American History

Annexation is the merging of two or more territories to from one geographical region.  The land being annexed is said to be smaller, weaker or having less population as compared to the merger.  Many countries and cities all over the world have acquired new lands or extensions of pieces of land and coastal strips through annexing.  Not all the nations of the world were always strong enough to politically protect their lands. Annexing process may involve loss of land and sovereignty by a weaker nation to a stronger one through annexing.  Annexation in most cases was driven by governments political strength that existed in the nation that is in need of expansion.   In America, annexing was very common since the 19th century and only ceased recently. In this essay, a description of Chicago annexing is tackled at depth.

In 1837, Chicago city was a small city covering only about 10 square miles.  Its surrounding was bordered by Michigan Lake and wood streets among other surrounding features.  Following a stream of referendums, the boundaries were moved slowly by slowly to have the city enlarge in all directions.  Through the annexing process, Chicago was able to enlarge by geographical size to about 187 square miles.  Annexing process is not an easy process because it involves moving people, redesigning of new residential areas and the urban set up.

Annexing in Chicago was at first driven by legislative acts which took place between 1837 and 1889.  During this period, active legislative bills were passed to motivate the expansion of the city.  After this era from 1889, legislative acts gave way to election processes that allowed for further annexing of Chicago city to enlarge her territory.   It is within this time that Chicago expanded greatly with a series of annexation programmes.

Annexing through election process was more advantageous for Chicago expansion than the referendum process.  In June 1889, Chicago enjoyed the biggest single annexation through the election process, during which it acquired 225,000 people and an expansion of the territory by 125 sq. miles at once.  At this time, Chicago city turned out to be the largest city within the territory of United States of America.  Its geographical area was categorized the biggest within the region at that time while the population numbers came second in largest overtaking Philadelphias population size at that time.

Chicagos expansion was coupled with an increase in urban services demand due to advancing technology and high populations within the town in the late19th century.  Public amenities were becoming few and unable to accommodate the large populations thus calling for the desire to provide more infrastructures.  Annexation resulted in the formation of a bigger jurisdiction was formed with the aim of reducing cost of service delivery within the towns populations.  Another reason as to why the large jurisdiction was formed was that it was expected to generate more revenue for that could be used to pay additional service delivery to the public.

It was realized that after the first annexing period, majority of Chicagos suburb would not pay for their debts as well as offer quality services to the public. This was due to the existing debts within the suburbs.   Resident to the suburbs demanded more than it could offer.  The main causes of such shortages were the fact that most suburbs would not borrow improvement loans due to the fact that they had already reached their debt limit.   Another shortcoming is that the suburbs incapability to handle such large numbers of populations with the increased technological advancement.

The voting system of annexing was favored by the majority of voters during voting in the hope that quality and quantity supply of public amenities.  The suburbs complained of poor sanitation especially, in Lake View Township.  There was need for good sewerage system thus making the Township to be annexed to Chicago in 1889. The expansion of the annexing in Chicago was active during the late 19th Century.  The Lake Township and Hyde Park Township were both annexed to Chicago so as to enlarge the use of water supply system that they owned.  There was good and large water supply system at the town suburbs which when jointly operated would serve a large population of Chicago city. Water supply is basic to human development.  Most populations can survive without good water supply.  The mains reason as to why citizens preferred water supply to other amenities in because water could be used in protection against fire outbreaks.  This is the reason as to why the majority of them voted in favor of the annexing process.

Whenever annexing was not possible, most suburbs that had good sewerage systems could be given new districts through special body of the government.  In these new special districts, it was the role of municipalities to collect sewage while the sanitary districts deposited the waste effectively to make the suburbs effective. According to the 1889 act of sanitary district enabled, there was need for municipalities that could be directly accessible to Lake Michigan so as to be able to offer water supply services at manageable cost, to the rest of the adjacent municipalities.   The need for such municipalities played a major role in the annexing process for Chicago to get better and wider stretches of land around the Michigan Lake. Voters from nearby regions of Lake Michigan did not hesitate to vote for annexing so as to obtained new districts that offered better water supply to the suburbs.  For example, the Morgan Perk in the northern region of Michigan Lake voted to join Chicago in the 1914, while her neighbor, Blue Island, in the south declined to join Chicago in 1915.   From the decline of Blue Island to join Chicago, she was able to maintain her independence on a later date.

