87-726: The Midwest or Midwestern United States is a region of the United States. Mid West or Midwest may also refer to: Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest ) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau . It occupies the northern central part of the United States . It
174-513: A large margin . Instead, the tipping-point state that year was Michigan , as it gave Reagan the decisive electoral vote. The difference in Michigan was nineteen percentage points, quite similar to Reagan's national margin of eighteen percent. Michigan would have been more relevant to the election results had the election been closer. Similarly, Barack Obama 's narrow victory in Indiana in
261-458: A Democratic governor despite also voting for Republican Donald Trump . In Maine and Nebraska, the apportionment of electoral votes parallels that for U.S. senators and representatives . Two electoral votes go to the candidate who wins the plurality of the vote statewide, and a candidate gets an additional electoral vote for each congressional district in which they receive a plurality. Both of these states have relatively few electoral votes –
348-642: A U.S. Army by Native Americans. The British demanded the establishment of a Native American barrier state at the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812 , but American negotiators rejected the idea because Britain had lost control of the region in the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of the Thames in 1813, where Tecumseh was killed by U.S. forces. The British then abandoned their Native American allies south of
435-401: A higher rate with campaign visits, television advertising, and get out the vote efforts by party organizers and debates. According to Katrina vanden Heuvel, a journalist for The Nation , "four out of five" voters in the national election are "absolutely ignored". Since most states use a winner-takes-all arrangement, in which the candidate with the most votes in that state receives all of
522-460: A house, clearing the ground, and planting crops. A number of means facilitated the legal settlement of the territories in the Midwest: land speculation , federal public land auctions , bounty land grants in lieu of pay to military veterans, and, later, preemption rights for squatters. The "squatters" became "pioneers" and were increasingly able to purchase the lands on which they had settled for
609-581: A majority of the advertisements and candidate visits. The battlegrounds may change in certain election cycles and may be reflected in overall polling, demographics, and the ideological appeal of the nominees. In United States presidential elections , each state is free to decide the method by which its electors to the Electoral College will be chosen. To increase its voting power in the Electoral College system , every state, with
696-496: A pre-election 2016 analysis, the thirteen most competitive states were Wisconsin , Pennsylvania , New Hampshire , Minnesota , Arizona , Georgia , Virginia , Florida , Michigan , Nevada , Colorado , North Carolina , and Maine . Nebraska's 2nd congressional district was (and is still as of 2020) also considered competitive. However, this projection was not specific to any particular election cycle , and assumed similar levels of support for both parties . Ten weeks before
783-544: A supernatural being who lived in the sky and was believed to have created the world and the Huron people. At death, Hurons thought the soul left the body to live in a village in the sky. Chippewas were a deeply religious people who believed in the Great Spirit. They worshiped the Great Spirit through all their seasonal activities, and viewed religion as a private matter: Each person's relation with his personal guardian spirit
870-478: A total of 4 and 5, respectively. Nebraska has split its votes since 1992, and Maine has done so since 1972. Each state has split its electoral votes only thrice since implementation: all three times Maine's second district gave one vote to Donald Trump, in 2016, 2020 and 2024; while Obama in 2008, Biden in 2020, and Harris in 2024 obtained the Nebraska's second district vote in their respective races. States where
957-407: A uniform shift among the states. Swing states have generally changed over time. For instance, the swing states of Ohio , Connecticut , Indiana , New Jersey and New York were key to the outcome of the 1888 election . Likewise, Illinois and Texas were key to the outcome of the 1960 election , Florida and New Hampshire were key in deciding the 2000 election , and Ohio was important during
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#17327656401691044-543: A written form of language. In the 16th century, the natives of the area used projectiles and tools of stone, bone, and wood to hunt and farm. They made canoes for fishing. Most of them lived in oval or conical wigwams that could be easily moved away. Various tribes had different ways of living. The Ojibwas were primarily hunters and fishing was also important in the Ojibwas economy. Other tribes such as Sac, Fox, and Miami, both hunted and farmed. They were oriented toward
