American History

When two regions or geographic locations like cities or countries are combined together resulting in a bigger region, it can be said that annexation has satisfactorily taken place. The period preceding the Industrial and Agrarian Revolutions was characterized by the annexation of regions that considered it as a means of strengthening their positions in relation to wealth and resources. It is important to note that annexation provided a way of obtaining more labor force, raw materials, political influence, and the strategic influence of a region. Consequently, many countries and cities worldwide angled for annexation with regions that they deemed to be of importance to their future expansion plans.

Annexations took place in many ways. One of the ways through which an annexation could take place was through political agreements with the leadership of the interested regions. The other method that was used was through wars or plainly violent means. In the case of using violence to join regions into others, the capturing region had to have more influence politically and resource-wise. This generally implied that in most cases, the capturing nation had to be bigger and more influential.

Annexations happened in the US in the nineteenth century for many reasons. One of them was for the expansion of farmlands to increase agricultural output as the Agrarian and Industrial Revolutions had brought with them more efficient methods of farming. Texas, an example of a region where farming was practiced, was annexed from Mexico during Spains colonial rule. An article from American Era cites the battles fought between Mexican and US armies for the capture of Texas. This goes a long way in showing that bigger regions with more influence could go to any extent so as to gain annexes. It is also worthy to note that America as a region was at the forefront of developing nations and as such, they needed to obtain more resources. This pattern replicated itself in many regions, causing the expansion of slavery.

Chicago, a city, grew to have its current status due to annexations with adjacent townships. For instance, North and South Evanston towns were annexed by Evanston in the years 1874 and 1892 respectively. This was a move aimed at extending the issuance of services to these towns. An article from Chicago Daily News notes that the need of the cities with more influence to curb crime burdened the leadership with the task of finding ways to expand their policing without circumnavigating the law. The laws have from time immemorial guarded against extending into areas that are not within their jurisdiction. Therefore, to reduce the incidences of crime, the annexation provided the authorities with direct permission to raid these regions in search of criminals. This brought about an ease in the administration of the larger region as the police could now venture into the Northern and Southern parts of Evanston to reduce incidences of crime.

Municipal jurisdiction was also a factor that contributed to this annex. Municipalities are known to provide amenities that are important to households. Some of these services include maintaining sewer systems, water supply and other domestic services. The provision of such services from a central point was bound to increase its efficiency as more funds could be allocated to such projects. Donnelly and Blommaert opined that this would also enhance provision of fire services, education, and sanitation. The cities and towns like Lakeview and Edgewater had for long been the recipients of clumsy services from their ill-equipped ward authorities that suffered insufficient funding to their kitties from higher offices. This was a result of the minimal budgetary allocations provided by the government. An election was therefore held to allow the people living in the town to vote for or against the annexation of the two regions into the city of Chicago.

For a long time, Chicago had been a city that was more industrialized in comparison to cities in its periphery. So many manufacturing industries were located within the city and these industries provided it with an advantage over its neighbors. A quick look into the resources that came from its neighbor points at resources like meat, timber, and minerals, to name a few. The factories needed a constant supply of the abovementioned resources. In effect, Chicago had to source for them from most of its neighbors as its share of these was not enough to satisfy its demand. Therefore, it went into agreements to annex most of these regions so as to gain more resources for its industries. The other factors that went hand-in-hand with this are the demand for goods and a market to supply them to. These regions would provide a ready market for the goods produced from the factories within Chicago. A keen look at the positioning of Chicago suggests that it was best suited to annex these regions and gain an easier access to the resources as raw materials.

For a start, Chicago went into an agreement to obtain raw materials from the rural areas and produce them for consumption. These would then be transported to the rural areas at subsidized rates due to the agreements. In effect, Chicago was used as a production area and later the goods exchanged for convenience to all the participating regions. Igler considers this as a means through which the growth of Chicago was realized faster. Not only did this mission achieve its purpose, but it also set a center-stage for the growth of the rural regions which had not been able to propel their own growth. Agrarian Revolution was experienced due to this. The rural areas which had been known to be rich in agricultural produce benefited from more agricultural inventory in the form of better technology and far much superior farming skills learned from the universities involved in research and mainly in Chicago.
Suburbs located in the periphery of Chicago contributed to a good percentage of the workforce in the city of Chicago. Most of them constituted middle class families that were well-off in comparison to the families that resided in the rural areas. Therefore, it would be sufficient to state that much of the skilled labor emanated from these areas. In addition to the large number of skilled workforces in the suburbia, these areas wielded political freedom that was unlike the other regions. The political influence made the suburbs more inclined to influence policies. They therefore resorted to be annexed by Chicago for strategic reasons. This would provide them with several advantages as jobs would be easier to find. At first, there was resistance from anti-annexationists. This, however, did not deter the annexationists from going into voting to prove their popularity. On the eve of the 30th of June, 1889, the suburbs of Jefferson, Hyde Park, and Cicero among others went into annexation after the vote approved of it.

