The Hawkeye State joined the Union as the twenty-ninth state on
December 28, 1846. It is located in the western northcentral region of
the United States and is surrounded by Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
The Woodland Indians were the first permanent settlers of the land.
White men did not show up until June 1673, when explorer Louis Jolliet
(1645–1700) and priest Jacques Marquette (1637–1675) arrived. The
French controlled the region until 1762, at which time Spain took over.
French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821) reclaimed the area in
1800, then sold it to America in 1803. Iowa became an independent territory in 1838.
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Iowa was home to just
under three million people, 93.5 percent of them white. Another 2.2
percent was African American and 1.5 percent was Asian. The most popular church of Iowans is the Evangelical Free Church, followed closely by
the United Methodist Church and the Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod.
Iowa’s economy is based on agriculture, though it boasts a large
farm-centered manufacturing industry as well. Iowa is known for its livestock and meat products. Corn is grown nearly everywhere throughout
the state; nearly nine-tenths of Iowa’s land is dedicated to farming.
Despite the fact that it is an agricultural state, the labor movement has
not been strong there. In 2005, just 11.4 percent of employed wage and
salary workers were members of labor unions.
Iowa is one of the most important states in the political arena because it always holds the first presidential caucus (gathering of voters to
select delegates to the state convention). The caucus is held in January of
the election year, and because the media gives Iowa’s voters such intense
coverage and attention, those voters have a great deal of influence over
the rest of the nation’s voters.
After the end of the American Civil War (1861–65), Iowa voters
supported Republicans over Democrats until the 1930s, when they supported Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945; served 1933–45) in two
presidential elections. The years 1940 through 1984 saw them voting
Republican once again, but Democrats carried the state in 1988, 1992,
1996, and 2000. The year 2004 saw them vote Republican again.