1131-933: Is Heartland . Among the Native Americans , Paleo-Americans cultures were the earliest in North America, with a presence in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE. Following the Paleo-American period is the Archaic period (8,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE), the Woodland Tradition (1,000 BCE to 100 CE), and the Mississippian Period (900 to 1500 CE). Archeological evidence indicates that Mississippian culture traits probably began in
1218-419: Is Georgia , which is a swing state because it has large populations of Republican-leaning evangelical whites and Democratic-leaning Black voters and urban college-educated professionals, thus campaigns often concentrate on voter turnout. Presidential campaigns and pundits seek to keep track of the shifting electoral landscape. While swing states in past elections can be determined simply by looking at how close
1305-619: Is regularly a swing state. Additionally, campaigns stopped mounting nationwide electoral efforts in the last few months near/at the ends of the blowout 2008 election, but rather targeted only a handful of battlegrounds. This is a chart of swing states using the methodology of Nate Silver for determining tipping point states, but including the other states in close contention in recent elections, ranked by margin of victory. In this method, states and DC are ordered by margin of victory, then tabulating which states were required to get to 270+ electoral votes in margin order. The tipping point state, and
1392-510: Is the area between the historical foreground of European invasion and occupation and the background of Indian defeat and retreat. White specifically designates "the lands bordering the rivers flowing into the northern Great Lakes and the lands south of the lakes to the Ohio" as the location of the middle ground. This includes the modern Midwestern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan as well as parts of Canada. The middle ground
1479-455: The 2004 election . Ohio has gained its reputation as a regular swing state after 1980, and did not vote against the winner between 1960 and 2020. In the 2024 election , Ohio and Florida had shifted rightward and were considered safe wins for Republicans. In fact, only three people have won the presidential election without winning Ohio since 1900: Franklin D. Roosevelt , John F. Kennedy , and Joe Biden . Areas considered battlegrounds in
1566-608: The 2008 election inaccurately portrays its status as a battleground. Obama lost Indiana by more than ten percentage points in the closer 2012 election , but triumphed anyway as Indiana's electoral votes were not directly needed for a coalition of 270 votes; the same scenario was with Missouri , where John McCain narrowly won by 4,000 votes in the 2008 election , but was won by Mitt Romney by nearly 10 points in 2012 election , indicating its GOP trend. Other lightly Republican leaning states such as North Carolina and Arizona were more plausible Democratic pick-ups in 2012. In 2012,
1653-635: The 2016 election , Hillary Clinton overperformed in educated, suburban states such as Colorado and Virginia compared to past Democratic candidates, while Donald Trump performed above standard Republican expectations in the Rust Belt , such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In addition, gradual shifts can occur within states due to changes in demography, geography, or population patterns. For example, many currently Republican states, like Arkansas , Missouri , Tennessee , and West Virginia , had been battlegrounds as recently as 2004. According to
1740-875: The 2020 election were Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine's 2nd congressional district , Michigan, Minnesota , Nebraska's 2nd congressional district , Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, with Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin constituting the "Big Five" most likely to decide the Electoral College. In the end, Joe Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, NE-02, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, while Donald Trump won ME-02, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Campaign strategies are not universal in swing states. Statistical analytics website FiveThirtyEight notes that some swing states, such as New Hampshire , swing because they have many moderate, independent swing voters, and campaigning puts an emphasis on persuading voters. Contrasting this
1827-777: The Algonquian language family. Some tribes—such as the Stockbridge-Munsee and the Brothertown —are also Algonkian-speaking tribes who relocated from the eastern seaboard to the Great Lakes region in the 19th century. The Oneida belong to the Iroquois language group and the Ho-Chunk of Wisconsin are one of the few Great Lakes tribes to speak a Siouan language. American Indians in this area did not develop
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#17327656401691914-532: The Arikara , Hidatsa , Iowa , Kaw (or Kansa) , Kitsai , Mandan , Missouria , Nez Perce , Omaha , Osage , Otoe , Pawnee , Ponca , Quapaw , Santee , Wichita , and Yankton . The nomadic tribes of the Great Plains survived on hunting ; some of their major hunts centered on deer and buffalo. Some tribes are described as part of the "Buffalo Culture" (sometimes called, for the American bison ). Although
