Midwestern United States

• 1. Defining The Region

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  The United States Census Bureau officially named the North Central Region until 1984. In that year, the name changed to the Midwest. This region occupies the northern central part of the United States. It sits between the Northeastern United States and the Western United States. Canada borders it to the north while the Southern United States lies to the south. The official definition consists of twelve states in the north central United States. These states are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The region generally lies on the broad Interior Plain. This plain stretches between the Appalachian Mountain range and the Rocky Mountain range. Major rivers flow through this landscape from east to west. They include the Ohio River, the Upper Mississippi River, and the Missouri River. The 2020 United States census recorded a population of 68,995,685 for the Midwest. The Census Bureau divides the region into two divisions. The East North Central Division includes five states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. All these states are also part of the Great Lakes region. The West North Central Division contains seven states: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Several of these states lie within the Great Plains region.

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• 2. Indigenous Foundations

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  Monks Mound stands at Cahokia Mounds near Collinsville, Illinois. It is the largest Precolumbian earthwork north of Mesoamerica. Paleo-American cultures were the earliest Native Americans in North America. Their presence in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas lasted from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE. Following that period came the Archaic period which ran from 8,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE. The Woodland Tradition followed from 1,000 BCE to 100 CE. The Mississippian Period spanned from 900 to 1500 CE. Archeological evidence suggests Mississippian culture traits began in the St. Louis, Missouri area. They spread northwest along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. This culture entered the state along the Kankakee River system. It also spread northward into Indiana along the Wabash, Tippecanoe, and White Rivers. Mississippian peoples were mostly farmers who followed rich floodplains. They grew maize, beans, and squash as their three major crops. Maize was the primary crop for these farmers. They gathered seeds, nuts, and berries while hunting fowl to supplement diets. Such intensive agriculture supported large populations. The Mississippi period featured a mound-building culture. A tremendous population decline occurred about 1400. This coincided with global climate change known as the Little Ice Age. Their culture effectively ended before 1492. Major tribes of the Great Lakes region included the Huron, Ottawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sauk, Meskwaki, Neutrals, and Miami. Most numerous were the Huron and Ho-Chunk. Fighting often launched between tribes with losers forced to flee.

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• 3. Frontier Expansion

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  Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet traveled through Michigan's upper peninsula in 1673. They crossed Lake Michigan and landed at present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin. On the 17th of June 1673, they entered the Mississippi River. Marquette and Jolliet mapped the northern portion of that river. They confirmed easy travel from the St. Lawrence River to the Gulf of Mexico by water. New France officials led by LaSalle followed up and erected fur trading posts. Goods traded included guns, clothing, blankets, tobacco, silver, and alcohol. The French and Indian exchange was called an exchange of gifts rather than trade. These gifts held greater meaning for relationships than simple economic exchange. Marriage became important in both the Ohio River valley and French pays d'en haut. Legal French traders continued marrying Indian women after the fur trade reopened in 1716. English traders entered the Ohio country as serious competitors around the 1690s. British victory over France in the Seven Years' War changed everything. Britain ceded New France to Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris of 1763. The British attempted to establish a more assertive relationship with Indians. This eliminated gift giving which they now saw as unnecessary. Underwhelming trade relations and increased prices led to unrest among Indians. Pontiac's War broke out in 1763 following this conflict. American settlement began via routes over the Appalachian Mountains or through Great Lakes waterways. Fort Pitt at Pittsburgh became the main base for settlers moving into the Midwest. Marietta, Ohio in 1787 became the first settlement in Ohio. Large-scale settlement only became possible after Native American tribes lost the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Squatters without legal claims had been moving into the Midwest for years before 1776. They pushed further down the Ohio River during the 1760s and 1770s. British General Thomas Gage called them too numerous, too lawless, and licentious. In 1785, soldiers under General Josiah Harmar destroyed crops and burned homes of squatters.

