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 Midwestern state and the fifth most populous in the nation.
With Chicago in the north east, 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.
Nearly two thirds of the population of the stata resides in the north eastern corner which is the Chicago metropolitan area. One quarter of the residents of the state live within the city of Chicago itself.
At the time of the American Revolution, about 2,000 Native American hunters and a small number of French villagers inhabited the Illinois area. American settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s and they achieved statehood in 1818.
Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River which was one of the natural harbours on southern Lake Michigan. Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plough made central Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden.
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 made the state a major arsenal in both world wars.
African-Americans migrating to Chicago from the rural South formed a large and important community, which created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures.
Northern Illinois provided major support for Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War. Both were both born in the state.
Text from Wikitravel Illinois where additional general information can be found. Please share your knowledge by editing the pages of Wikitravel.
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