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179-652: Nebraska ( / n ə ˈ b r æ s k ə / nə- BRASS -kə ) is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States . It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River ; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwest; and Wyoming to the west. Nebraska is the 16th-largest state by land area , with just over 77,220 square miles (200,000 km). With
358-642: 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
537-590: A band of Canarse from Brooklyn who occupied the bottom quarter of Manhattan, known then as the Manhattoes , for 60 guilders ' worth of trade goods. Minuit conducted the transaction with the Canarse chief Seyseys, who accepted valuable merchandise in exchange for an island that was actually mostly controlled by another indigenous group, the Weckquaesgeeks . Dutch fur traders set up a network upstream on
716-730: A capital city and royal palace, fully expecting the Dutch to retain control of this rich area. As the Dutch had in Europe, it tolerated the presence of Jews and other religious groups in the colony. After Maurits departed in 1643, the Dutch West India Company took over the colony until it was lost to the Portuguese in 1654. The Dutch retained some territory in Dutch Guiana , now Suriname . The Dutch also seized islands in
895-666: A century after Spain. The relatively late arrival meant that the British could use the other European colonization powers as models for their endeavors. Inspired by the Spanish riches from colonies founded upon the conquest of the Aztecs , Incas , and other large Native American populations in the 16th century, their first attempt at colonization occurred in Roanoke and Newfoundland , although unsuccessful. In 1606, King James I granted
1074-590: A charter with the purpose of discovering the riches at their first permanent settlement in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. They were sponsored by common stock companies such as the chartered Virginia Company financed by wealthy Englishmen who exaggerated the economic potential of the land. The Reformation of the 16th century broke the unity of Western Christendom and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which often faced persecution by governmental authorities. In England, many people came to question
1253-516: A colony in Greenland in the late tenth century, and lasted until the mid 15th-century, with court and parliament assemblies ( þing ) taking place at Brattahlíð and a bishop located at Garðar . The remains of a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland , Canada, were discovered in 1960 and were dated to around the year 1000 (carbon dating estimate 990–1050). L'Anse aux Meadows is
1432-475: A core group of scientists, who sought to map and catalogue the flora, fauna, and other aspects of the natural world. A major Russian expedition for exploration was mounted in 1742, contemporaneous with other eighteenth-century European state-sponsored ventures. It was not clear at the time whether Eurasia and North America were completely separate continents. The first voyages were made by Vitus Bering and Aleksei Chirikov , with settlement beginning after 1743. By
1611-499: A higher overall number. Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. The religious affiliations of the people of Nebraska are predominantly Christian, according to a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center. At the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute survey, 73% of the population identified as Christian. At
1790-460: 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
1969-603: A long history of civil rights activism. Blacks encountered discrimination from other Americans in Omaha and especially from recent European immigrants who were also competing for the same jobs as well. During the early 20th century, In 1912, African Americans founded the Omaha chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to work for improved conditions in the city and state. During
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#17327658805982148-528: A percentage of the total population) in the nation. Nebraska is also home to the largest Polish American population in the Great Plains. German Americans are the largest ancestry group in most of the state, particularly in the eastern counties. Thurston County (made up entirely of the Omaha and Winnebago reservations) has an American Indian majority, and Butler County is one of only two counties in
2327-522: A planetary scale, ... The fact that this other slavery had to be carried out clandestinely made it even more insidious. It is a tale of good intentions gone badly astray." A major event in early Spanish colonization, which had so far yielded paltry returns, was the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521). It was led by Hernán Cortés and made possible by securing indigenous alliances with
2506-635: A point formed by its intersection with the forty-third degree of north latitude [the Western border, which is the Panhandle]; thence east along said forty-third degree of north latitude to the Keya Paha river; thence down the middle of the channel of said river, with its meanderings, to its junction with the Niobrara River; thence down the middle of the channel of said Niobrara River, and following
2685-551: A point formed by its intersection with the twenty-fifth degree of longitude west from Washington [the Southern border]; thence north along said twenty-fifth degree of longitude, to a point formed by its intersection with the forty-first degree of north latitude; thence west along said forty-first degree of north latitude to a point formed by its intersection with the twenty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington; thence north along said twenty-seventh degree of west longitude, to
2864-428: A population of fewer than 1,000. Regional population declines have forced many rural schools to consolidate. Fifty-three of Nebraska's 93 counties reported declining populations between 1990 and 2000, ranging from a 0.06% loss ( Frontier County ) to a 17.04% loss ( Hitchcock County ). More urbanized areas of the state have experienced substantial growth. In 2000, the city of Omaha had a population of 390,007; in 2005,
3043-532: A population of over 1.9 million, it is the 38th-most populous state and the eighth-least densely populated . Its capital is Lincoln , and its most populous city is Omaha , which is on the Missouri River . Nebraska was admitted into the United States in 1867, two years after the end of the American Civil War . The Nebraska Legislature is unlike any other American legislature in that it
3222-691: A protected group of Christians, Indigenous men no longer could aspire to be ordained Christian priests. Throughout the Americas, the Jesuits were active in attempting to convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity. They had considerable success on the frontiers in New France and Portuguese Brazil , most famously with Antonio de Vieira, S.J; and in Paraguay , almost an autonomous state within
3401-675: A range of responses, from outright hostility to active embrace of the new religion." In central and southern Mexico where there was an existing Indigenous tradition of creating written texts, the friars taught Indigenous scribes to write their own languages in Latin letters . There is a significant body of texts in Indigenous languages created by and for Indigenous peoples in their own communities for their own purposes. In frontier areas where there were no settled Indigenous populations, friars and Jesuits often created missions , bringing together dispersed Indigenous populations in communities supervised by
