Chicago, Illinois is the third largest city in the country with over 2.7 million people calling it home. The wider metro area is home to over 10 million people and is considered one of the most important cities for business in the world.

Brief history of Chicago
The area that is now Chicago was home to the Potawatomi people as well as many earlier peoples. The earliest European settler was Frenchman Jean Baptiste Point du Sable who built a property here and who is now celebrated as the ‘Founder of Chicago’.

The Treat of Greenville of 1795 ceded the territory and Fort Dearborn was built in 1803. The city itself was officially founded in 1833 and grew quickly from there. The original 200 residents grew to over 7,000 within ten years making the city the fastest growing area of the country at the time.

The position of the city made Chicago a logical transport hub. The arrival of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad and the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848, cemented that vision. The canal joined the city to the Mississippi River while the railroad joined cities east to west.

The country’s first sewage system was designed and built in Chicago in 1856 and the reversal of the Chicago River in 1900 provided good sewage removal and clean drinking water to the city.

The history of Chicago is littered with huge growth, crime, conflict and the Manhattan Project. The modern city has learned from its history and has grown to embrace it and the future and is still the economic powerhouse it was originally envisioned as becoming.

Doing business in Chicago
As America’s third city, Chicago has a massive economic base. It is also a very diverse base, including every industry there is, especially financial, manufacturing, printing, publishing, retail, transport, conventions and a whole lot more. Chicago is renowned for having the best-balanced economy in the country.

Financial services are a strong part of Chicago. Some of the country’s leading banks are based here and Chicago has one of the largest business districts of anywhere in the US. Manufacturing is also a real influence with some of the world’s leading companies having plants or a presence here. Tech is also up and coming, with some of the biggest names in technology shifting operations to Chicago.

Transportation is still a large employer with the canal and rivers enabling the movement of millions of tons of goods each year. While less of an influence now than previously, it still employs thousands of people.

Chicago city character
How do you sum up the character of somewhere like Chicago in a couple of paragraphs? You can’t. The city is an eclectic mix of cultures, scenes, influences and languages. A real melting pot of epic proportions and that makes it an awesome place to live or visit.

There is a real mix of blue collar workers, immigrants, entrepreneurs, artists of all kinds and people from all walks of life. All live and work together within a huge city on the lake. The lake plays a significant part in Chicago life, with many people living by or close by, it. Many entertainment districts are by the lake including hundreds of restaurants, bars and malls.