2001-486: The Blackfoot , Arapaho , Assiniboine , Cheyenne , Comanche , Crow , Gros Ventre , Kiowa , Lakota , Lipan , Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree , Plains Ojibwe , Sarsi , Shoshone , Stoney , and Tonkawa . The second group of Plains Indians (sometimes referred to as Prairie Indians) were the semi-sedentary tribes who, in addition to hunting buffalo, lived in villages and raised crops. These included
2088-461: The Democratic or Republican candidate in a statewide election, most often referring to presidential elections , by a swing in votes. These states are usually targeted by both major-party campaigns , especially in competitive elections. Meanwhile, the states that regularly lean to a single party are known as "safe states" (or more specifically as "red states" and "blue states" depending on
2175-484: The Electoral College , as Trump, the Republican nominee, won the tipping-point state of Wisconsin by less than 1 percent. In 2020, Joe Biden won the popular vote by over 4 percentage points but won the tipping point state of Pennsylvania by only 1 percent. This shows Donald Trump could win the election even if he lost the popular vote by over 3 percent and would have picked up Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin with
2262-593: The Great Lakes region . The West North Central Division includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, and South Dakota, several of which are located, at least partly, within the Great Plains region. Chicago is the most populous city in the American Midwest and the third-most populous in the United States. Chicago and its suburbs , colloquially known as Chicagoland , form
2349-649: The Haitian Revolution and together with the fact that France could not effectively defend Louisiana from a possible British attack, he sold the territory to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Meanwhile, the British maintained forts and trading posts in U.S. territory, refusing to give them up until 1796 by the Jay Treaty . American settlement began either via routes over
2436-549: The Kansas City metro area , the Columbus metro area , and Greater Cleveland . The region's economy is a mix of heavy industry and agriculture, with extensive areas forming part of the United States' Corn Belt . Finance and services such as medicine and education are becoming increasingly important. Its central location makes it a transportation crossroads for river boats, railroads, autos, trucks, and airplanes. Politically,
2523-578: The Louisiana Purchase , and establish trade and U.S. sovereignty over the native peoples along the Missouri River . The Lewis and Clark Expedition established relations with more than two dozen indigenous nations west of the Missouri River. The Expedition returned east to St. Louis in the spring of 1806. The Midwest has been a key swing district in national elections, with highly contested elections in closely divided states often deciding
2610-753: The Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with their cessation of the majority of their holdings in North America to the Kingdom of Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris (1763) . In 1673 the Governor of New France sent Jacques Marquette , a Catholic priest and missionary, and Louis Jolliet , a fur trader , to map the way to the Northwest Passage to the Pacific. They traveled through Michigan's upper peninsula to
2697-722: The St. Louis, Missouri area and spread northwest along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and entered the state along the Kankakee River system. It also spread northward into Indiana along the Wabash , Tippecanoe , and White Rivers. Mississippian peoples in the Midwest were mostly farmers who followed the rich, flat floodplains of Midwestern rivers. They brought with them a well-developed agricultural complex based on three major crops— maize , beans , and squash . Maize, or corn,
Midwest (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
2784-462: The Treaty of Paris , Spain was given Louisiana ; the area west of the Mississippi. St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve in Missouri were the main towns, but there was little new settlement. France regained Louisiana from Spain in exchange for Tuscany by the terms of the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. Napoleon had lost interest in re-establishing a French colonial empire in North America following
2871-1006: The West Coast states of California , Oregon , Washington , Hawaii , and the Southwestern states of Colorado and New Mexico , as well as the Great Lakes states of Illinois and Minnesota . However, some states that consistently vote for one party at the presidential level occasionally elect a governor of the opposite party; this is currently the case in Vermont and Virginia which have Republican governors, as well as in Kentucky and Kansas , which currently have Democratic governors. Even in presidential election years, voters may split presidential and gubernatorial tickets. In 2020, this occurred in Vermont and New Hampshire , which elected Republican governors even as Democrat Joe Biden won both states, while North Carolina elected
