Toledo War

The Toledo War, also known as the Ohio-Michigan War, is the bloodless boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the adjoining territory of Michigan.The dispute originates from varying interpretations of conflicting state and federal legislation, passed between 1787 and 1805, which in turn results largely from a poor understanding of the location of certain features of the Great Lakes.

This causes the governments of Ohio and Michigan to both claim sovereignty over a 468 square mile (1,210 km²) region along the border, now known as the Toledo Strip.

When Michigan presses for statehood in the early 1830s it seeks to include the disputed territory within its boundaries but Ohio's Congressional delegation is able to halt Michigan's admission to the Union.Beginning in 1835 both sides pass legislation meant to force the other side's capitulation.

Ohio's governor Robert Lucas and Michigan's 24-year-old "boy governor" Stevens T. Mason are both unwilling to cede jurisdiction of the Strip, so they raise militias and help institute criminal penalties for citizens submitting to the other state's authority.

Both militias are mobilized and sent to positions on opposite sides of the Maumee River near Toledo, but there is little interaction between the two sides besides mutual taunting.

The single military confrontation of the "war" ends with a report of shots being fired into the air, incurring no casualties.In December 1836 the Michigan territorial government, facing a dire financial crisis, surrenders the land under pressure from Congress and President Andrew Jackson and accepts a proposed resolution adopted in the U.S. Congress.

Under the compromise Michigan gives up its claim to the strip in exchange for its statehood and approximately three-quarters of the Upper Peninsula.

Although the compromise is considered a poor outcome for Michigan at the time, the later discovery of copper and iron deposits and the plentiful timber in the Upper Peninsula more than compensate for the loss of the strip.

No related events match the current filters.