3580-529: A reference number. Metropolitan Class City (300,000 or more) Primary Class City (100,000–299,999) First Class City (5,000–99,999) Second Class Cities (800–4,999) and Villages (100–800) make up the rest of the communities in Nebraska. There are 116 second-class cities and 382 villages in the state. Metropolitan areas 2017 estimate data Micropolitan areas 2012 estimate data Other areas The 2020 United States Census reported that
3759-408: A richer endowment of antibodies. The large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 introduced Eurasian germs to the indigenous people of the Americas . Epidemics of smallpox (1518, 1521, 1525, 1558, 1589), typhus (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614) and measles (1618) swept the Americas subsequent to European contact, killing between 10 million and 100 million people, up to 95% of
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#17327658805983938-481: A seafaring nation and built a global empire in regions where the Portuguese had originally explored. In the Dutch Golden Age , it sought colonies. In the Americas, the Dutch conquered the northeast of Brazil in 1630, where the Portuguese had built sugar cane plantations worked by black slave labor from Africa. Prince Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen became the administrator of the colony (1637–43), building
4117-481: A series of Papal Bulls that confirmed Spanish claims to the newly discovered lands. After the final Reconquista of Iberia , the Treaty of Tordesillas was ratified by the Pope, the two kingdoms of Castile (in a personal union with other kingdoms of Spain) and Portugal in 1494. The treaty divided the entire non-European world into two spheres of exploration and colonization. The longitudinal boundary cut through
4296-579: A state. The Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God , a translation by John Eliot of the gospel into Algonquian , was published in 1663. Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as settlers in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of Portugal and Spain, and later, France in New France . No other religion was tolerated and there was a concerted effort to convert indigenous peoples and black slaves to Catholicism. The Catholic Church established three offices of
4475-544: 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
4654-543: 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
4833-872: 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
5012-534: Is unicameral , and its members are elected without any official reference to political party affiliation . Nebraska is one of only two states that divide electoral college votes by district, and is not winner-take-all. Nebraska is composed of two major land regions: the Dissected Till Plains and the Great Plains . The Dissected Till Plains region consists of gently rolling hills and contains
5191-474: Is estimated that from Columbus's arrival to the end of the 19th century between 2.5 and 5 million Native Americans were forced into slavery. Indigenous men, women, and children were often forced into labor in sparsely populated frontier settings, in the household, or in the toxic gold and silver mines. This practice was known as the encomienda system and granted free native labor to the Spaniards. Based upon
5370-652: Is more well-known. During this time, the European empires of Spain , Portugal , Britain , France , Russia , the Netherlands , Denmark , and Sweden began to explore and claim the Americas, its natural resources, and human capital , leading to the displacement, disestablishment, enslavement , and even genocide of the Indigenous peoples in the Americas, and the establishment of several settler colonial states. Russia began colonizing
5549-498: Is now Brazil. They imported millions of slaves to run their plantations. The Portuguese and Spanish royal governments expected to rule these settlements and collect at least 20% of all treasure found (the quinto real collected by the Casa de Contratación ), in addition to collecting all the taxes they could. By the late 16th century silver from the Americas accounted for one-fifth of the combined total budget of Portugal and Spain. In
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5728-692: Is subject to tax and all other personal property is exempt from tax. Inheritance tax is collected at the county level. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates of Nebraska's gross state product in 2010 was $ 89.8 billion. Per capita personal income in 2004 was $ 31,339, 25th in the nation. Nebraska has a large agriculture sector, and is a major producer of beef , pork , wheat , corn (maize) , soybeans , and sorghum . Other important economic sectors include freight transport (by rail and truck), manufacturing , telecommunications , information technology , and insurance . Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as
5907-510: 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
6086-475: The Midwestern United States . Residents in Nebraska had passed an initiative in 1934, then the first session in the unicameral was held in 1937. Kay Orr was elected Nebraska's first female governor on November 4, 1986. The state is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, across the Missouri River ; Kansas to the south; Colorado to
6265-777: 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
6444-532: 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
6623-486: 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
6802-567: The Caribbean that Spain had originally claimed but had largely abandoned, including Sint Maarten in 1618, Bonaire in 1634, Curaçao in 1634, Sint Eustatius in 1636, Aruba in 1637, some of which remain in Dutch hands and retain Dutch cultural traditions. On the east coast of North America, the Dutch planted the colony of New Netherland on the lower end of the island of Manhattan , at New Amsterdam starting in 1624. The Dutch sought to protect their investments and purchased Manhattan from
6981-459: The Caribbean , and parts of South America. They also gained Florida and Quebec in the French and Indian War . John Smith convinced the colonists of Jamestown that searching for gold was not taking care of their immediate needs for food and shelter. The lack of food security leading to an extremely high mortality rate was quite distressing and cause for despair among the colonists. To support
7160-942: 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 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 ,
7339-594: 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
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7518-481: The Homestead Act , thousands of settlers migrated into Nebraska to claim free land granted by the federal government. Because so few trees grew on the prairies , many of the first farming settlers built their homes of sod , as had Native Americans such as the Omaha. The first wave of settlement gave the territory a sufficient population to apply for statehood. Nebraska became the 37th state on March 1, 1867, and
