Midwestern United States
This article is about the Midwestern region in the United States. For the similarly translated ("Mid West" = Center-West ) region in Brazil, see Center-West Region, Brazil. For the Mid West region of Western Australia, see Mid West region of Western Australia |
Regional definitions vary from source to source. The states shown in dark red are usually included, while all or portions of the striped states may or may not be considered part of the Midwestern United States. |
The
Midwestern United States (or
Midwest) is a region of the north-central and northeastern
United States of America, located entirely inland. The term's etymology is now somewhat
archaic, as the region's states were once a part of the
Northwest Territory and the region was known as being a part of the "Middle West" of the United States before the
Louisiana Purchase. Today, this region is neither the middle nor the west of the United States (see map), but in fact except for the westernmost states is mostly in the
East. Nonetheless, both the geographic center of the contiguous US (in
Kansas) and the population center of the US (
Missouri) are located in states generally considered to be Midwestern. More geographically-accurate regional terms for these locations are the
East North Central States (essentially the
Great Lakes States); and the
West North Central States (essentially the
Great Plains States), as defined by the
United States Census Bureau. However, these terms are not generally used outside of technical descriptions of the region. In everyday speech the region is almost universally referred to simply as the Midwest, and most Americans would identify the region as the sociocultural (if not geographic) center of the country.
The term "Middle West" originated in the 19th century, followed by "Midwest" and "
Heartland", and referred to generally the same areas and states in the region. The heart of the Midwest is bounded by the
Great Lakes and the
Ohio and
Mississippi River Valleys, the "Old Northwest" (or the "West"), referring to the states of
Ohio,
Indiana,
Michigan,
Illinois, and
Wisconsin, which comprised the original
Northwest Territory. This area is now called the
East North Central States by the
United States Census Bureau and the "Great Lakes" region by its inhabitants. The Northwest Territory was created out of the ceded English (formerly French and Native American) frontier lands under the
Northwest Ordinance by the
Continental Congress just before the
U.S. Constitution was ratified. The Northwest Ordinance prohibited
slavery and
religious discrimination, and promoted
public schools and
private property. The Northwest Ordinance also specified that the land be surveyed and sold in the rectangular grids of the
Public Land Survey System, which was first used in Ohio. The effect of this grid system can be seen throughout the Midwest in such things as county shapes and road networks. In contrast, land in Kentucky and Tennessee was surveyed and sold using
metes and bounds. As
Revolutionary War soldiers from the original colonies were awarded lands in Ohio and migrated there and to other Midwestern states with other pioneers, including many immigrants from central and northern
Europe, the area became the first thoroughly "American" region. The
Midwest region today refers not only to states created from the
Northwest Ordinance, but also may include states between the
Appalachian Mountains to the
Rocky Mountains and south of the
Ohio River.
The term
West was applied to the region in the early years of the country. During this time, the vast majority of the population lived east of the Appalachian Mountains, but the country's borders stretched west all the way to the Rocky Mountains. Later, the vast region west of the Appalachians was divided into the
Far West (now just
the West), and the
Middle West. Some parts of the Midwest have also been referred to as
North West for historical reasons (for instance, this explains the Minnesota-based
Northwest Airlines and the former
Norwest Bank, as well as
Northwestern University in Illinois), so the current Northwest region of the country is called the
Pacific Northwest to make a clear distinction.
The Midwest is a term that is sometimes used interchangeably with the "
Heartland" or "
Middle America."
Though definitions vary, any definition of the Midwest would include the Northwest Ordinance "
Old Northwest" states and often includes many states that were part of the
Louisiana Purchase. The states of the Old Northwest are also known as "
Great Lakes states". Many of the Louisiana Purchase states are also known as
Great Plains states. The Midwest, or more properly, the North Central Region, is defined by the
U.S. Census Bureau as these 12 states:
*
Illinois: Old Northwest, Ohio River and Great Lakes state
*
Indiana: Old Northwest, Ohio River and Great Lakes state
*
Iowa: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
*
Kansas: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
*
Michigan: Old Northwest, and Great Lakes state
*
Minnesota: Old Northwest, and Great Lakes state; western part Louisiana Purchase
*
Missouri: Louisiana Purchase, Border state, Great Plains state
*
Nebraska: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
*
North Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
*
Ohio: Old Northwest (Historic
Connecticut Western Reserve), Ohio River and Great Lakes state. Also a Northeastern Appalachian state in the SE.
