Illinois is a state of the
United States of America, the 21st to be admitted to the Union.
Illinois is the most populous and demographically diverse[5]
state in the Midwest and the fifth most populous in the nation.
With suburbs and the great metropolis of Chicago in the
northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural
productivity in central and western Illinois, and natural
resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south,
Illinois has a broad economic base. Illinois is an important
transportation hub; the Port of Chicago connects the Great Lakes
to the Mississippi River via the Illinois River. Illinois is
often viewed as a microcosm of the United States; an Associated
Press analysis of 21 demographic factors determined Illinois was
the "most average state,"[6] while the city of Peoria has long
been a proverbial social and cultural bellweather.
Between 1300 and 1400 CE, the Mississippian city of Cahokia had
a population of around 40,000, making it the largest city within
the future United States until it was surpassed by Philadelphia
in the 1800s. About 2,000 Native American hunters and a small
number of French villagers inhabited the area at the time of the
American Revolution.[7] American settlers began arriving from
Kentucky in the 1810s; they achieved statehood in 1818. The
future metropolis of Chicago was founded in the 1830s. Railroads
and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow made
central Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most
productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant farmers
from Germany and Sweden. Northern Illinois provided major
support for Illinoisans Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant
during the American Civil War. By 1900, the growth of industry
in northern cities and coal mining in central and southern areas
attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, and also
made the state a major arsenal in both world wars. In addition,
large numbers of blacks migrated to Chicago from the South,
where they formed a large community and created the city's
famous jazz and blues cultures.