7697-584: The Homestead Acts led to rapid growth in the population of American settlers in the 1870s and 1880s and the development of a large agriculture sector for which the state is known to this day. Nebraska's name is the result of anglicization of the archaic Otoe Ñí Brásge (contemporary Otoe: Ñíbrahge ; pronounced [ɲĩbɾasꜜkɛ] ), or the Omaha Ní Btháska , (pronounced [nĩbɫᶞasꜜka] ), meaning "flat water", after
7876-626: The Hudson River . There were Jewish settlers from 1654 onward, and they remained following the English capture of New Amsterdam in 1664. The naval capture was despite both nations being at peace with the other. Russia came to colonization late compared to Spain or Portugal, or even England. Siberia was added to the Russian Empire and Cossack explorers along rivers sought valuable furs of ermine , sable , and fox . Cossacks enlisted
8055-611: The Indigenous peoples of the Americas to the Christian religion . Pope Alexander VI issued the Inter caetera bull in May 1493 that confirmed the lands claimed by the Kingdom of Spain , and mandated in exchange that the Indigenous peoples be converted to Catholic Christianity . During Columbus 's second voyage, Benedictine friars accompanied him, along with twelve other priests. With
8234-549: 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,
8413-515: 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
8592-678: The Niobrara River flows through the northern part, and the Republican River runs across the southern part. The first Constitution of Nebraska in 1866 described Nebraska's boundaries as follows (The description of the Northern border is no longer accurate, since the Keya Paha River and the Niobrara River no longer form the boundary of the state of Nebraska. Instead, Nebraska's Northern border now extends east along
8771-399: The Omaha Race Riots in 1919 , many white rioters protested throughout Omaha due to there being an incident in which a black man was accused of sexually assaulting a white women. The Great Depression also had greatly affected the residents of Nebraska at the time. From 1930 to 1936 the dust bowl was common in the state due to there being a drought, wind, and dirt being dug up throughout all of
8950-473: The Platte River which flows through the state. Indigenous peoples lived in the region of present-day Nebraska for thousands of years before European colonization . The historic tribes in the state included the Omaha , Missouria , Ponca , Pawnee , Otoe , and various branches of the Lakota ( Sioux ), some of which migrated from eastern areas into the region. When European exploration, trade, and settlement began, both Spain and France sought to control
9129-416: The River Plate in South America. These explorers include João Vaz Corte-Real in Newfoundland; João Fernandes Lavrador , Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real and João Álvares Fagundes , in Newfoundland, Greenland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia (from 1498 to 1502, and in 1520). During this time, the Portuguese gradually switched from an initial plan of establishing trading posts to extensive colonization of what
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#17327658805989308-433: The Rocky Mountains provide a temporary moderating effect on temperatures in the state's western portion during the winter. Thus, average January maximum temperatures are highest at around 43 °F or 6.1 °C in southwestern Dundy County , and lowest at about 30 °F or −1.1 °C around South Sioux City in the northeast. Average annual precipitation decreases east to west from about 31.5 inches (800 mm) in
9487-450: 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
9666-440: The Silk Road , the traditional route for trade between Europe and Asia, forced European traders to look for alternative routes. The Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus led an expedition to find a route to East Asia, but instead landed in The Bahamas . Columbus encountered the Lucayan people on the island Guanahani (possibly Cat Island ), which they had inhabited since the ninth century. In his reports, Columbus exaggerated
9845-704: The Spanish Inquisition , in Mexico City ; Lima, Peru ; and Cartagena de Indias in Colombia to maintain religious orthodoxy and practice. The Portuguese did not establish a permanent office of the Portuguese Inquisition in Brazil, but did send visitations of inquisitors in the seventeenth century. English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, tended to be more religiously diverse. Settlers to these colonies included Anglicans , Dutch Calvinists , English Puritans and other nonconformists , English Catholics , Scottish Presbyterians , French Protestant Huguenots , German and Swedish Lutherans , as well as Jews , Quakers , Mennonites , Amish , and Moravians . Jews fled to
10024-434: The Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire , evangelization of the dense Indigenous populations was undertaken in what was called the "spiritual conquest". Several mendicant orders were involved in the early campaign to convert the Indigenous peoples. Franciscans and Dominicans learned Indigenous languages of the Americas , such as Nahuatl , Mixtec , and Zapotec . One of the first schools for Indigenous peoples in Mexico
10203-500: 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,
10382-406: 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
10561-399: The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, Portugal and Spain agreed to divide the Earth in two, with Portugal having dominion over non- Christian lands in the world's eastern half, and Spain over those in the western half. Spanish claims essentially included all of the Americas ; however, the Treaty of Tordesillas granted the eastern tip of South America to Portugal, where it established Brazil in
10740-399: The United Methodist Church (109,283). Nebraska has a progressive income tax . The portion of income from $ 0 to $ 2,400 is taxed at 2.56%; from $ 2,400 to $ 17,500, at 3.57%; from $ 17,500 to $ 27,000, at 5.12%; and income over $ 27,000, at 6.84%. The standard deduction for a single taxpayer is $ 5,700; the personal exemption is $ 118. Nebraska has a state sales and use tax of 5.5%. In addition to
10919-417: The Wildcat Hills . Panorama Point , at 5,424 feet (1,653 m), is Nebraska's highest point; though despite its name and elevation, it is a relatively low rise near the Colorado and Wyoming borders. A past tourism slogan for the state of Nebraska was "Where the West Begins" (it has since been changed to "Honestly, it's not for everyone"). Locations given for the beginning of the "West" in Nebraska include
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#173276588059811098-433: The first wave of European colonization , the religious discrimination , persecution , and violence toward the Indigenous peoples' native religions was systematically perpetrated by the European Christian colonists and settlers from the 15th–16th centuries onwards. During the Age of Discovery and the following centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires were the most active in attempting to convert
11277-531: The indigenous population of the Americas. The cultural and political instability attending these losses appears to have been of substantial aid in the efforts of various colonists in New England and Massachusetts to acquire control over the great wealth in land and resources of which indigenous societies had customarily made use. Such diseases yielded human mortality of unquestionably enormous gravity and scale – and this has profoundly confused efforts to determine its full extent with any true precision. Estimates of