*
South Dakota: Louisiana Purchase, Great Plains state
*
Wisconsin: Old Northwest, and Great Lakes state
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Chicago is the largest city in the midwest |
Chicago is the largest city in the region and the third largest in the nation. It is sometimes unofficially called the "capital of the midwest". Other important cities in the regions include
Cleveland,
Columbus,
Indianapolis,
Detroit,
St. Louis,
Wichita,
Kansas City,
Cincinnati,
Des Moines,
Madison,
Toledo,
Milwaukee,
Minneapolis,
Omaha and
St. Paul. Small towns and agricultural communities in Kansas, Iowa, the Dakotas and Nebraska represent the traditional Midwestern lifestyle and values typically associated with the region.
Northeast Ohio is an area encompassing thirteen counties in Ohio and comprised of a population of approximately 4.5 million. The region includes
Rustbelt cities such as
Cleveland,
Akron,
Canton and
Youngstown that strikingly resemble Eastern cities which likewise have experienced industrial decline. The people, depending on the specific city or subregion in Northeast Ohio, even argue about their regional identity, preference, or affiliation. A book was published in 1980 labeling Cleveland as the city where "The East Coast Meets the Midwest."
Highway signs along
Interstate 80 in Ohio's
Trumbull and
Mahoning counties, located at the midway point between New York City and Chicago, display "New York City" as their
control city. Thus, it is arguable that this shows an affinity for Ohioans in that area to the Northeast. Still others will argue that the more likely reason is that there are no sufficiently large cities on I-80 between Youngstown and New York City;
Sharon,
State College,
Scranton,
Hazelton, and
Paterson are claimed to be of insufficient size or importance to serve as control cities from this part of Ohio. Even so, Youngstown, Ohio is actually a shorter drive to New York City than some parts of Western and Upstate New York, although New York City is not listed as a control city at any part of New York State more distant than
Albany.
Similarly, Southeast Ohio lacks a clear Midwestern identity. Its rugged, hilly topography, limited agriculture and manufacturing, and heavy reliance on coal mining and small-time farming make it more appropriately called
Appalachian than Midwestern. In fact, Southeast Ohio was part of the original delineation of
Appalachia by the
Appalachian Regional Commission.
Although one of the original thirteen colonies, and situated in the
Mid-Atlantic States,
Pennsylvania is sometimes referred to as a Midwestern state. However, only the western part of the state, which contains the cities of
Erie and
Pittsburgh, shares any culture with the Midwest (and at that, primarily with the aforementioned eastern portions of Ohio). In actuality, even Pittsburgh is a post-industrial, old Eastern/Appalachian city in renaissance. Western Pennsylvania is much more a Rustbelt Region than one attached to the ideals and identity of the Heartland. The eastern half of the state of Pennsylvania, particularly
Philadelphia and the
Delaware Water Gap region, undoubtedly identifies more with East Coast culture and the
Megalopolis.
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An image that has become the stereotypical portrait of the midwest |
In the West: the prairie parts of
Montana,
Wyoming, and especially
Colorado are sometimes considered part of the Midwest, especially to people in the
Great Plains which are closer to the geographic middle of the country, additions as such would be considered incorrect to most people in the
Great Lakes region as many people near the Great Lakes don't even consider the Plains states to be the Midwest, as much of those states are ranchland.
Despite the seemingly obvious boundary that is the
Ohio River, the Midwest and South do not have a clear boundary: many people in
Kentucky would like to be considered Midwestern, and
Missouri has much of a
Dixie element and has only been considered Midwest since the 20th century.