Annexation was a good process because it helped to merge very small district into a large unite that would be of benefit to citizens.  Some of the districts that were annexed were usually too poor to exist in the technologically advancing environment.  Other suburbs were annexed due to their small size and small populations that they hosted since they were not so powerful to protect their rights of land ownership against being annexed to Chicago.  However, it should be noted that not all the suburbs or districts that were joined to Chicago were poor. For example, the Hyde Park was not poor but only wanted to be associated with Chicago rather than just the prevailing wave of water supply district associated to it.

Despite the overriding desire for Chicago to annex more lands, the process came to halt when the majority of suburbs were supplied with good sanitation and water.  Public services were now available to the majority of the communities in Chicago and the public could not see the need for more annexing. Annexing continued in other areas of the city like the southern Evanston being annexed to Evanston in 1894.  This was due to the lack of good water supply for the south Evanston.  However, further attempts to annex Evanston to Chicago failed since the voters turned down the whole process.  Nevertheless, Evanston was later compelled to join Northern Sanitary District of Chicago in 1903.  More so, by majority vote from Cicero voters, it contributed to the annexing of Cicero to Austin inn1899 and later on pressure forced Austin to join Chicago.  In the process, Oak Park decided to isolate itself form Cicero in 1901 and never voted in favor of annex to Chicago.  This was due to the consideration of residents votes which were in agreement to go against annexing their land to Chicago.
Annexation of suburbs was still live and active among other states in United States of America in the 20th century.  In contrast, the process was no longer as fast and wide spread in Chicago as it had been before.  Other regions were now expanding. For example, Skokie managed to annex vast lands within duration of two year since 1924 while Rosemont created a city through annexing processes.

The annexation process in Chicago involved effective documentation which involved signing of a comprehensive annexation form to show that the parties were in agreement for annexation.  Land surveyors played a vital role in the annexation process since they would make detailed assessment for the property being annexed.  Copies of signed documents were carefully store for future references.   The city council members were also involved in the annexation process of the property so as to prevent any conflicting views that would arise on a later date. It was the duty of city administrators to organize for annexation petitions session within which hearing of annexation petition if any would be presented.
Annexation process in Chicago did not only involve the administrators but also the citizens or suburban since they had taken part in the voting process.  Therefore, public notice would be published for the public to attend the public hearing session following the annexation agreements.  The public notice was given for a period of 30 days after which hearing took place.  Thereafter, annexation team would be mandated to asses the value of public property that would be affected during the annexation process so that any legal compensations could be processed in due time.  All public and private property must under go through a valuation process before the annexing process is completed.  This was important to reduce chances of conflict that may arise during the change over period or later on.  When all the legal processes are over, the land is considered part of the annexing nation.

There are important points to note about the need for annexing.  These include centralization of social amenities.  During the annexing process, it is believed that less economic projects could be revived and become more productive.  Regional development is more likely to take place when annexing has taken place in a region. In addition, homogeneity of governance is achieved thus reducing political conflict.  Technological advancement and revenue collection processes tend to adjust upwards bringing a letting a country achieve common development goal for many departments found within the State.

Public amenities may be made more available to the majority of the society members thus resulting in up lifting their living standards. For example, when the poor and small suburbs were annexed to Chicago, Chicago grew powerful and was able to satisfy human needs to a large extent than before the annexation. Per capita expenditure is increased through annexation.  This is due to extension of political and regional boundaries which result in economic growth.  Municipality salaries went up in annexed cities due to increased populations.    

Apart from the advantages associated with annexation, it is worth identifying a few of the problems associated with it.  Annexation results in the loss of identity and sovereignty of the annexed land.  Many states fear to lose their identity and would therefore not go for annexing even though they were operating under severe debts.  They had better be poor and retain their sovereignty.   Also, in most cases annexing cases, lots of disruptions as legal documentation processes take place.  The valuation of assets for both private and public owners is not an interesting process for the owners.  Another problem is the resettling of populations that resulting from annexing process may be an expensive and tedious process calling for extra taxation.

Finally, Chicago annexation helped Chicago get vast lands for economic development as well as high populations that are a source of labor and defense to the State.  Also, a compromise must be reached at when annexing is taking place because the land that is being annexed must be ready to lose patriotism and depend on the annexing one fully.  Annexing process in Chicago started by 1837 and ended by 1920 after attaining a level of satisfaction worth considering by the citizens.