11456-428: The northern Great Plains , experienced little to no colonization at all until the 1800s. European contact and colonization had disastrous effects on the indigenous peoples of the Americas and their societies. Norse Viking explorers were the first known Europeans to set foot in North America. Norse journeys to Greenland and Canada are supported by historical and archaeological evidence. The Norsemen established
11635-495: The pre-Columbian population of the Americas vary tremendously. Others have argued that significant variations in population size over pre-Columbian history are reason to view higher-end estimates with caution. Such estimates may reflect historical population maxima, while indigenous populations may have been at a level somewhat below these maxima or in a moment of decline in the period just prior to contact with Europeans. Indigenous populations hit their ultimate lows in most areas of
11814-494: The 16th century perhaps 240,000 Europeans entered ports in the Americas. France founded colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America (which had not been colonized by Spain north of Florida ), a number of Caribbean islands (which had often already been conquered by the Spanish or depopulated by disease), and small coastal parts of South America. Explorers included Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524; Jacques Cartier (1491–1557), and Samuel de Champlain (1567–1635), who explored
11993-418: The 1790s the first permanent settlements were established. Explorations continued down the Pacific coast of North America , and Russia established a settlement in the early nineteenth century at what is now called Fort Ross, California . Russian fur traders forced indigenous Aleut men into seasonal labor. Never very profitable, Russia sold its North American holdings to the United States in 1867, called at
12172-416: The 1800s, although some parts of the continent gained their independence from Europe by then, countries such as the United States continued to fight against Native Americans and practiced settler colonialism . The United States for example practiced a settler colonial policy of Manifest Destiny and the Trail of Tears . Other regions, including California , Patagonia , the North Western Territory, and
12351-422: The 2014 Pew Research Center's survey, 20% of the population were religiously unaffiliated; in 2020, the Public Religion Research Institute determined 22% of the population became religiously unaffiliated. The largest single denominations by number of adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church (372,838), the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (112,585), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (110,110) and
12530-454: The 2016 American Community Survey , 10.2% of Nebraska's population were of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race): Mexican (7.8%), Puerto Rican (0.2%), Cuban (0.2%), and other Hispanic or Latino origin (2.0%). The largest ancestry groups were: German (36.1%), Irish (13.1%), English (7.8%), Czech (4.7%), Swedish (4.3%), and Polish (3.5%). Nebraska has the largest Czech American and non-Mormon Danish American population (as
12709-674: The Americas in the early 20th century; in a number of cases, growth has returned. According to scientists from University College London , the colonization of the Americas by Europeans killed so much of the indigenous population that it resulted in climate change and global cooling . Some contemporary scholars also attribute significant indigenous population losses in the Caribbean to the widespread practice of slavery and deadly forced labor in gold and silver mines. Historian Andrés Reséndez, supports this claim and argues that indigenous populations were smaller previous estimations and "a nexus of slavery, overwork and famine killed more Indians in
12888-780: 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
13067-492: The Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of present-day Brazil. The countries declared their rights to the land despite the fact that Indigenous populations had settled from pole to pole in the hemisphere and it was their homeland. After European contact, the native population of the Americas plummeted by an estimated 80% (from around 50 million in 1492 to eight million in 1650), due in part to Old World diseases carried to
13246-573: The Aztecs' enemies, mobilizing thousands of warriors against the Aztecs for their own political reasons. The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan , became Mexico City , the chief city of the " New Spain ". More than an estimated 240,000 Aztecs died during the siege of Tenochtitlan , 100,000 in combat, while 500–1,000 of the Spaniards engaged in the conquest died. The other great conquest was of the Inca Empire (1531–35), led by Francisco Pizarro . During
13425-676: The Caribbean than smallpox, influenza and malaria." According to the Cambridge World History , the Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies, and the Cambridge World History of Genocide, colonial policies in some cases included the deliberate genocide of indigenous peoples in North America. According to the Cambridge World History of Genocide, Spanish colonization of the Americas also included genocidal massacres. According to Adam Jones , genocidal methods included
13604-687: The Darien scheme was one of the factors that led the Kingdom of Scotland into the Act of Union 1707 with the Kingdom of England , creating the united Kingdom of Great Britain and giving Scotland commercial access to English, now British, colonies. The Netherlands had been part of the Spanish Empire , due to the inheritance of Charles V of Spain. Many Dutch people converted to Protestantism and sought their political independence from Spain. They were
13783-462: The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam when the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions cracked down on their presence. The European lifestyle included a long history of sharing close quarters with domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, dogs and various domesticated fowl , from which many diseases originally stemmed. In contrast to the indigenous people, the Europeans had developed
13962-633: 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
14141-597: 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
14320-545: 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
14499-554: The Indies in 1524, based in Seville, and issued laws of the Indies to assert its power against the early conquerors. The crown created the viceroyalty of New Spain and the viceroyalty of Peru to tighten crown control over these rich prizes of conquest. Over this same time frame as Spain, Portugal claimed lands in North America (Canada) and colonized much of eastern South America naming it Santa Cruz and Brazil . On behalf of both
14678-859: 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 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
14857-648: The Missouri River, the intersection of 13th and O Streets in Lincoln (where it is marked by a red brick star), the 100th meridian , and Chimney Rock . Areas under the management of the National Park Service include: Areas under the management of the National Forest Service include: Two major climatic zones are represented in Nebraska. The eastern two-thirds of the state has a humid continental climate ( Köppen Dfa ), although