Northern Kentucky, near
Cincinnati, is often considered Midwestern to the area's residents. However, Kentucky was claimed as a
Confederate state during the
Civil War (even though it was never under its official control) and is geographically south of the Ohio River, which has historically been the divide between the North and the South (as a natural westward extension of the
Mason-Dixon Line).
Although eastern Oklahoma is decidedly "southern" in its cultural affinities and its economic affinities, having much in common with nearby Arkansas, eastern Texas, and southern Missouri; western Oklahoma and northwestern Texas (the latter largely the
Panhandle that includes Amarillo and Lubbock) by contrast have much more in common, economically, climatically, and culturally, with the states of Kansas and Nebraska and the eastern part of Colorado than with any parts of the American South or Southwest even in Texas and Oklahoma. Tellingly, a university in
Wichita Falls, Texas is named "
Midwestern State University" These areas may have been under nominal control of the Confederate States of America but were thinly populated and were settled largely by people from the Midwest and rely heavily upon ranching and wheat-growing instead of cotton and lumbering for their agricultural production.
These states are generally perceived as being relatively flat. That is true of several areas, but there is a measure of geographical variation. In particular, the eastern Midwest lying near the foothills of the
Appalachians, the
Great Lakes basin, and northern parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa demonstrate a high degree of topographical variety.
Prairies cover most of the states west of the
Mississippi River with the exception of eastern Minnesota and the
Ozarks of southern Missouri. Illinois lies within an area called the "prairie peninsula," an eastward extension of prairies that borders
deciduous forests to the north, east, and south. Rainfall decreases from east to west, resulting in different types of prairies, with the
tallgrass prairie in the wetter eastern region, mixed-grass prairie in the central Great Plains, and
shortgrass prairie towards the
rain shadow of the Rockies. Today, these three prairie types largely correspond to the
corn/
soybean area, the
wheat belt, and the western rangelands, respectively. Hardwood forests in this area were logged to extinction in the late 1800s. The majority of the Midwest can now be categorized as
urbanized areas or pastoral
agricultural areas. Areas in northern Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, such as the
Porcupine Mountains and the Ohio River valley are largely undeveloped.
Residents of the wheat belt, which consists of the westernmost states of the Midwest, generally consider themselves part of the Midwest, while residents of the remaining rangeland areas usually do not. Of course, exact boundaries are nebulous and shifting.
The Midwest is a cultural crossroads.
Starting in the 1790s,
American Revolutionary War veterans and settlers from the original
Thirteen Colonies moved there in response to
Federal government of the United States land grants. The
Ulster-Scots Presbyterians of
Pennsylvania (often through
Virginia) and the
Dutch Reformed,
Quaker, and
Congregationalists of
Connecticut were among the earliest pioneers to Ohio and the Midwest.
By the time of the
American Civil War,
European
immigrants bypassed the
East Coast of the United States to settle directly in the interior:
German immigrant Lutherans to Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, and eastern
Missouri,
Swedes and
Norwegians to
Wisconsin,
Minnesota and northern
Iowa.
Poles,
Hungarians, and German
Catholics and
Jews founded or settled in Midwestern cities. Many German Catholics also settled throughout the Ohio River valley and around the Great Lakes.
In the 20th century,
African American migration from the
Southern United States into the Midwestern states changed cities dramatically, as factories and schools enticed families by the thousands to new opportunities.
The region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of
cereal crops such as
corn,
oats, and, most importantly,
wheat. In the early days, the region was soon known as the nation's "breadbasket".
Two waterways have been important to the Midwest's development. The first and foremost was the
Ohio River which flowed into the
Mississippi River.
Spanish control of the southern part of the Mississippi, and refusal to allow the shipment of American crops down the river and into the
Atlantic Ocean, halted the development of the region until 1795.
The river inspired two classic American books written by a native Missourian, Samuel Clemens, who took the pseudonym
Mark Twain:
Life on the Mississippi and
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Today, Twain's stories have become staples of Midwestern lore. Twain's hometown of
Hannibal, Missouri is a tourist attraction in the area offering a glimpse into the Midwest of his time.