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• 4. Industrial Powerhouse

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  The railroad junction in Chicago became the world's largest during the mid-19th century. By 1910, over 20 railroads operated passenger service from six different downtown terminals. Six Class I railroads still meet in Chicago today including Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Canadian National, and Canadian Pacific. Many Midwestern cities connected by electric interurban railroads between 1890 and 1930. The Midwest had more interurbans than any other region. In 1916, Ohio led all states with extensive trackage while Indiana followed closely. Those two states alone held almost a third of the country's interurban trackage. The nation's largest interurban junction was in Indianapolis. That city experienced 38 percent population growth in the early 1900s largely due to interurban lines. Detroit became the world center of the auto industry by 1900. Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Automotive pioneers William C. Durant, the Dodge brothers, Packard, and Walter Chrysler established Detroit's status as the automotive capital. Today greater Detroit remains home to General Motors, Chrysler, and the Ford Motor Company. The Great Lakes served as a conduit for iron ore from Minnesota's Mesabi Range to steel mills. The Saint Lawrence Seaway completed in 1959 opened the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean. The Illinois and Michigan Canal breached the continental divide spanning the Chicago Portage in 1848. This linked waters of the Great Lakes with those of the Mississippi Valley and Gulf of Mexico. Lakeport and river cities grew up to handle these new shipping routes.

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• 5. Political Battlegrounds

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  The first local meeting of the Republican Party took place at Little White Schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin on the 20th of March 1854. Jackson, Michigan had the first statewide meeting of that new party. Its membership included many Yankees out of New England and New York who settled the upper Midwest. The party opposed slavery expansion and stressed Protestant ideals of thrift and hard work. Bleeding Kansas involved anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery Border Ruffian elements between 1854 and 1858. The immediate cause was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which repealed the Missouri Compromise. On the 21st of May 1856, the Free Soil town of Lawrence, Kansas was sacked by an armed pro-slavery force from Missouri. Abolitionist John Brown executed five men along Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas a few days later. Skirmishes endured until late 1856 when Governor John W. Geary prevailed upon Missourians to return home. The election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 triggered secession by Southern states. All Midwestern states except Missouri banned slavery before the Civil War began. The U.S. federal government supported twenty mostly-Northern free states plus five slave border states. Skirmishes between Kansas and Missouri continued until the Lawrence Massacre on the 21st of August 1863. Quantrill's Raiders killed more than 150 people and burned business buildings and dwellings. Eugene V. Debs spoke in Canton, Ohio in 1918 before being arrested for sedition shortly thereafter. He went to prison where he converted to Socialism. Labor unrest included strikes in Chicago in 1887 and 1894. A bomb thrown among police at Haymarket Square in Chicago in 1886 led to eight anarchists convicted of conspiracy for murder.

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• 6. Demographic Shifts

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  The largest flow of German immigration to America occurred between 1820 and World War I. Nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States during that time. From 1840 to 1880 they were the largest group of immigrants. Midwestern cities like Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago favored German settlers. By 1900 populations of Cleveland, Milwaukee, Hoboken, and Cincinnati exceeded 40 percent German American. Dubuque and Davenport, Iowa had even larger proportions while Omaha, Nebraska reached 57 percent German Americans in 1910. Many concentrations acquired distinctive names suggesting heritage such as Over-the-Rhine district in Cincinnati. Radical Germans trained in politics dominated Milwaukee's Socialists. Skilled workers dominated many crafts while entrepreneurs created brewing industries with brands including Pabst, Schlitz, Miller, and Blatz. While half settled in cities the other half established farms across the Midwest. The U.S. was predominantly rural at the time of the Civil War. European immigrants bypassed the East Coast to settle directly in the interior. Irish immigrants went to port cities on Great Lakes like Cleveland and Chicago. Danes, Czechs, Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, Poles, Hungarians, and Jews also settled there. African American migration from Southern states changed Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Detroit, Omaha, Minneapolis, and many other cities. Chicago alone gained hundreds of thousands of black citizens during the Great Migration. The Gateway Arch monument in St. Louis is clad in stainless steel. It stands as the tallest man-made monument in the United States.

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