15036-403: The New World. Smallpox was especially devastating, for it could be passed through touch, allowing native tribes to be wiped out, and the conditions that colonization imposed on Indigenous populations, such as forced labor and removal from homelands and traditional medicines. Some scholars have argued that this demographic collapse was the result of the first large-scale act of genocide in
15215-477: 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
15394-476: The Pacific Coast from Alaska to California . Violent conflicts arose during the beginning of this period as indigenous peoples fought to preserve their territorial integrity from increasing European colonizers and from hostile indigenous neighbors who were equipped with Eurasian technology. Conflict between the various European empires and the indigenous peoples was a leading dynamic in the Americas into
15573-548: The Pacific Northwest in the mid-18th century, seeking pelts for the fur trade. Many of the social structures—including religions , political boundaries , and linguae francae —which predominate in the Western Hemisphere in the 21st century are the descendants of those that were established during this period. The rapid rate at which some European nations grew in wealth and power was unforeseeable in
15752-534: 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
15931-499: The Portuguese and Spanish crowns, cartographer Amerigo Vespucci explored the South American east coast and published his new book Mundus Novus ( New World ) in 1502–1503 which disproved the belief that the Americas were the easternmost part of Asia and confirmed that Columbus had reached a set of continents previously unheard of to any Europeans. Cartographers still use a Latinized version of his first name, America , for
16110-558: The Spanish crown had acknowledged their inability to control and properly ensure compliance with traditional laws overseas, so they granted to Native Americans specific protections not even Spaniards had, such as the prohibition of enslaving them even in the case of crime or war. These extra protections were an attempt to avoid the proliferation of irregular claims to slavery. However, as historian Andrés Reséndez has noted, "this categorical prohibition did not stop generations of determined conquistadors and colonists from taking Native slaves on
16289-517: The United States illegally as children (also known as Dreamers). The state legislature lifted the ban in December 2016. Mexico , India , China , Guatemala , and El Salvador are top countries of origin for Nebraska's immigrants. As of 2011, 31.0% of Nebraska's population younger than age one were minorities. Note: For 2013–2015, births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving
16468-472: The aid of indigenous Siberians , who sought protection from nomadic peoples, and those peoples paid tribute in fur to the czar. Thus, prior to the eighteenth-century Russian expansion that pushed beyond the Bering Strait dividing Eurasia from North America, Russia had experience with northern indigenous peoples and accumulated wealth from the hunting of fur-bearing animals. Siberia had already attracted
16647-729: 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
16826-521: The beginning of Virginia's settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor and a large portion of the immigrants were indentured servants looking for a new life in the overseas colonies. During the 17th century, indentured servants constituted three-quarters of all European immigrants to the Chesapeake Colonies . Most of the indentured servants were teenagers from England with poor economic prospects at home. Their fathers signed
17005-537: The capital was moved from Omaha to the center at Lancaster, later renamed Lincoln after the recently assassinated President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln . The battle of Massacre Canyon , on August 5, 1873, was the last major battle between the Pawnee and the Sioux . During the 1870s to the 1880s, Nebraska experienced a large growth in population. Several factors contributed to attracting new residents. The first
17184-413: The century, the new Province of Pennsylvania was given to William Penn in settlement of a debt the king owed his father. Its government was established by William Penn in about 1682 to become primarily a refuge for persecuted English Quakers, but others were welcomed. Baptists , German and Swiss Protestants , and Anabaptists also flocked to Pennsylvania. The lure of cheap land, religious freedom and
17363-568: The city's estimated population was 414,521 (427,872 including the recently annexed city of Elkhorn ), a 6.3% increase over five years. The 2010 census showed that Omaha has a population of 408,958. The city of Lincoln had a 2000 population of 225,581 and a 2010 population of 258,379, a 14.5% increase. As of the 2010 census, there were 530 cities and villages in the state of Nebraska. There are five classifications of cities and villages in Nebraska, which are based upon population. All population figures are 2017 Census Bureau estimates unless flagged by
17542-582: The colony, numerous supply missions were organized. Tobacco later became a cash crop, with the work of John Rolfe and others, for export and the sustaining economic driver of Virginia and the neighboring colony of Maryland . Plantation agriculture was a primary aspect of the economies of the Southern Colonies and in the British West Indies . They heavily relied on African slave labor to sustain their economic pursuits. From
17721-545: The complete and irrevocable renunciation of their ancestral religious beliefs and practices. In 1539, Mexican bishop Juan de Zumárraga oversaw the trial and execution of the Indigenous nobleman Carlos of Texcoco for apostasy from Christianity . Following that, the Catholic Church removed Indigenous converts from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition , since it had a chilling effect on evangelization. In creating
17900-539: 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
18079-481: The current states of Colorado , North Dakota , South Dakota , Wyoming , and Montana . The territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha . Late 19th century In the 1860s, after the U.S. government forced many of the American Indian tribes to cede their lands and settle on reservations , it opened large tracts of land to agricultural development by European immigrants and American settlers . Under
18258-458: The debate on Christianization was particularly acute during the early 16th century, when Spanish conquerors and settlers sought to mobilize Indigenous labor. Later, two Dominican friars, Bartolomé de Las Casas and the philosopher Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda , held the Valladolid debate , with the former arguing that Native Americans were endowed with souls like all other human beings, while
18437-568: The early 1500s, and the East Indies to Spain, where It established the Philippines . The city of Santo Domingo , in the current-day Dominican Republic , founded in 1496 by Columbus, is credited as the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the Americas. By the 1530s, other Western European powers realized they too could benefit from voyages to the Americas, leading to British and French colonializations in
