Discover the Fascinating History and Culture of Illinois

 

Illinois is a state located in the Midwest region of the United States. Its capital is Springfield, but the largest city is Chicago, which is the third most populous city in the country and home to more than a fifth of the state's total population (65%). Illinois is made up of 102 counties and has a population of 12,812,508 people as of 2020, making it the sixth most populous state in the country and the 25th largest by size. It is bordered to the northeast by Lake Michigan and is surrounded by Wisconsin to the north, Iowa and Missouri to the west, Kentucky to the south, and Indiana to the east.

At the heart of the Great Lakes region, Illinois is a transportation hub. The port of Chicago is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Saint Lawrence Seaway and to the Mississippi River by the Illinois River. Additionally, the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago is one of the busiest airports in the world.

The name "Illinois" comes from the Native American tribe that lived in the area. Although most of the current population is concentrated in the Chicago metropolitan area in the northern part of the state, the first immigrants (French and British) settled in the west. After the Revolutionary War, people from Kentucky began to populate Illinois, which became a state in 1818. Chicago was founded around 1830 on the banks of the Chicago River, in a bay south of Lake Michigan. From 1900, the development of industry and productive agriculture attracted European immigrants, particularly Germans and Swedes. The Great African American Migration from 1910 to 1930 saw the establishment of many black communities from the South and the creation of a jazz and blues artistic scene.

Today, Illinois has a diverse economy and is home to the headquarters of several major American companies, including John Deere, Boeing, United Airlines, and McDonald's. It also has many sports teams, primarily based in Chicago, including the Bulls (basketball), the Blackhawks (ice hockey), the Cubs and the White Sox (baseball), and the Bears (American football). A stronghold of the Democratic Party since the 1990s, Illinois was the home of three American presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Barack Obama, who served as a senator from Illinois before his presidential election. It is also the birthplace of a fourth president, Ronald Reagan.

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