2958-712: The mountain states and Great Plains , such as Idaho , Wyoming , the Dakotas , Montana , Utah , Kansas , Oklahoma , and Nebraska , most of the South , including Alabama , Mississippi , Louisiana , Arkansas , Tennessee , Kentucky , South Carolina , Missouri , Texas , and West Virginia , as well as Alaska . Democrats usually take the Mid-Atlantic states, including New York , New Jersey , Maryland , Virginia , and Delaware , New England , particularly Vermont , Massachusetts , Rhode Island , and Connecticut ,
3045-803: The 2020 presidential election, statistical analytics website FiveThirtyEight noted that the electoral map is "undergoing a series of changes", with some states moving rightward, other states moving leftward, and two states (Florida, until the 2020 election, and North Carolina ) described as "perennial" swing states. Likewise, an analysis of results of the 2018 midterms indicated that the "battleground states" are changing, with Colorado and Ohio becoming less competitive and more Democratic and Republican, respectively, while Georgia and Arizona were slowly turning into swing states. The Electoral College encourages political campaigners to focus most of their efforts on courting voters in swing states. States in which polling shows no clear favorite are usually targeted at
3132-725: The Appalachian Mountains or through the waterways of the Great Lakes. Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh ) at the source of the Ohio River became the main base for settlers moving into the Midwest. Marietta, Ohio in 1787 became the first settlement in Ohio, but not until the defeat of Native American tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 was large-scale settlement possible. Large numbers also came north from Kentucky into southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The region's fertile soil produced corn and vegetables; most farmers were self-sufficient. They cut trees and claimed
3219-426: The Electoral College by only 5 votes. In contrast, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over 2 percentage points. This meant that Donald Trump would have picked up New Hampshire , Nevada , and Minnesota if the popular vote had been tied, assuming a uniform shift among the battleground states. On the other hand, Clinton would have had to win the popular vote by at least 3 points to win
3306-633: The Endeavors of Government, or Fear of Indians has kept them properly within Bounds." The British had a long-standing goal of establishing a Native American buffer state in the American Midwest to resist American westward expansion. With victory in the American Revolution the new government considered evicting the squatters from areas that were now federally owned public lands. In 1785, soldiers under General Josiah Harmar were sent into
3393-597: The French and British, conflicts and treaties with the United States both during the Revolutionary War and after , and its ultimate clearing/erasure throughout the nineteenth century. European settlement of the area began in the 17th century following French exploration of the region and became known as New France , including the Illinois Country . The French period began with the exploration of
3480-545: The French and the British into competition with each other to their own benefit. The Indian demand for certain kinds of cloth in particular fueled this competition. This, however, changed following the Seven Years' War with Britain's victory over France and the cession of New France to Great Britain. The British attempted to establish a more assertive relationship with the Indians of the pays d'en haut , eliminating
3567-477: The Ohio country to destroy the crops and burn down the homes of any squatters they found living there. But overall the federal policy was to move Indians to western lands (such as the Indian Territory in modern Oklahoma) and allow a very large numbers of farmers to replace a small number of hunters. Congress repeatedly debated how to legalize settlements. On the one hand, Whigs such as Henry Clay wanted
Midwest (disambiguation) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3654-534: The Plains Indians hunted other animals, such as elk or antelope , bison was their primary game food source. Bison flesh, hide, and bones from bison hunting provided the chief source of raw materials for items that Plains Indians made, including food, cups, decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing. The tribes followed the bison's seasonal grazing and migration. The Plains Indians lived in teepees because they were easily disassembled and allowed
3741-729: The alliance it created. In the meshed French and Algonquian system of trade, the Algonquian familial metaphor of a father and his children shaped the political relationship between the French and the Natives in this region. The French, regarded as the metaphoric father, were expected to provide for the needs of the Algonquians and, in return, the Algonquians, the metaphoric children, would be obligated to assist and obey them. Traders coming into Indian villages facilitated this system of symbolic exchange to establish or maintain alliances and friendships. Marriage also became an important aspect of
