Illinois

"Illinois (pronunciado en inglés [.ln]) es uno de los 50 estados de los Estados Unidos, localizado en la región del Medio Oeste (Midwest). Con sus 12.419.293 habitantes, es el estado más poblado del Medio Oeste, y el quinto más poblado del país. Cerca de un 65% de la población del estado vive en el área metropolitana de Chicago, uno de los mayores centros industriales y financieros del mundo, el segundo mayor centro industrial del país después de Los Ángeles y el segundo mayor centro financiero de Estados Unidos después de Nueva York. La capital del estado es Springfield. A pesar de que Illinois tiene una economía altamente diversificada, siendo uno de los principales centros financieros de Estados Unidos, y un estado muy industrializado, a partir de la crisis económica de 2008-2010 el Estado se encuentra en quiebra técnica con una deuda de más de 5.000 millones de dólares y sin atender los pagos de los servicios básicos. Geográficamente, Illinois se caracteriza por su terreno poco accidentado en general, y por su clima inestable. La agricultura es una importante fuente de ingresos de Illinois. El turismo y la prestación de servicios de transportes y telecomunicaciones son otras fuentes de ingresos importantes en el estado. Chicago es la ciudad más grande del estado y uno de los centros ferroviarios y aeroportuarios más dinámicos de Estados Unidos. Illinois es conocido por su población grande y diversa y su equilibrio entre áreas rurales, pequeñas ciudades industriales, extensos suburbios y una gran área metropolitana, la de Chicago. Su economía diversa y su posición central ha hecho de él un importante centro de transportes durante 150 años. Es esta mezcla de fábricas y granjas, de áreas urbanas y rurales, la que hace de Illinois un microcosmos dentro de la nación. El apodo de Illinois es The Prairie State, que significa "El Estado de la Pradera". Otro apodo es el de The Land of Lincoln (La Tierra de Lincoln); muchos de sus habitantes se enorgullecen del hecho de que el presidente estadounidense Abraham Lincoln pasó la mayor parte de su vida en el estado. Su tumba se encuentra en Springfield. Los primeros europeos en explorar la región del actual Illinois fueron misioneros franceses. Esta región formó parte de Nueva Francia hasta 1763, año en que pasó a dominio británico. En 1783, después del fin de la Guerra de la Independencia Estadounidense de 1776, pasó a formar parte del entonces llamado Territorio del Noroeste. El 3 de febrero de 1809, se creó el Territorio de Illinois. El 3 de diciembre de 1818, Illinois pasó a ser el 21er estado de los Estados Unidos."

"Illinois (/ln/ IL-i-NOY) is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 5th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base and is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. Although today the state's largest population center is around Chicago in the northern part of the state, the state's European population grew first in the west, with French Canadians who settled along the Mississippi River, and gave the area the name, Illinois. After the American Revolutionary War established the United States, American settlers began arriving crossing the Appalachians barrier range in the 1810s via the gaps of the Allegheny to boat building centers in Pittsburgh, from Cumberland, Maryland via the Cumberland Narrows pass to outfit in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, from North Carolina and Virginia via the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky and Tennessee, all on the Ohio River. The riverboats built in Pittsburgh, Brownsville and along the lower Ohio Valley were safe and capable so emigrants polling boats northwards from the confluence against the current up the lazy Mississippi (as had the French settlers) to other destinations on either bank was a common sight for over six decades (1790s-1860s) and the population of Illinois grew from south to north as immigration from Europe, large families in the burgeoning eastern populous, and the exhausting of the poor farming lands of the East each had an impact. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as Amerindians and Canadian forces oft raided the American Frontier. After the war's end, the federal government re-established forts such as Fort Dearborn (in 1816now the site is within Chicago) and army patrols west of the Mississippi diminished the threat from Amerindian raids, so settlers were able to move into all of Illinois from the eastern and southern emigrant trails. Mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigrationby the 1810s, the Eastern U.S. had exhausted most timber stands close to the established cities creating a hard felt first energy crisis by the late 1790s, and after 1818 the industrial revolution was being fueled by new canals such as the Lehigh Canal feeding the furnaces of the rapidly industrializing east coast. In the same year of 1818, Illinois achieved statehood and its growth, as yet untroubled by the speed of as yet unrefined railway technology, would be fueled by the new religion of industrialized forward thinking. After construction of the Erie Canal with increasing traffic and trade through the Great Lakes, Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, at one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting new immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other mid-western states from the tyranny of water transport; no longer was a location near a river or canal a need to ship bulk goods. By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants, from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U.S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Barack Obama. Additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U.S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan, Land of Lincoln, which has been displayed on its license plates since 1954. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the state capital of Springfield, and the Barack Obama Presidential Center will be completed in Chicago by 2020."