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The State of Illinois is the
21st to be admitted to the
Union. Illinois is the most
populous and demographically
diverse Midwestern state and
the fifth most populous in
the nation. With 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 found Illinois the
"most average state," while
Peoria has long been a
proverbial social and
cultural bellwether.
Nearly 66% of the population
resides in the northeastern
corner of the state,
primarily within the city of
Chicago and the surrounding
metropolitan areas.
With a population near
40,000 between 1300 and 1400
AD, the Mississippian city
of Cahokia, in what is now
southern Illinois, was the
largest city within the
future United States until
it was surpassed by New York
City between 1790 and 1800.
About 2,000 Native American
hunters and a small number
of French villagers
inhabited the Illinois area
at the time of the American
Revolution. American
settlers began arriving from
Kentucky in the 1810s; they
achieved statehood in 1818.
The future metropolis of
Chicago was founded in the
1830s on the banks of the
Chicago River, one of the
only natural harbors on
southern Lake Michigan.
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.
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