18616-520: The early 15th century because it had been preoccupied with internal wars and it was slowly recovering from the loss of population caused by the Black Death . The Ottoman Empire 's domination of trade routes to Asia prompted Western European monarchs to search for alternatives, resulting in the voyages of Christopher Columbus and his accidental arrival at the New World . With the signing of
18795-513: The early period of exploration, conquest, and settlement, c. 1492–1550, the overseas possessions claimed by Spain were only loosely controlled by the crown. With the conquests of the Aztecs and the Incas, the New World now commanded the crown's attention. Both Mexico and Peru had dense, hierarchically organized indigenous populations that could be incorporated and ruled. Even more importantly, both Mexico and Peru had large deposits of silver, which became
18974-513: The economic motor of the Spanish empire and transformed the world economy. In Peru, the singular, hugely rich silver mine of Potosí was worked by traditional forced indigenous labor drafts, known as the mit'a . In Mexico, silver was found outside the zone of dense indigenous settlement, so free laborers migrated to the mines in Guanajuato and Zacatecas . The crown established the Council of
19153-506: 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 ,
19332-533: The field of battle, stating that the indigenous were now subjects of the Spanish Crown and would be punished if they resisted. When the news of this situation and the abuse of the institution reached Spain, the New Laws were passed to regulate and gradually abolish the system in the Americas, as well as to reiterate the prohibition of enslaving Native Americans. By the time the new laws were passed, in 1542,
19511-738: The first U.S. Army post west of the Missouri River, just east of present-day Fort Calhoun . The army abandoned the fort in 1827 as migration moved further west. European-American settlement was scarce until 1848 and the California Gold Rush . On May 30, 1854, the U.S. Congress created the Kansas and the Nebraska territories, divided by the Parallel 40° North , under the Kansas–Nebraska Act . The Nebraska Territory included parts of
19690-453: The following: Indigenous population loss following European contact directly led to Spanish explorations beyond the Caribbean islands they initially claimed and settled in the 1490s, since they required a labor force to both produce food and to mine gold. Slavery was not unknown in Indigenous societies. With the arrival of European colonists, enslavement of Indigenous peoples "became commodified, expanded in unexpected ways, and came to resemble
19869-459: The form of gold, agricultural products, and labor. The Spanish Crown tried to terminate the system through the Laws of Burgos (1512–13) and the New Laws of the Indies (1542). However, the encomenderos refused to comply with the new measures and the indigenous people continued to be exploited. Eventually, the encomienda system was replaced by the repartimiento system which was not abolished until
20048-468: The forty-third degree of north latitude until it meets the Missouri River directly.): The State of Nebraska shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries, to-wit: Commencing at a point formed by the intersection of the western boundary of the State of Missouri, with the fortieth degree of north latitude; extending thence due west along said fortieth degree of north latitude, to
20227-420: The friars in order to more easily preach the gospel and ensure their adherence to the faith. These missions were established throughout Spanish America which extended from the southwestern portions of current-day United States through Mexico and to Argentina and Chile. As slavery was prohibited between Christians and could only be imposed upon non-Christian prisoners of war and/or men already sold as slaves,
20406-582: 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
20585-617: 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
20764-461: 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
20943-406: The kinds of human trafficking that are recognizable to us today". While the disease was the main killer of indigenous peoples, the practice of slavery and forced labor was also a significant contributor to the indigenous death toll. With the arrival of Europeans other than the Spanish, enslavement of native populations increased since there were no prohibitions against slavery until decades later. It
21122-518: 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
21301-649: 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
21480-467: The late 15th century and the early 19th century. The Norse explored and colonized areas of Europe and the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short-term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland circa 1000 AD. However, due to its long duration and importance, the later colonization by the European powers involving the continents of North America and South America
21659-463: The latter argued to the contrary to justify their enslavement. In 1537, the papal bull Sublimis Deus definitively recognized that Native Americans possessed souls, thus prohibiting their enslavement, without putting an end to the debate. Some claimed that a native who had rebelled and then been captured could be enslaved nonetheless. When the first Franciscans arrived in Mexico in 1524, they burned
21838-459: 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
22017-520: The meanderings thereof to its junction with the Missouri River [the Northern border]; thence down the middle of the channel of said Missouri River, and following the meanderings thereof to the place of beginning [the Eastern border, which is the Missouri River]. Nebraska is composed of two major land regions: the Dissected Till Plains and the Great Plains . The easternmost portion of the state
22196-633: 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
22375-598: The migrants from England died in the first few years. Economic advantage also prompted the Darien scheme , an ill-fated venture by the Kingdom of Scotland to settle the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s. The Darien Scheme aimed to control trade through that part of the world and thereby promote Scotland into a world trading power. However, it was doomed by poor planning, short provisions, weak leadership, lack of demand for trade goods, and devastating disease. The failure of
22554-571: 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
22733-504: The modern era . For example, the labor and tribute of inhabitants of Hispaniola were granted in encomienda to Spaniards, a practice established in Spain for conquered Muslims. Although not technically slavery, it was coerced labor for the benefit of the Spanish grantees, called encomenderos . Spain had a legal tradition and devised a proclamation known as The Requerimento to be read to indigenous populations in Spanish, often far from
22912-740: 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
23091-659: 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
23270-440: The nation with a Czech-American plurality. In recent years, Nebraska has become home to many refugee communities. In 2016, it welcomed more refugees per capita than any other state. Nebraska, and in particular Lincoln, is the largest home of Yazidis refugees and Yazidi Americans in the United States. Notably, Nebraska was the last of all 50 states to maintain a ban on the issuance of driver's licenses to adults who had entered