An article from the New York Times records this as a milestone achieved after a fierce campaign held by pro-annexation activists against the force of descent in the suburbia. For all intent and purpose, the suburbia stood to gain, and gain they did. Not only were there more job opportunities, but there was also a stronger political power wielded by the governments of these suburbs. This had strategically positioned the suburbia to be the points from which more political decisions that affected Chicago widely had to be made. The suburbia, being a residential area for mostly the middle and upper class citizens, won the attention of Chicago city and thus, the annexation took place without further ado. The political class did not however wield total control over the Chicago city as the established laws did not allow for it. This only meant that they were important in the Chicago political scene, but they did not have the power to twist the policies to favor them much more than other annexed areas and cities.
Taxation is very important for any region as it helps in the running of its facilities. This was a very significant factor during all the annexes. Not only was it a factor that could help the wider Chicago to earn more tax, but the authorities used it as bait so as to convince the other regions to be annexed. First and foremost, annexation would provide the city of Chicago with more regions to tax so as to increase its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). More tax would mean more efficient and expanded service delivery. The authorities believed that the pooling together of taxes from the wider cities including annexed regions would increase the central kitty used to run services. This was true as the tax collected improved the service delivery sector that was manned by the government. Tax systems were set up so as to make the dream a reality. As opposed to recent annexations using taxes, the former tax regimes offered much more than the current one does.

Heim cites tax rebates as more attractive options that were used in the period 1850-1920 mainly to gain more. This meant that most of the industries were offered tax relief so as to influence their decision to agree to be annexed. Households would be taxed less so as to keep the votes in the pro-annexation. Companies and organizations were also offered tax rebates and tax holidays on things such as raw materials and labor. The government also offered civil servants who were within a certain job group tax relief. This meant that if they had families, they could pay slightly lower taxes. This was meant to encourage the expatriate from the annexes to join the central government for the common good of the whole region. This worked effectively as the tax rebates proved to be most popular with companies that wanted a relief from the taxes levied on them by their governments. Hence, they voted heavily for these annexes. This, in addition to being advantageous to them, provided them more market for their goods.

Annexations, like any other factor that contributed to growth during that period, had some disadvantages. The first disadvantage that can be attributed to it is exponential growth of population. Better facilities like hospitals imply that mortality rates would go down and hence, the upsurge in population. Municipal services were strained as more and more people wanted to reside within the urban areas of Chicago. The annexation of suburbs meant that the governments influence was going to be watered down as the suburbia claimed to have independent policies that run their resources. This means that in as much as the central Chicago government had a say on the suburbia, this could only be limited to what the suburbia leadership agreed to. This beat the original goal of wanting to gain more areas that the Chicago government could control.

Another article form the New York Times notes that the annexation plans laid down by Chicago might not have been water-tight. This is due to the fact that so many issues were outlined to be contributing to hardships after the annexation of many townships. Abuse of office by Aldermen from some annexed regions ensured that they skewed the resources to favor their constituents. This not only put the others at a disadvantage, but it also went a long way in making the anti-annexationists feel that they had been right in providing the voice of descent. Nonetheless, Chicago did not stop the annexation of regions that bordered it as the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. For instance, the hardships encountered were easier to deal with than the consequences of dropping annexed regions. The latter had drastic political effects as it could seriously lower the standing that Chicago had gained over the period. In the end, the decision to carry on was upheld albeit at a slowed rate.

In conclusion, annexation has seen the growth of cities and states that were once small into big industrial hubs that wield political and economical power in the United States. Chicago, like many other cities and states, embraced annexation as a means to bolster their standing and has benefited massively. The decision to annex lies with authorities. Unlike most annexations that took place in other parts of the world in the form of conquests, the case of cities and states within America took place through peaceful means. The decision to annex or be annexed was put to vote and the matter was settled amicably. Reasons behind annexations have been the expansion of regions for more influence, the obtaining of labor force and other resources, and the distribution of services into other regions. It also led to the reduction of vices such as crime as the annexed regions became part of protectorates.

Political decisions made had to contend with the disadvantages which seemed to threaten the use of annexations as a means of growth. This was due to the named factors like exponential growth that strained the service delivery sector. The other reasons ranged from the watering down of political influence by political movements in the regions named. Political influence that was threatened seemed to be very pivotal in suburbia as their independence seemed most important. Tax rebates offered by the Chicago government to the annexes appeared to reduce the quality of services that was offered to the residents of the cities. A keen look at the advantages proves that they outweighed the effects over the disadvantages that annexation would have on the city of Chicago. All the same, a political decision not to back down provided Chicago with a reason to continue with its expansion and achieve the status it currently enjoys as one of the biggest industrial hubs in the US. It has thus positioned itself as the largest city in the state of Illinois. This gives Chicago a political influence in the whole of USA, a status that is not enjoyed by many cities in the USA.