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The American Midwest began as the West at a time when the United States ended at the Mississippi River. The Midwest became the northern portion of the West, the area north of the Ohio River. Here was settled the idea that new states would enter the Union with the sames rights as the existing states. The area to the south because of slavery became part of the area known basically as the South in a cultural context or the Southeastern quadrant of the United States. The United States began as 13 colonies along the narrow coastal plain hemmed in by the Appalachian Mountains which impeded the settlement of what we now know as the Midwest. British efforts to prevent the Colonists from moving west contributed to the Revolution. Although it was difficult, people could get into the vast flat areas of the West, but getting their produce east was virtually impossible. This only began to change with the steam-powered riverboats and the Erie Canal. After the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the Midwest began to take shape with the addition of what would become the Planes States. West of the Mississippi River was the Great Plains--both the Northern and Southern Plains, vast flat areas that could be productively farmed. It was here that the North and South vied for dominance before the Civil War with the outbreak of violence in Bloody Kansas (1850s). The Western Midwest became an important part of what became known as the Old West with cattle drives and cowboys. Wars were fought with the Planes Indians. The Midwest was largely made possible by the railroads which meant that the agricultural harvests and livestock could be easily brought east. The area became the bread basket of the United states aided by Cyrus McCormick and his mechanical reaper--the first read advance in harvesting since the invention of the scythe. And the railroads played a major role in bringing immigrants to America as their lines were only valuable if people settled on the Planes. And smack in the middle of the Midwest rose from nothing to become one of the great American cities--Chicago. The region was largely agricultural until the Civil War when industrial cities began to rise in the eastern portion of the Midwest. And it was to these new industrial cities that the massive European immigration sought jobs in cities rather than in rural areas. Thus throughout the Midwest today we have European ethnic enclaves.
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