The 21st state admitted to the US was Illinois on December 3rd, 1818. Illinois was nicknamed "The Prairie State" due to the topography of the land, and the "Land of Lincoln" because Abraham Lincoln lived there for 31 years of his life. Lincoln has a home and his tomb is also held in Springfield, where visitors can pay tribute. The biggest city in Illinois to this day is Chicago, as the 3rd largest city in the US, with 21% of the states population living there. Illinois was the first state in the US to ratify the 13th amendment of the Constitution to abolish slavery. Almost 80% of the state is farmland. Springfield is the capital of Illinois. The Northern Cardinal is the state bird, the Common Blue Violet is the state flower, and the White Oak is the state tree.
Around 1300AD, one of the largest pre-Columbian groups of people in the Mississippi floodplain were the Mississippian people. They practiced their religion in southwestern Illinois. Native American tribes were all Algonquian-speaking. The Kickapoo, Sauk, and Fox were in the North, the Cahokia and Tamaroa were in the South, the Kaskaskia and Peoria were central, and the Poawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwa (Chippewa) were in the Lake Michigan area. Illinois was known as the "Prairie" state, and native peoples hunted, farmed, and traded on the land for many years. In 1673, French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette went on an exploration through the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. They landed in Illinois, traded fur with the indigenous, and they also brought diseases that killed many. Between disease, war, and starvation, many tribes were decimated. In the 1763, the treaty of Paris marked the end of the French and Indian War, and the moment when France ceded to Great Britain. British presence was not welcomed well with Native Americans. In 1818, Illinois was granted statehood. The population was bout 35,000, and most of the prairie land was unsettled. On May 28th, 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, that proposed to relocate indigenous tribes west of the Mississippi River. The final conflict between the Natives and the Europeans was the Black Hawk War of 1832, and by 1833, all Native Americans in Illinois had been removed from the state. Slaves had been brought into Illinois by the French and Governor Arthur St. Clair from 1734 to 1818. The constitution of 1848 abolished slavery and forbade slaves from being immigrated into the state, and Illinois was the first state to do so. At the time of the Civil War, northern Illinois remained loyal to the union. 250,000 Illinoisans fought for the Union - including Ulysses S. Grant. By 1840, the population of Illinois shifted into a bustling city, and Chicago became one of the most population dense areas. Illinois prairie was considered one of the nation's most fertile agricultural areas that was prime for conquering by pioneers.
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