The second waterway is the network of routes within the
Great Lakes. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 completed an all-water shipping route, more direct than the Mississippi, to
New York and the seaport of
New York City. Lakeport cities grew up to handle this new shipping route. During the
Industrial Revolution, the lakes became a conduit for
iron ore from the
Mesabi Range of Minnesota to
steel mills in the
Mid-Atlantic States. The
Saint Lawrence Seaway later opened the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean.
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Lake Michigan is bordered by four midwest states: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. |
Inland canals in Ohio and Indiana constituted another great waterway, which connected into the Great Lakes and Ohio River traffic.
Because the Northwest Ordinance region, comprising the heart of the Midwest, was the first large region of the United States which prohibited
slavery (the
Northeastern United States emancipated slaves in the 1830s), the region remains culturally apart from the country and proud of its free pioneer heritage. The regional southern boundary was the Ohio River, the border of freedom and slavery in American history and literature (
See: Uncle Tom's Cabin, by
Harriet Beecher Stowe;
Beloved, by
Toni Morrison). The Midwest, particularly Ohio, provided the primary routes for the "
Underground Railroad", whereby Midwesterners assisted slaves to freedom from their crossing of the Ohio River through their departure on Lake Erie to Canada.
The region was shaped by the relative absence of slavery (except for Missouri), pioneer settlement, education in one-room free public schools, and democratic notions brought with
American Revolutionary War veterans,
Protestant faiths and experimentation, and agricultural wealth transported on the Ohio River
riverboats,
flatboats,
canal boats, and
railroads. The
canals in Ohio and Indiana opened so much of Midwestern agriculture that it launched the world's greatest population and economic boom foreshadowing later "emerging markets". The commodities that the Midwest funneled into the
Erie Canal down the Ohio River contributed to the wealth of
New York City, which overtook
Boston and
Philadelphia. New York State would proudly boast of the Midwest as its "inland empire"; thus, New York would become known as the Empire State.
The Midwest was predominantly
rural at the time of the
American Civil War, dotted with small farms across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, but
industrialization,
immigration, and
urbanization fed the
Industrial Revolution, and the heart of industrial progress became the
Great Lakes states of the Midwest.
German,
Scandinavian,
Slavic and
African American immigration into the Midwest continued to bolster the population there in the 19th and 20th centuries, though generally the Midwest remains a predominantly diverse,
Protestant region. Large concentrations of
Catholics are found in larger cities like Chicago, Cleveland, and St. Louis because of
Irish,
Italian, and
Polish immigration in the 19th century. Cleveland also has one of the nation's highest Jewish-American populations per capita of all major U.S. cities.
Midwesterners are alternately viewed as open, friendly, and straightforward, or sometimes stereotyped as unsophisticated and stubborn. Factors that probably affected the shaping of Midwest values include the religious heritage of the abolitionist, pro-education Congregationalists to the stalwart Calvinist heritage of the Midwestern Protestants, as well as the agricultural values inculcated by the hardy pioneers who settled the area. The Midwest remains a melting pot of Protestantism and
Calvinism, mistrustful of authority and power.
Catholicism is the largest single religious denomination in the Midwest, varying between 19 and 29% of the state populations.
Baptists compose 14% of the populations of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, up to 22% in Missouri and down to 5% in Minnesota.
Lutherans peak at 22-24% in Wisconsin and Minnesota, reflecting the Scandinavian and German heritage of those states.
Pentacostal and
charismatic denominations have few adherents in the Midwest, ranging between 1 and 7%.
Judaism and
Islam are each practiced by 1% or less of the population, with slightly higher concentrations in major urban areas, such as
Chicago,
Detroit and
Cleveland. Those with no religious affiliation make up 13-16% of the Midwest population.
The rural heritage of the land in the Midwest remains widely held, even if industrialization and suburbanization have overtaken the states in the original Northwest Territory. Given the rural, antebellum associations with the Midwest, further rural states like Kansas have become icons of Midwesternism, most directly with the 1939 film,
The Wizard of Oz.
