History of the Midwest of the United States

In the17th century, European immigrants in this area began to cultivate with the help of French pioneering activities, the establishment of fur trade network and missionary activities, and the cultivation mainly began along the upper edge of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes region. However, the French control over this area ended with the end of the 1763 war against the Indians. From 1960s to 1950s, British immigrants began to expand their colonial power in Ohio. However, in 1960s +0763, they temporarily suspended their expansion to the west of Cheshire Mountains in Apara, but did not completely stop the expansion of colonial forces in this area.

Early settlers also began to cross the Chechi Mountains in Apara by land (through Brock Road) or water (through the Great Lakes region). Today's Pittsburgh (formerly known as Fort Pitt), located at the source of the Ohio River, is an outpost of land colonization in the early Midwest. The first pioneers who went inland by land lived in southern Ohio and on both sides of the Ohio River in Kentucky. The famous pioneers were daniel boone and Spencer Records. The first pioneers who came to the Midwest through the Great Lakes waterway began to develop around military bunkers or trading ports, such as Green Bay in Wisconsin today and Detroit in Michigan.

With the end of the American War of Independence, the number of pioneers who came to the Midwest from the eastern states began to increase rapidly. In the 1790' s, because the federal government of the United States passed the land grant bill, veterans of the war of independence and pioneers of the eastern States began to move to this area. The Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Quakers and Congregations in Connecticut were the first pioneers to move to Ohio and the Midwest.

During the American Civil War, European immigrants who moved to the American continent usually bypassed the United States on the east coast at that time and settled directly in the inland areas of the American continent. These areas include German Lutheran churches in Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and eastern Missouri, Swedish and Norwegian immigrants in Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Iowa, and midwestern cities established by Roman Catholics and Jews in Germany. Many German Catholics also moved to the edge of the Great Lakes region through the Ohio Valley.

In the 20th century, with the new opportunities brought by factories and schools, African-American immigrants began to migrate from the southern United States to the midwestern States, which greatly changed the urban culture and landscape of Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit and other metropolises.

Because of the fertile soil in the central and western regions, this region is rich in various cereals including corn, oats and wheat, among which wheat is the most important, so the early central and western regions are also called the "bread basket" of the United States.

In addition, waterways are also one of the most important factors in the development of the central and western regions, among which the Ohio River, which flows into the Mississippi River, is the most important. Before 1795, the development of the central and western regions was restricted and stopped because Spain blocked the southern basin of the Mississippi River and refused American agricultural products to enter the Atlantic Ocean through the Mississippi River.

The rivers in the Midwest are also the inspiration for Mark Twain's two American classics, Life on the Mississippi River and Adventures of Naughty Boys. Hannibal, Missouri, the hometown of Mark Twain, has become a famous tourist attraction, giving visitors a glimpse of the lifestyle in the Midwest.

Another waterway to open up the central and western regions is the route from the Great Lakes region. 1825 The Erie Canal, which was completed, enables the goods in the central and western regions to be directly transported to new york Port by complete water transportation, which is more convenient than the previous circuitous waterway of the Mississippi River. With the completion of this new route, the Erie Canal has also contributed to the prosperity of many lakes and port cities. During the industrial revolution, lake transportation was the main transportation pipeline to transport iron ore produced in Mesabi Range, Minnesota to Atlantic State Ironmaking Plant, and then the St. Lawrence Sea Passage was opened to transport midwestern products to the Atlantic Ocean. The land canal in Ohio and Indiana is another important waterway connecting the Ohio River and the Great Lakes.

Lake Michigan is surrounded by four midwestern States, including Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Because the Northwest Territory, located at the core of the Midwest, was the first place in the United States to ban slavery (slavery was banned in the northeast of the United States in the11930 s), the Midwest culturally inherited the pioneering spirit of freedom different from other parts of the United States and was proud of it. The southern border of this region is the Ohio River, which is the dividing line between freedom and slavery in American history and literature (see Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Toni Morrison's Beloved for details). The midwest, especially Ohio, provided so-called underground railways for slaves who crossed the Ohio River and traveled to Canada via Lake Erie.

The midwest is shaped by classroom-style public schools, which include no slaves (except Missouri), early residents, freedom, democratic ideas brought by American revolutionary war veterans, Protestant beliefs and agricultural wealth accumulated through the Ohio River and railway transportation. Canals in Ohio and Indiana are the key to opening up the distribution of agricultural products in the Midwest. Agricultural production in the central and western regions has driven the world's largest population and economic growth, laying the foundation for future "emerging markets". The daily necessities transported from the Ohio River in the midwest through the Erie Canal surpassed Boston and Philadelphia, indirectly accumulating wealth for new york. During the civil war, the midwest was mainly rural, and small farms were scattered in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. However, industrialization, immigration and urbanization gave birth to the industrial revolution, and the Great Lakes region in the central and western regions became the center of industrial progress. /kloc-In 0/9 and the 20th century, immigrants from Germany, Scandinavia, Slavic and African descent flooded into the central and western regions, forming a regional style dominated by Protestantism and coexisting with various faiths. Catholics are concentrated in big cities because of the increase of immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy and Poland before 19 15 and the explosion of Mexican immigrant population after 1950. Famous Amish communities are also common in Ohio, northern Indiana and central Illinois.