We're now on Day #13 of my daily US states threads in honor of the 250th anniversary of the country.Illinois joined as the 21st state on 12/3/1818. The name Illinois is derived from the now defunct Illinois Confederation, a confederation of tribes along the Mississippi River Valley. The word Illinois is a French word derived from the original Ilinewe. Its capital is Springfield and its largest city is Chicago. It has a population of 12.7 Million and is 57.9k square miles in size. One president (Reagan) is from here. Yes I know I said he was from CA earlier. That's my bad. Illinois pre-contact was a hotbed of the Mississippian civilization. The legendary Cahokia site can be found at Collinsville today. The culture vanished prior to European arrival in the 15th century. The Illinois Confederation were the major power in the area at the time of the arrival of the French in 1673, but gradually declined by the end of the 17th century. Illinois' early history was punctuated with lead mining, corn farming. Although a free state, slavery still existed in Illinois. Most residents opposed the presence of free blacks, and in 1853 they were banned from the state entirely. Today, race relations have improved significantly. The Mormons briefly flourished in the state, until by 1844 a mass exodus resulted in the Mormons departing for elsewhere following the death of Joseph Smith. Following the Civil War, Chicago skyrocketed in population, becoming one of the largest cities in the country. The great migration brought many African Americans to the state. The opening of the seaway led to Chicago becoming a major port city. The first nuclear chain reaction was conducted in the city in 1942, and in 1960, the first nuclear power plant was opened by Morris. Organized crime was infamous in Chicago for quite some time, leading to many stories of famous gangsters such as Al Capone, the Shelton Brothers, etc. What do you think of the Prairie State?
>>18589789Is Chicago the only interesting thing that exists there?
>>18589800Cahokia
>>18589800Chicago is a big malignant tumor on the rest of the state bro
>>18589800The western part of the state has horrendous people but lovely scenery
Chicago and a bunch of farm fields. Big deal.
>>18589800Galena- the home of Ulysses S Grant after his in laws kicked him out of their plantation
>>18589800Sufjan Stevens made an entire album about it so clearly not, especially since it evidently didn't even include everything judging by the lack of whatever this >>18589803 is
>>18590110You seriously don't know about CahokiaBruhThis shit's like the pinnacle of the Mississippian civilizationEnlighten yourself>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia
>>18589811>Damn those Chicagoans ruining all our corn fields and dirt roads!
>>18589811it was a shithole since the early XX century infamous for organized crime, super-corrupt politics, and communist and socialist activity
>>18590224Unironically yes. They take our money to subsidize eye-sore wind and solar farms, syphoning off taxes on every little thing and putting it in the pockets of companies in California with a cut to Pritzker. How many millions of dollars are taxed and no one wants to live here. And the roads are still shit.
>>18590224It’s because of Chicago there’s illegals and high taxes and trannies in this state yes
>>18590224corn fields and dirt roads leading to corn fields actually produce resources, wtf does chicago do?
