lake Erie on July 22, 1796, which was initially named "Cleaveland" after him.
In 1818, the first two newspapers were founded; over the next few years, papers in German, Hebrew, Italian and Hungarian were added, along with other English-language newspapers. It was to one of these papers, the Cleveland Advertiser, that the city owes its renaming: since the original spelling of the name was one letter too long for the headline, the paper removed the first 'a' from "Cleaveland," claimed it was official - and got away with it. On January 6, 1831, the city was officially renamed "Cleveland."
Cleveland has been the geographic, economic, and cultural center of the Western Reserve from its inception. For example, Cleveland was chosen as the county seat when Cuyahoga County was created in 1810, four years before it was carved out as an independent municipality. In 1836, Cleveland was among the first places in the Western Reserve to become a city, and in 1847 the Catholic diocese was established. With few exceptions, other important institutions such as doctors, schools, and banks were also located in Cleveland from the beginning. Only economic rivalries with Ohio City on the other bank of the Cuyahoga caused sometimes violent political disputes in the first decades. These were ultimately decided by Cleveland.
Civil war and industrialization
At first, Cleveland's development was slow. But with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the Ohio-Erie Canal in 1832, the city was connected to the Atlantic and Mississippi Rivers and thus to international shipping routes. This, along with the construction of railroad connections to the resource-rich Appalachian Mountains beginning in 1849, led to the city's rapid economic rise. Cleveland became a major center of the raw materials processing industry. In 1868 the first steel mill was inaugurated, and in 1870 John D.Rockefeller's (1839-1937) Standard Oil Company established its first oil refinery here. In the following decades, Cleveland developed into an important location for the steel producing and petrochemical industries.
The War of Secession (1861-1865) played a significant role in the industrialization of the city. Resident firms produced uniforms, tobacco products, steel, steamboats, mounts, and railroad tracks. In 1864, more than half of all Lake Superior iron ore production was processed in Cleveland. Shipping companies and numerous commercial enterprises were also located, and eight railroad companies maintained branches.
After the turn of the century, Cleveland grew to become the second largest location in the US automotive industry after Detroit. The local companies concentrated primarily on the development and production of assemblies, car accessories and spare parts. Major factories included White Motor (steam cars and later heavy trucks), Eaton (transmissions), Willard/EnerSys (batteries), Fisher Body (bodies), Baker/Otis (electric vehicles), Ford (engines), General Motors (automatic transmissions, diesel engines), and Thompson/TRW. Beginning in 1910, the electrical engineering industry was added as a fourth major industry. During World War II, Boeing B-29 bombers and Fisher P-75 fighter planes were also assembled in Cleveland.
Great Depression and economic recovery
Cleveland suffered its first setbacks during the Great Depression of the early 1930s. By 1933, nearly a third of all residents were unemployed. In addition, the city had to contend with growing crime. Cleveland had become a center of organized crime and illegal gambling during the Prohibition era (1919-1933). This was compounded by a police force that had been corrupt and inefficient for decades.
In 1936/37, the Great Lakes Exposition took place on the lakeshore in front of the city centre. The event, similar to a world's fair, was created on the initiative of local politics and business and attracted a total of 7 million visitors within these two years. At the same time, the Memorial Shoreway, Cleveland's first expressway, was being built on the lakefront in front of downtown as a job creation measure under the Rooseveltian New Deal. The construction site employed 10,000 workers at times.
In the late 1930s, the city's economy recovered once again. The population continued to grow, peaking at around 915,000 in 1950. Cleveland was thus the fifth largest city in the USA. The resident American football and baseball teams, the Browns and the Indians, won the final rounds of their leagues, sometimes several times in a row. In 1949, Cleveland was among the first recipients of the All-American City award, and in the postwar decades the city was marketed as the best location in the nation.
Decline and structural change
After the end of the boom in the post-war years, however, Cleveland's industry fell behind as a result of the increasing opening of world markets. Many of the resident firms were not competitive with international rivals. The steel industry struggled with high labor costs and increasing competition from cheap imported steel from overseas in the wake of the steel crisis of the early 1970s. Car manufacturers had built up high overcapacity over time, suffered from mismanagement and came under pressure from the oil crisis and new competitors from Europe and Japan. In addition, many had outdated production facilities and tightened environmental regulations. Meanwhile, the Cuyahoga was so polluted that its flammable surface caught fire in 1952 and 1969. The burning river caused a stir throughout the country, forcing politicians to act. For decades, industry in particular had unthinkingly polluted the river with untreated wastewater, and now it faced costly rebuilding projects, many of which the owners could not afford or did not want. Many businesses had to close. Unemployment rose and a great many people emigrated. Cleveland became impoverished. From this time comes a cynical expression, which is often used as a synonym for the city until today: The mistake on the lake. A few years later, songwriter Randy Newman dedicated the song Burn On to the city, in which he sarcastically mocked the place in 1972 as "City of Light, City of Magic" and alluded to the burning of the Cuyahoga: "The Cuyahoga River runs smoking through my dreams".
In addition to the poor economy, racial unrest began to unsettle citizens. A weeklong riot from July 18 to 24, 1966, led to new mayoral elections that produced the first black mayor of a major American city, Carl B. Stokes, in 1967. But even he and his successors could not end the city's economic decline: On December 15, 1978, Cleveland was forced to declare itself insolvent, the first city to do so since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was not until 1987 that this step was reversed.
With the decline of heavy industry, the city's economic focus has increasingly shifted to the service sector over the decades. The largest employers are now to be found in this sector, primarily in banks, insurance companies, the public sector and healthcare, especially the university hospitals and the renowned Cleveland Clinic.
Tourism has also gained in importance. An important step in this direction was the founding of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum in 1995, which is dedicated to important and influential personalities in the rock 'n' roll environment. Other tourist buildings and events should help stop the city's decline. But the city still faces major problems. Every year, several thousand residents leave the city; the remaining population suffers from poverty, poor education and high, mainly structural unemployment. In addition, thousands of residential buildings are empty.
Cleveland's decline has been the subject of research on several occasions. The causes are seen not only in the intensified competitive situation, but also in the declining innovative strength of the established industries, a deteriorating social and entrepreneurial climate, as well as in the rather harsh local meteorological climate compared to the southern coastal regions such as Silicon Valley. For example, after the automobile and electrical industries, no new industry grew up. Cleveland was already unable to keep up with aerospace technology, which was important after World War II. Apart from this, the negative long-term effects of the Great Depression on the local economy were apparently far greater than initially thought and were merely masked by the boom of the postwar years.
According to critics, a possible reversal of the trend would require, above all, a reduction in local bureaucracy and an improvement in school education. In addition, the city should make targeted efforts to recruit qualified immigrants and improve the investment climate. Cleveland has plenty of potential. The quality of life has also improved greatly in recent years.