3828-814: The broad Interior Plain between the states occupying the Appalachian Mountain range and the states occupying the Rocky Mountain range . Major rivers in the region include, from east to west, the Ohio River , the Upper Mississippi River , and the Missouri River . The 2020 United States census put the population of the Midwest at 68,995,685. The Midwest is divided by the U.S. Census Bureau into two divisions. The East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, all of which are also part of
3915-539: The conflict, the British government was forced to compromise and loosely re-created a trade system that was an echo of the French one. While French control ended in 1763 after their defeat in the Seven Years' War, most of the several hundred French settlers in small villages along the Mississippi River and its tributaries remained, and were not disturbed by the new British administration. By the terms of
4002-569: The election has a close result become less meaningful in landslide elections. Instead, states which vote similarly to the national vote proportions are more likely to appear as the closest states. For example, the states in the 1984 election with the tightest results were Minnesota and Massachusetts . A campaign strategy centered on them, however, would not have been meaningful in the Electoral College , as Democratic nominee Walter Mondale required victories in many more states than Massachusetts, and Republican Ronald Reagan still would have won by
4089-431: The electoral system, the campaigns are less concerned with increasing a candidate's national popular vote, tending instead to concentrate on the popular vote only in those states which will provide the electoral votes it needs to win the election, as many successful candidates have lost the popular vote but won the electoral college. In past electoral results, Republican candidates would have expected to easily win most of
4176-695: The exceptions of Maine and Nebraska , has adopted a winner-take-all system, where the candidate who wins the most popular votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes. The expectation was that the candidates would look after the interests of the states with the most electoral votes. However, in practice, most voters tend not to change party allegiance from one election to the next, leading presidential candidates to concentrate their limited time and resources campaigning in those states that they believe they can swing towards them or stop states from swinging away from them, and not to spend time or resources in states they expect to win or lose. Because of
4263-506: The female line, while the others favored the patrilineal method. All tribes were governed under chiefdoms or complex chiefdoms. For example, Hurons were divided into matrilineal clans, each represented by a chief in the town council, where they met with a town chief on civic matters. But Chippewa people's social and political life was simpler than that of settled tribes. The religious beliefs varied among tribes. Hurons believed in Yoscaha ,
4350-582: The global climate change of the Little Ice Age . Their culture effectively ended before 1492. The major tribes of the Great Lakes region included the Huron , Ottawa , Ojibwe , Potawatomi , Ho-Chunk , Menominee , Sauk , Meskwaki , Neutrals , and the Miami . Most numerous were the Huron and Ho-Chunk. Fighting and battle were often launched between tribes, with the losers forced to flee. Most are of
4437-617: The government to get maximum revenue and also wanted stable middle-class law-abiding settlements of the sort that supported towns (and bankers). Jacksonian Democrats such as Thomas Hart Benton wanted the support of poor farmers, who reproduced rapidly, had little cash, and were eager to acquire cheap land in the West. Democrats did not want a big government, and keeping revenues low helped that cause. Democrats avoided words like "squatter" and regarded "actual settlers" as those who gained title to land, settled on it, and then improved upon it by building
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#17327656401694524-461: The growing influence of women in the fur trade also came the increasing demand of cloth which very quickly grew to be the most desired trade good. English traders entered the Ohio country as a serious competitor to the French in the fur trade around the 1690s. English (and later British) traders almost consistently offered the Indians better goods and better rates than the French, with the Indians being able to play that to their advantage, thrusting
4611-518: The lakes. The Native Americans ended being the main losers in the War of 1812 . Apart from the short Black Hawk War of 1832, the days of Native American warfare east of the Mississippi River had ended. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition that took place between May 1804 and September 1806. Launching from Camp Dubois in Illinois, the goal was to explore