Midwestern politics tends to be cautious, but the caution is sometimes peppered with protest, especially in minority communities or those associated with agrarian, labor or populist roots.
Due to 20th-century
African American migration from the South, a large African American urban population lives in
Cincinnati,
Cleveland,
Detroit,
Chicago,
Milwaukee,
Columbus,
Indianapolis,
Kansas City,
St. Louis,
Minneapolis,
Toledo,
Dayton, and other cities. The combination of
industry and
cultures,
Jazz,
Blues, and
Rock and Roll, led to an outpouring of musical creativity in the 20th century in the Midwest, including new music like the
Motown Sound and
techno from
Detroit and
house music from the south side of
Chicago.
Rock and Roll music was first identified as a new genre by a Cleveland radio DJ, and the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is now located in Cleveland.See also
Music of the Midwest/
Motown,
Detroit, 70s Soul Music, Ohio Players, Kool and The Gang, and
Dayton.
Today, the wealth of the coastal regions and the growth of the Sunbelt have contributed to a sense of unease in the Midwest. The abandonment by many industries of the Midwest, in favor of the South and overseas, has led some to refer to the Midwest as the
Rust Belt. The Midwest remains, with the South, a disproportionately large source of servicemembers for the
United States military, and remains a thoroughly patriotic and American center. Today the population of the Midwest is 65,971,974, or 22.2% of the total population of the United States.
The region contains numerous highly-regarded universities, both
public and private.
Public Schools
Two of the eight universities listed as the
Public Ivies,
Miami University of Ohio, and the
University of Michigan, are located in the Midwest. In an Updated version called Greene's Guide 2001, Seven out of eighteen schools added to the public ivies list were from the midwest including,
University of Wisconsin at Madison,
University of Minnesota,
Michigan State University, and
Ohio State University. Other Public(Big Ten) Midwest schools have been identified as Public Ivies as well. Others include:
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Ball State University *
Bowling Green State University*The
University of Cincinnati*
Eastern Michigan University*The
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign*
Indiana State University*
Indiana University*The
University of Iowa*
Iowa State University*The
University of Kansas*
Kansas State University *
Kent State University*Miami University
*The
University of Michigan*
Michigan State University *
University of Minnesota*The
University of Nebraska-Lincoln*
Northern Illinois University*
Southern Illinois University*The
University of Missouri*
The Ohio State University*
Ohio University*
Purdue University*
Wayne State University*
Western Michigan University*The
University of Wisconsin-Madison*The
University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeePrivate Schools
Many Midwestern educational institutions were founded in the 1800s as
denominational
religious schools. Notable private institutions include the
University of Chicago a well-known
Catholic educational institution,
Northwestern University,
Washington University in St. Louis and
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The Midwest also includes several nationally elite
liberal arts colleges such as
Bradley University,
Beloit College,
Carleton College,
Grinnell College,
Kenyon College,
Macalester College, and
Oberlin College, and is home to a cluster of other top-ranking colleges including
Creighton University,
Marquette University, The
University of Findlay,
Valparaiso University, the
University of Evansville,
Taylor University,
DePauw University,
Hanover College,
Depaul University,
St. Olaf College,
Wartburg College,
Gustavus Adolphus College,
Kalamazoo College,
Knox College,
Lawrence University,
Ohio Wesleyan University,
Denison University,
Wabash College,
The College of Wooster,
University of Detroit, and
Earlham College.
The Midwest gave birth to one of America's two major political parties, the
Republican Party, which was formed in the 1850s and included opposition to the spread of
slavery into new states as one of its agendas. The rural Midwest is a Republican stronghold to this day, and Hamilton County, the home of Cincinnati, is one of the few urban counties in America which voted predominantly Republican at the close of the 20th century. From the Civil War to the Depression and World War II, Midwestern Republicans dominated American politics and industry, just as Southern Democrat planters dominated antebellum rural America and as Northeastern financiers and academics in the Democratic party would dominate America from the Depression to the
Vietnam War and the height of the
Cold War.