23449-541: 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
23628-412: The native peoples of Nebraska. Spain dispatched two trading expeditions up the Missouri River in 1794 and 1795; the second, under James Mackay, established the first European settlement in Nebraska near the mouth of the Platte River. Later that year, Mackay's party built a trading post, dubbed Fort Carlos IV (Fort Charles), near present-day Homer . In 1819, the United States established Fort Atkinson as
23807-410: 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
23986-422: The native population of North America which would come to be known as the skrælings . After capturing and killing eight of the natives, they were attacked at their beached ships, which they defended. Systematic European colonization began in 1492. A Spanish expedition sailed west to find a new trade route to the Far East , the source of spices, silks, porcelains, and other rich trade goods. Ottoman control of
24165-516: The natives was important. About 16,000 French men and women became colonizers. The great majority became subsistence farmers along the St. Lawrence River . With a favorable disease environment and plenty of land and food, their numbers grew exponentially to 65,000 by 1760. Their colony was taken over by Britain in 1760, but social, religious, legal, cultural, and economic changes were few in a society that clung tightly to its recently formed traditions. British colonization began in North America almost
24344-434: 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
24523-401: The northeast tip of the Americas, including in the present-day United States . Within a century, the Swedish established New Sweden ; the Dutch established New Netherland ; and Denmark–Norway along with the Swedish and Dutch established colonization of parts of the Caribbean . By the 1700s, Denmark–Norway revived its former colonies in Greenland , and Russia began to explore and claim
24702-414: 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
24881-412: The only site widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. It was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978. It is also notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony of Vinland , established by Leif Erikson around the same period or, more broadly, with the Norse colonization of the Americas . Leif Erikson's brother is said to have had the first contact with
25060-453: 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
25239-493: The organization of the Church of England by the end of the 16th century. One of the primary manifestations of this was the Puritan movement, which sought to purify the existing Church of England of its residual Catholic rites. The first of these people, known as the Pilgrims , landed on Plymouth Rock in November 1620. Continuous waves of repression led to the migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New England between 1629 and 1642, where they founded multiple colonies . Later in
25418-432: The papers that gave them free passage to America and an unpaid job until they came of age. They were given food, clothing, and housing and taught farming or household skills. American landowners were in need of laborers and were willing to pay for a laborer's passage to America if they served them for several years. By selling passage for five to seven years worth of work, they could then start on their own in America. Many of
25597-401: The phrase "gold, glory, and God". The Spanish justified their claims to the New World based on the ideals of the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims, completed in 1492. In the New World, military conquest to incorporate indigenous peoples into Christendom was considered the "spiritual conquest". In 1493, Pope Alexander VI , the first Spaniard to become Pope, issued
25776-522: 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
25955-423: The population of Nebraska was 1,961,504 on April 1, 2020, a 7.4% increase since the 2010 United States census . The center of population of Nebraska is in Polk County , in the city of Shelby . According to HUD 's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report , there were an estimated 2,246 homeless people in Nebraska . The table below shows the racial composition of Nebraska's population as of 2022. According to
26134-416: The practice of exacting tribute from Muslims and Jews during the Reconquista , the Spanish Crown granted a number of native laborers to an encomendero , who was usually a conquistador or other prominent Spanish male. Under the grant, they were theoretically bound to both protect the natives and convert them to Christianity. In exchange for their forced conversion to Christianity , the natives paid tributes in
26313-501: 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
26492-448: 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
26671-442: The quantity of gold in the East Indies , which he called the " New World ". These claims, along with the slaves he brought back, convinced the monarchy to fund a second voyage. Word of Columbus's exploits spread quickly, sparking the Western European exploration, conquest, and colonization of the Americas. Spanish explorers, conquerors, and settlers sought material wealth, prestige, and the spread of Christianity , often summed up in
26850-458: 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. European colonization of the Americas During the Age of Discovery , a large scale colonization of the Americas , involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between
27029-588: 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 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
27208-402: 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
27387-414: The region of Canada he reestablished as New France . The first French colonial empire stretched to over 10,000,000 km (3,900,000 sq mi) at its peak in 1710, which was the second largest colonial empire in the world, after the Spanish Empire . In the French colonial regions, the focus of the economy was on sugar plantations in the French West Indies . In Canada the fur trade with
27566-457: The region. In the 1690s, Spain established trade connections with the Apache , whose territory then included western Nebraska. By 1703, France had developed a regular trade with native peoples along the Missouri River in Nebraska, and by 1719 had signed treaties with several of these peoples. After war broke out between the two countries, Spain dispatched an armed expedition to Nebraska under Lieutenant General Pedro de Villasur in 1720. The party
27745-680: The right to improve themselves with their own hand was very attractive. Mainly due to discrimination, there was often a separation between English colonial communities and indigenous communities. The Europeans viewed the natives as savages who were not worthy of participating in what they considered civilized society. The native people of North America did not die out nearly as rapidly nor as greatly as those in Central and South America due in part to their exclusion from British society. The indigenous people continued to be stripped of their native lands and were pushed further out west. The English eventually went on to control much of Eastern North America ,