4698-649: The land, then sold it to newcomers and then moved further west to repeat the process. Settlers without legal claims, called "squatters", had been moving into the Midwest for years before 1776. They pushed further and further down the Ohio River during the 1760s and 1770s and sometimes engaged in conflict with the Native Americans. British officials were outraged. These squatters were characterized by British General Thomas Gage as "too Numerous, too Lawless, and Licentious ever to be restrained", and regarded them as "almost out of Reach of Law and government; Neither
4785-667: The largest metropolitan area with 10 million people, making it the fourth-largest metropolitan area in North America , after Greater Mexico City , the New York metropolitan area , and Greater Los Angeles . Other large Midwestern cities include Columbus , Indianapolis , Detroit , Milwaukee , Kansas City , Omaha , Minneapolis , Wichita , Cleveland , Cincinnati , St. Paul , St. Louis , and Des Moines . Large midwestern metropolitan areas include Metro Detroit , Minneapolis–St. Paul , Greater St. Louis , Greater Cincinnati ,
4872-459: The location of Native American settlements near the headwaters of the Wabash River , but on November 4 they were routed in battle by a tribal confederation led by Miami Chief Little Turtle and Shawnee chief Blue Jacket . More than 600 soldiers and scores of women and children were killed in the battle, which has since borne the name " St. Clair's Defeat ". It remains the greatest defeat of
4959-633: The middle ground was introduced in Richard White's seminal work: The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815 originally published in 1991. White defines the middle ground like so: The middle ground is the place in between cultures, peoples, and in between empires and the non state world of villages. It is a place where many of the North American subjects and allies of empires lived. It
5046-446: The minimum price thanks to various preemption acts and laws passed throughout the 1810s-1840s. In Washington, Jacksonian Democrats favored squatter rights while banker-oriented Whigs were opposed; the Democrats prevailed. In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair became commander of the United States Army and led a punitive expedition with two Regular Army regiments and some militia. Near modern-day Fort Recovery , his force advanced to
5133-503: The most powerful and dominant tribes were the Dakota or Sioux , who occupied large amounts of territory in the Great Plains of the Midwest. The area of the Great Sioux Nation spread throughout the South and Midwest, up into the areas of Minnesota and stretching out west into the Rocky Mountains. At the same time, they occupied the heart of prime buffalo range, and also an excellent region for furs they could sell to French and American traders for goods such as guns. The Sioux (Dakota) became
5220-446: The most powerful of the Plains tribes and the greatest threat to American expansion. The Sioux comprise three major divisions based on Siouan dialect and subculture: Today, the Sioux maintain many separate tribal governments scattered across several reservations, communities, and reserves in the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Montana in the United States, as well as Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan in Canada. The theory of
5307-412: The nation. Had the election come out closer, Romney's path to victory would probably have involved also winning Wisconsin , Nevada , New Hampshire , or Iowa , as these states had comparable margins to Colorado, and had been battlegrounds during the election. As many mathematical analysts have noted, however, the state voting in a fashion most similar to that of the nation as a whole is not necessarily
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#17327656401695394-475: The national result. From 1860 to 1920, both parties tried to find their presidential and vice presidential candidates from the region. One of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican Party , originated in the Midwest in the 1850s; Ripon, Wisconsin , had the first local meeting while Jackson, Michigan , had the first statewide meeting of the new party. Its membership included many Yankees out of New England and New York who had settled
5481-410: The native peoples who lived along the route were generally friendly, and that the natural resources of the lands in between were extraordinary. New France officials led by LaSalle followed up and erected a 4,000-mile (6,400 km) network of fur trading posts. The fur trade was an integral part of early European and Indian relations. It was the foundation upon which their interactions were built and
5568-425: The next 10 states with close margins on each side, are shown as the swing states in retrospect, along with the "bias" which is the difference between the final margin in the tipping point state and final popular vote margin. This takes into account inherent electoral college advantages; for example, Michigan was the closest state in 2016 by result, and Nevada was the closest state to the national popular vote result, but
