Because of its location in the heart of the upper Great Lakes, Michigan has long been a historic crossroads, with waterways and trails used by Indians many centuries ago. French explorers first entered Michigan about 1620, and by 1700 forts at several key points guarded this vital link between French colonies to the east and to the west and south. In 1760-1761 the British won control of Michigan, and not until 1796 did they withdraw in favor of the Americans, who had been awarded the area in 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War. During the War of 1812, Michigan was one of the most fiercely contested areas. Michigan was admitted as a state in 1837 as the twenty-sixth state in the Union, when only the southern part of lower Michigan was settled and farming was the chief economic activity. In the next fifty years the remainder of the state was populated, logging of its forests made it America's lumbering capital during the 1880's and 1890's, mining in the Upper Peninsula made it a leading producer of copper and iron ore during most of this period, and the development of the automobile and other industries made Michigan a manufacturing giant among the states of the United States and of the world.