In some upper midwestern states, such as
Illinois,
Minnesota, and
Michigan the story is quite different. Illinois is currently dominated heavily by the
Democratic Party, as the state has preferred the Democratic presidential candidate by a significant margin in the past 4 elections (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004). The same is true of Michigan, which also currently has a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators. Minnesota has voted in favor of the Democratic party for president longer than any other state (excluding the District of Columbia). Minnesota was actually the only state among the 50 states of the U.S. to vote for
Walter Mondale over
Ronald Reagan in 1984. (Although Washington D.C. also voted for Mondale.) In the latter two states, however, the recent Democratic pluralities have often been fairly narrow.
Youngstown, Ohio (known as "Little Chicago" or "The Hoboken of Ohio") has remained a Democratic and cultural microcosm throughout history. It is the birthplace of
James Traficant, a controversial, outspoken and left-wing liberal Democratic former member of the House of Representatives. In 2005, the city elected its first African-American mayor, independent
Jay Williams, the first non-Democratic mayor the city has seen in over 80 years.
Cleveland, Ohio was the first major U.S. city to elect a Black mayor,
Carl B. Stokes and, along with the balance of
Cuyahoga County has long been a Democratic stronghold.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the region also spawned the
Populist Movement in the Plains states and later the
Progressive Movement, which largely consisted of farmers and merchants intent on making government less corrupt and more receptive to the will of the people. The Republicans were unified anti-slavery politicians, whose later interests in
invention,
economic progress,
women's rights and
suffrage,
freedman's rights,
progressive taxation,
wealth creation,
election reforms,
temperance and
prohibition eventually clashed with the
Taft-
Roosevelt split in 1912. Similarly, the
Populist and
Progressive Parties grew out intellectually from the economic and social progress claimed by the early Republican party. The
Protestant and Midwestern ideals of
profit, thrift, work ethic, pioneer self-reliance,
education,
democratic rights, and religious tolerance, which influenced both parties despite their eventual drift into opposing parties.
Perhaps because of their geographic location and heritage of pioneers and
Revolutionary War veterans, many Midwesterners have been sometime adherents of Washington's ideal of
isolationism, the belief that Americans should not concern themselves with foreign wars and problems.
Protectionism was also promoted by Midwestern politicians to protect native industry from free trade. Other Midwesterners, though, led to America greater
internationalism, and eventually, belief in
free trade. In the current era, Midwesterners wrestle with free trade beliefs along with protecting industrial jobs. The decline of industry in the Midwest led to the "
Rust Belt" era when productivity stagnated and employment declined. The loss of jobs among union households and the plight of the
unemployed in the inner cities in the Midwest led to greater demands to protect jobs.
The accents of the region are generally distinct from those of the American Northeast and South. They are considered by many to be "standard" American English (known as
General American or Standard Midwestern). This accent is preferred by many national radio and television broadcasters, who go so far as to actually have potential broadcasters receive training in speaking "Midwestern". This may have started because many prominent broadcast personalities â€" such as
Walter Cronkite,
Johnny Carson,
Tom Brokaw,
John Madden and
Casey Kasem â€" came from this region and so created this perception. More recently, a
National Geographic magazine article (Nov. 1998) attributed the high number of telemarketing firms in Omaha, Nebraska to the "neutral accents" of the area's inhabitants.
However, in some regions, particularly the farther north into the
Upper Midwest one goes, a definite accent is detectable, usually reflecting the heritage of the area. For example,
Minnesota and western
Wisconsin both have a strong
Scandinavian accent, which intensifies the farther north one goes. Parts of
Michigan have noticeable Dutch-flavored accents. Also, residents of
Chicago are recognized to have their own distinctive nasal accent, with a similar accent occurring in parts of Michigan, Cleveland, and Western New York State. Arguably, this may have been derived from heavy German, Polish, and Eastern European influences in the Great Lakes Region.
*
List of regions of the United States*
List of Midwestern cities by size*
Midwestern cuisine#
"New York in Ohio." Roadfan.com website, retrieved December 23, 2005.