5655-434: The nomadic life of following game. When Spanish horses were obtained, the Plains tribes rapidly integrated them into their daily lives. By the early 18th century, many tribes had fully adopted a horse culture . Before their adoption of guns, the Plains Indians hunted with spears , bows , and bows and arrows , and various forms of clubs . The use of horses by the Plains Indians made hunting (and warfare) much easier. Among
5742-414: The northern tip of Lake Michigan. On canoes, they crossed the massive lake and landed at present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin . They entered the Mississippi River on 17 June 1673. Marquette and Jolliet were the first to map the northern portion of the Mississippi River. They confirmed that it was easy to travel from the St. Lawrence River through the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico by water, that
5829-453: The open prairies where they engaged in communal hunts for buffalo (bison) . In the northern forests, the Ottawas and Potawatomis separated into small family groups for hunting. The Winnebagos and Menominees used both hunting methods interchangeably and built up widespread trade networks extending as far west as the Rockies, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico , and east to the Atlantic Ocean. The Hurons reckoned descent through
5916-424: The partisan leaning), as it is generally assumed that one candidate has a base of support from which a sufficient share of the electorate can be drawn without significant investment or effort by the campaign. Due to the winner-take-all method that most states use to determine their presidential electors , candidates often campaign only in competitive states, which is why a select group of states frequently receives
6003-522: The plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. Their colorful equestrian culture and famous conflicts with settlers and the US Army have made the Plains Indians archetypical in literature and art for American Indians everywhere. Plains Indians are usually divided into two broad classifications, with some degree of overlap. The first group were fully nomadic, following the vast herds of buffalo . Some tribes occasionally engaged in agriculture, growing tobacco and corn primarily. These included
6090-501: The practise of gift giving which they now saw as unnecessary. This, in combination with an underwhelming trade relationship with a surplus of whiskey, increase in prices generally, and a shortage of other goods led to unrest among the Indians that was exacerbated by the decision to significantly reduce the amount of rum being traded, a product that British merchants had been including in the trade for years. This would eventually culminate in Pontiac's War , which broke out in 1763. Following
6177-448: The processing of the pelts necessary to the fur trade. Women were integral to the fur trade and their contributions were lauded, so much so that the absence of the involvement of an Indian Woman was once cited as the cause for a trader's failure. When the French fur trade re-opened in 1716 upon the discovery that their overstock of pelts had been ruined, legal French traders continued to marry Indian women and remain in their villages. With
6264-566: The region (as it was in other regions), with Wisconsin a major center. Under the La Follettes , Wisconsin fought against the Republican bosses and for efficiency, modernization, and the use of experts to solve social, economic, and political problems. Swing state In United States politics , a swing state (also known as battleground state , toss-up state , or purple state ) is any state that could reasonably be won by either
6351-576: The region is composed of swing states , and therefore is heavily contested and often decisive in elections. The term West was applied to the region in British America and in the early years of the United States, when the colonial territories had not extended far from the Atlantic coast and the Pacific seaboard was generally unknown. By the early 19th century, anything west of Appalachia
6438-445: The state's electoral votes, there is a clear incentive to focus almost exclusively on only a few undecided states. In contrast, many states with large populations such as California, Texas and New York have in recent elections been considered "safe" for a particular party, and therefore not a priority for campaign visits and money. Meanwhile, twelve of the thirteen smallest states are thought of as safe for either party – only New Hampshire
6525-409: The states of North Carolina, Florida, Ohio , and Virginia were decided by a margin of less than five percent. However, none of them were considered the tipping-point state, as Romney would not have been able to defeat Obama even if he had emerged victorious in all of them. Virginia was most in-step with the rest of the country. Virginians voted for Obama by just under 4 points, almost the exact same as