27924-425: The sacred places dedicated to the Indigenous peoples' native religions . However, in Pre-Columbian Mexico , burning the temple of a conquered group was standard practice, shown in Indigenous manuscripts, such as Codex Mendoza . Conquered Indigenous groups expected to take on the gods of their new overlords, adding them to the existing pantheon. They likely were unaware that their conversion to Christianity entailed
28103-440: 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 the broad Interior Plain between the states occupying the Appalachian Mountain range and the states occupying the Rocky Mountain range . Major rivers in
28282-423: The southeast corner of the state to about 13.8 inches (350 mm) in the Panhandle. Humidity also decreases significantly from east to west. Snowfall across the state is fairly even, with most of Nebraska receiving between 25 and 35 inches (0.64 and 0.89 m) of snow each year. Nebraska's highest-recorded temperature was 118 °F (48 °C) in Minden on July 24, 1936. The state's lowest-recorded temperature
28461-585: The southwest of this region may be classed as a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) using the −3 °C or 26.6 °F near the Kansas state line, analogous to the predominantly humid subtropical climate of Kansas and Oklahoma . Western Nebraska, including The Panhandle and adjacent areas bordering Colorado have a semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk ). The entire state experiences wide seasonal variations in both temperature and precipitation. Average temperatures are fairly uniform across Nebraska, with hot summers and generally cold winters. However, chinook winds from
28640-417: The southwest; and Wyoming to the west. The state has 93 counties and is split between two time zones , with the majority of the state observing Central Time and the Panhandle and surrounding counties observing Mountain Time . Three rivers cross the state from west to east. The Platte River , formed by the confluence of the North Platte and the South Platte , runs through the state's central portion,
28819-459: The state significantly in the winter and early spring. Indigenous peoples, including Omaha , Missouria , Ponca , Pawnee , Otoe , and various branches of the Lakota ( Sioux ) tribes, lived in the region for thousands of years before European discovery and exploration . The state is crossed by many historic trails, including that of the Lewis and Clark Expedition . The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad through Nebraska and passage of
28998-416: The state tax, some Nebraska cities assess a city sales and use tax, in 0.5% increments, up to a maximum of 1.5%. Dakota County levies an additional 0.5% county sales tax. Food and ingredients that are generally for home preparation and consumption are not taxable. All real property within the state of Nebraska is taxable unless specifically exempted by statute. Since 1992, only depreciable personal property
29177-503: The state's largest cities, Omaha and Lincoln. The Great Plains region, occupying most of western Nebraska, is characterized by treeless prairie . Eastern Nebraska has a humid continental climate while western Nebraska is primarily semi-arid . The state has wide variations between winter and summer temperatures; the variations decrease in southern Nebraska. Violent thunderstorms and tornadoes occur primarily during spring and summer, and sometimes in autumn. The Chinook wind tends to warm
29356-463: The time " Seward's Folly ". Duke Ferdinand I de Medici made the only Italian attempt to create colonies in America. For this purpose, the Grand Duke organized in 1608 an expedition to the north of Brazil, under the command of the English captain Robert Thornton. Thornton, on his return from the preparatory trip in 1609 (he had been to the Amazon ), found Ferdinand I dead and all projects were cancelled by his successor Cosimo II . Beginning with
29535-432: 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
29714-403: The two continents. In April 1500, Portuguese noble Pedro Álvares Cabral claimed the region of Brazil to Portugal; the effective colonization of Brazil began three decades later with the founding of São Vicente in 1532 and the establishment of the system of captaincies in 1534, which was later replaced by other systems. Others tried to colonize the eastern coasts of present-day Canada and
29893-415: 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
30072-424: 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
30251-419: Was attacked and destroyed near present-day Columbus by a large force of Pawnee and Otoe, both allied with the French. The massacre ended Spanish exploration of the area for the remainder of the 18th century. In 1762, during the Seven Years' War , France ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain. This left Britain and Spain competing for dominance along the Mississippi River; by 1773, the British were trading with
30430-400: 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
30609-410: 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
30788-430: 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
30967-418: Was founded by Pedro de Gante in 1523. The friars aimed at converting Indigenous leaders, with the hope and expectation that their communities would follow suit. In densely populated regions, friars mobilized Indigenous communities to build churches, making the religious change visible; these churches and chapels were often in the same places as old temples, often using the same stones. "Native peoples exhibited
31146-443: Was founded in Nebraska City by territorial governor J. Sterling Morton . The National Arbor Day Foundation is still headquartered in Nebraska City , with some offices in Lincoln. In the late 19th century, African Americans migrated from the South to Nebraska as part of the Great Migration . Eventually, they lived primarily to Omaha which offered working-class jobs in meat packing , the railroads and other industries. Omaha has
31325-402: 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
31504-416: Was scoured by Ice Age glaciers ; the Dissected Till Plains were left after the glaciers retreated. The Dissected Till Plains is a region of gently rolling hills; Omaha and Lincoln are in this region. The Great Plains occupy most of western Nebraska, with the region consisting of several smaller, diverse land regions, including the Sandhills , the Pine Ridge , the Rainwater Basin , the High Plains and
31683-472: Was that the vast prairie land was perfect for cattle grazing. This helped settlers to learn the unfamiliar geography of the area. The second factor was the invention of several farming technologies. New agricultural innovations such as barbed wire, windmills, and the steel plow, combined with fair weather, enabled settlers to transform Nebraska into prime farming land. By the 1880s, Nebraska's population had soared to more than 450,000 people. The Arbor Day holiday
31862-413: 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
32041-559: Was −47 °F (−44 °C) in Camp Clarke on February 12, 1899. Nebraska is located in Tornado Alley . Thunderstorms are common during both the spring and the summer. Violent thunderstorms and tornadoes happen primarily during those two seasons, although they also can occur occasionally during the autumn. Eighty-nine percent of the cities in Nebraska have fewer than 3,000 people. Nebraska shares this characteristic with five other Midwestern states: Kansas , Oklahoma , North Dakota and South Dakota , and Iowa . Hundreds of towns have
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