Illinois, also known as the Land of Lincoln, was the twenty-first state to
join the Union, when it was admitted on December 3, 1818. It lies in
the eastern north-central United States and is surrounded by Wisconsin,
Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and Lake Michigan. Springfield is
the state’s capital, but Chicago is Illinois’s most heavily populated city,
with nearly three million residents.
European explorers arrived in Illinois in the 1600s and found a
number of Native American tribes living there. Tribal populations were
decimated by European-induced disease, alcohol, and warfare. After the
Black Hawk War in 1832, all remaining tribal members were forced to
leave Illinois and relocate across the Mississippi River.
Half of all men living in Illinois served in the American Civil War
(1861–65). The state had a deep-seated loyalty to President Abraham
Lincoln (1809–1865; served 1861–65), a longtime resident.
After the Union victory in the war, Illinois experienced economic
and population growth. Chicago became the major city of the Midwest.
The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 presented
business opportunities never before realized, and small towns and cities
built banks, grain elevators, factories, and retail shops.
The second half of the nineteenth century was the setting for the
labor movement, a time when workers formally organized into unions,
such as the Knights of Labor, in order to advocate for better pay and
working conditions. Illinois was the center of this activity because it was
a highly industrialized state. The Haymarket Riot of 1886 and the violent Pullman Strike in 1894 left scores of people injured or dead. In
1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the city’s downtown area. Its
wealthy citizens took it upon themselves to rebuild their city, and their
visionary attitude made Chicago one of the greatest metropolitan areas
of the world.
The majority of Illinois enjoyed thirty years of prosperity in the first
half of the twentieth century. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants
moved to Chicago, most of them without money or jobs, many unable
to speak English. In the 1920s, the city earned a reputation for violence
and corruption as organized crime took hold. The Great Depression
(1929–41) hit agricultural areas first. Industries began closing their
doors and did not fully recover until World War II (1939–45) was over.
Illinois was hit hard by a severe recession in the 1980s; industrial
workers were laid off indefinitely, and many of the jobs were permanently lost to automation. In 1990, Illinois suffered an unemployment
rate of 7.2 percent, a full two points higher than the national average of
5.2 percent.
In 2003, Illinois had a $5 billion budget deficit, the worst in twenty
years. By 2006, the state was developing programs aimed at creating
jobs, providing healthcare, and increasing education funding.
Illinois’s population in 2006 was just under twelve million, making
it the fifth-largest among the fifty states. Of these residents, 72.2 percent
were white and 14.5 percent were of African American heritage. The
state remained ethnically diverse and claimed the sixth-highest Asian
population in the nation.
Illinois’s economy depends heavily upon human services industries
such as law, education, finance, government, and business. Prior to
1972, meat-packing was the state’s most famous industry, but that
changed after the closing of the Chicago stockyards. Manufacturing,
though concentrated in Chicago, is prevalent throughout the state.
Illinois boasts one of the better-than-average literacy rates in the nation, and Chicago is one of the leading arts centers in the Midwest. The
state’s library system is unusually strong; at the end of fiscal year 2001,
there were 629 public libraries. Illinois boasts 277 museums and historic
sites, including the Museum of Science and Industry, which attracts two million visitors each year.