6612-457: The tipping-point state. The presidential election in 2016 was a notable example, as it featured one of the largest historical disparities between the Electoral College and popular vote. Additionally, this "split" in votes was much larger in both directions than in previous elections, such as the 2000 election . In that election, Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote by less than 1 percent, while incoming president George W. Bush won
6699-404: The tipping-point. For example, if a candidate wins only a few states but does so by a wide margin, while the other candidate's victories are much closer, the popular vote would likely favor the former. However, although the vast majority of the states leaned to the latter candidate in comparison to the entire country, many of them would end up having voted for the loser in greater numbers than did
6786-485: The trade in both the Ohio River valley and the French pays d'en haut with the temporary closing of the French fur trade from 1690 to 1716 and beyond. French fur traders were forced to abandon most posts and those remaining in the region became illegal traders who potentially sought these marriages to secure their safety. Another benefit for French traders marrying Indian women was that the Indian women were in charge of
6873-527: The upper Midwest. The party opposed the expansion of slavery and stressed the Protestant ideals of thrift, a hard work ethic, self-reliance, democratic decision making, and religious tolerance. In the early 1890s, the wheat-growing regions were strongholds of the short-lived Populist movement in the Plains states. Starting in the 1890s, the middle class urban Progressive movement became influential in
6960-491: The vote was in each state, determining states likely to be swing states in future elections requires estimation and projection based on previous election results, opinion polling, political trends, recent developments since the previous election, and any strengths or weaknesses of the particular candidate involved. The swing-state "map" transforms between each election cycle, depending on the candidates and their policies, sometimes dramatically and sometimes subtly. For example, in
7047-424: Was a system that would evolve over time. Goods often traded included guns, clothing, blankets, strouds, cloth, tobacco, silver, and alcohol. The French and Indian exchange of goods was called an exchange of gifts rather than a trade. These gifts held greater meaning to the relationship between the two than a simple economic exchange because the trade itself was inseparable from the social relations it fostered and
7134-400: Was bounded by the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Some entities in the Midwest have "Northwest" in their names for historical reasons, such as Northwestern University in Illinois. One of the earliest late-19th-century uses of Midwest was in reference to Kansas and Nebraska to indicate that they were the civilized areas of the west. Another term applied to the same region
7221-736: Was considered American frontier . Over time the American frontier moved to west of the Mississippi River . During the colonial period, the upper-Mississippi watershed including the valleys of the Missouri River and the Illinois River , which were settled in the 17th and 18th century and called Illinois Country . In 1787 the Northwest Ordinance was enacted, creating the Northwest Territory , which
7308-430: Was formed on the foundations of mutual accommodation and common meanings established between the French and the Indians that then transformed and degraded as both were steadily lost as the French ceded their influence in the region in the aftermath of their defeat in the Seven Years' War and the Louisiana Purchase . Major aspects of the middle ground include blended culture, the fur trade , Native alliances with both
7395-808: Was officially named the North Central Region by the U.S. Census Bureau until 1984. It is between the Northeastern United States and the Western United States , with Canada to the north and the Southern United States to the south. The U.S. Census Bureau's definition consists of 12 states in the north central United States: Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Kansas , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , Nebraska , North Dakota , Ohio , South Dakota , and Wisconsin . The region generally lies on
7482-527: Was part of his thinking every day of life. Ottawa and Potawatomi people had very similar religious beliefs to those of the Chippewas. In the Ohio River Valley, the dominant food supply was not hunting but agriculture. There were orchards and fields of crops that were maintained by indigenous women. Corn was their most important crop. The Plains Indians are the indigenous peoples who live on
7569-413: Was the primary crop of Mississippian farmers. They gathered a wide variety of seeds, nuts, and berries, and fished and hunted for fowl to supplement their diets. With such an intensive form of agriculture , this culture supported large populations. The Mississippi period was characterized by a mound-building culture. The Mississippians suffered a tremendous population decline about 1400, coinciding with
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