The city was founded on February 14, 1764, by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, Pierre Laclède, and Auguste Chouteau.

Historic Native American tribes in the area encountered by early Europeans included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, and the Illiniwek.

The earliest European settlements in the Illinois Country (also known as Upper Louisiana) were built by the French during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Fort de Chartres.

[citation needed] In 1764, after France lost the Seven Years' War, Pierre Laclède and his stepson Auguste Chouteau founded what was to become the city of St.

[23][circular reference]) The French families built the city's economy on the fur trade with the Osage, and with more distant tribes along the Missouri River.

In addition to having an advantageous natural drainage system, there were nearby forested areas to supply timber and grasslands which could easily be converted for agricultural purposes.

Odawa chieftain Pontiac began forming a pan-tribal alliance to counter British control over the region but received little support from the indigenous residents of St. Louis.

[citation needed] Settled by many Southerners in a slave state, the city was split in political sympathies and became polarized during the American Civil War.

[citation needed] After the war, St. Louis profited via trade with the West, aided by the 1874 completion of the Eads Bridge, named for its design engineer.

In 1964, civil rights activists protested at the construction of the Gateway Arch to publicize their effort to gain entry for African Americans into the skilled trade unions, where they were underrepresented.

[39] St. Louis, like many Midwestern cities, expanded in the early 20th century due to industrialization, which provided jobs to new generations of immigrants and migrants from the South.

[citation needed] The effects of suburbanization were exacerbated by the small geographical size of St. Louis due to its earlier decision to become an independent city, and it lost much of its tax base.

[42] The Cortex Innovation Community, located within the city's Central West End neighborhood, was founded in 2002 and has become a multi-billion dollar economic engine for the region, with companies such as Microsoft and Boeing currently leasing office space.

[citation needed] Because much of the city's commercial and industrial development was centered along the riverfront, many pre-Civil War buildings were demolished during construction of the Gateway Arch.

The city's remaining architectural heritage of the era includes a multi-block district of cobblestone streets and brick and cast-iron warehouses called Laclede's Landing.

[52] The city is built on bluffs and terraces that rise 100–200 feet above the western banks of the Mississippi River, in the Midwestern United States just south of the Missouri-Mississippi confluence.

[64] After World War II, St. Louis began losing population to the suburbs, first because of increased demand for new housing, unhappiness with city services, ease of commuting by highways, and later, white flight.

[93][94] The new Chief of Police, John Hayden said two-thirds (67%) of all the murders and one-half of all the assaults are concentrated in a triangular area in the North part of the city.

Other health care and biotechnology institutions with operations in the region include Pfizer, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Bayer, Sigma-Aldrich, Mallinckrodt, and Multidata Systems International.

Among them are Anheuser-Busch, purchased by Belgium-based InBev; Missouri Pacific Railroad, merged with the Omaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific Railroad in 1982;[106] McDonnell Douglas, whose operations are now part of Boeing Defense, Space & Security; Trans World Airlines, which was headquartered in the city for its last decade of existence prior to being acquired by American Airlines; and Ralston Purina, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Nestlé.

[117] With its French past and waves of Catholic immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries, from Ireland, Germany and Italy, St. Louis is a major center of Roman Catholicism in the United States.

[121] The Gateway Arch anchors downtown St. Louis and a historic center that includes: the Federal courthouse where the Dred Scott case was first argued, an expanded public library, major churches and businesses, and retail.

The region hosts INDYCAR, NHRA drag racing, and NASCAR events at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in Madison, Illinois.

Saint Louis University has won 10 NCAA men's soccer championships, and the city has hosted the College Cup several times.

Citygarden is an urban sculpture park located in downtown St. Louis, with art from Fernand Léger, Aristide Maillol, Julian Opie, Tom Otterness, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Mark di Suvero.

The City of St. Louis Sheriff's Office (STLSO or STLCSO) primarily provides security services for the courtrooms, and serves court documents and issues gun carry permits.

Others in the region include Ladue News, West Newsmagazine, the Webster-Kirkwood Times, and the Call Newspapers which all serve parts of St. Louis County.

Rail service is provided by the Bi-State Development Agency (also known as Metro), which is funded by a sales taxes levied in the city and other counties in the region.

St. Louis is an intermediate stop on the Texas Eagle route which provides long-distance passenger service between Chicago, San Antonio, and three days a week, to Los Angeles.

Rates vary by vehicle type, size, passengers and distance, and by regulation all taxicab fares must be calculated using a taximeter and be payable in cash or credit card.