Indiana

: 40°N 86°W / 40°N 86°W / 40; -86

Indiana is a in the and regions of . Indiana is the and the of the . Its capital and largest city is . Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U.S. state on December 11, 1816. Indiana borders to the northwest, to the north, to the east, to the south and southeast, and to the west.

Before becoming a territory, various and inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Since its founding as a territory, settlement patterns in Indiana have reflected regional cultural segmentation present in the ; the state's northernmost tier was settled primarily by people from and , Central Indiana by migrants from the states and from adjacent Ohio, and by settlers from the Southern states, particularly Kentucky and .[5]

with a gross state product of $359.12 billion in 2017.'s and the 's , and hosts several notable athletic events, including the .

Indiana's name means "Land of the ", or simply "Indian Land". passed legislation to divide the into two areas and named the western section the . In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a part of this territorial land became the geographic area for the new state.[10]

A resident of Indiana is officially known as a . region of the United States) as a term for a backwoodsman, a rough countryman, or a country bumpkin.

Indigenous inhabitants[]

The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the , who arrived about 8000 BCE after the melting of the glaciers at the end of the . Divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were who hunted large such as . They created stone tools made out of by chipping, and .[14]

The , which began between 5000 and 4000 BC, covered the next phase of indigenous culture. The people developed new tools as well as techniques to cook food, an important step in civilization. These new tools included different types of spear points and knives, with various forms of . They made ground-stone tools such as stone axes, woodworking tools and grinding stones. During the latter part of the period, they built earthwork and , which showed settlements were becoming more permanent. The Archaic period ended at about 1500 BC, although some Archaic people lived until 700 BC.[14]

The began around 1500 BC, when new cultural attributes appeared. The people created ceramics and pottery, and extended their cultivation of plants. An early Woodland period group named the had elegant burial rituals, featuring log tombs beneath earth mounds. In the middle of the Woodland period, the began to develop long-range trade of . Nearing the end of the stage, the people developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as and . The Woodland period ended around 1000 AD.[14]

The emerged, lasting from 1000 AD until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with large mounds and plazas defining ceremonial and public spaces. The concentrated settlements depended on the agricultural surpluses. One such complex was the . They had large public areas such as plazas and platform mounds, where leaders lived or conducted rituals. Mississippian civilization collapsed in Indiana during the mid-15th century for reasons that remain unclear.[14]

The historic Native American tribes in the area at the time of European encounter spoke different languages of the family. They included the , , and . Refugee tribes from eastern regions, including the Delaware who settled in the White and Whitewater River Valleys, later joined them.

European exploration and sovereignty[]

In 1679, French explorer was the first European to cross into Indiana after reaching present-day at the . soon arrived, bringing blankets, jewelry, tools, whiskey and weapons to trade for skins with the Native Americans.

By 1702, established the first trading post near . In 1715, built at , now . In 1717, another Canadian, , built on the , to try to control Native American trade routes from to the .

In 1732, Sieur de Vincennes built a second fur trading post at Vincennes. French Canadian settlers, who had left the earlier post because of hostilities, returned in larger numbers. In a period of a few years, British colonists arrived from the East and contended against the Canadians for control of the lucrative fur trade. Fighting between the French and British colonists occurred throughout the 1750s as a result.

The Native American tribes of Indiana sided with the French Canadians during the (also known as the ). With British victory in 1763, the French were forced to cede to the British crown all their lands in North America east of the Mississippi River and north and west of the .

The tribes in Indiana did not give up: they captured and during . The British royal proclamation of 1763 designated the land west of the Appalachians for Native American use, and excluded British colonists from the area, which the Crown called "Indian Territory".

In 1775, the began as the colonists sought self-government and independence from the British. The majority of the fighting took place near the East Coast, but the Patriot military officer called for an army to help fight the British in the west. and on February 25, 1779.[17]

During the war, Clark managed to cut off British troops, who were attacking the eastern colonists from the west. His success is often credited for changing the course of the American Revolutionary War., the British crown ceded their claims to the land south of the Great Lakes to the newly formed United States, including Native American lands.

The frontier[]

In 1787, the US defined the which included the area of present-day Indiana. In 1800, Congress separated from the Northwest Territory, designating the rest of the land as the . chose as the governor of the territory, and was established as the capital. was separated and the was formed, Indiana was reduced to its current size and geography.[19]

Starting with the in 1794 and the in 1795, Native American titles to Indiana lands were extinguished by usurpation, purchase, or war and treaty. About half the state was acquired in the from the Miami in 1818. Purchases were not complete until the in 1826 acquired the last of the reserved Native American lands in the northeast.

A portrait of the Indiana frontier about 1810: The frontier was defined by the in 1809, adding much of the southwestern lands around Vincennes and southeastern lands adjacent to Cincinnati, to areas along the Ohio River as part of U.S. territory. Settlements were military outposts such as Fort Ouiatenon in the northwest and Fort Miami (later Fort Wayne) in the northeast, Fort Knox and Vincennes settlement on the lower Wabash. Other settlements included Clarksville (across from Louisville), Vevay, and Corydon along the Ohio River, the Quaker Colony in Richmond on the eastern border, and Conner's Post (later Connersville) on the east central frontier. Indianapolis would not be populated for 15 more years, and central and northern Indiana Territory remained wilderness populated primarily by Indigenous communities. Only two counties in the extreme southeast, Clark and Dearborn, had been organized by European settlers. Land titles issued out of Cincinnati were sparse. Settler migration was chiefly via flatboat on the Ohio River westerly, and by wagon trails up the Wabash/White River Valleys (west) and Whitewater River Valleys (east).

In 1810, the tribal chief and his brother encouraged other indigenous tribes in the territory to resist European settlement. Tensions rose and the US authorized Harrison to launch a preemptive expedition against ; the US gained victory at the on November 7, 1811. Tecumseh was killed in 1813 during the . After his death, armed resistance to United States control ended in the region. Most Native American tribes in the state were later to west of the in the 1820s and 1830s after US negotiations and the purchase of their lands.[21]

Statehood and settlement[]

, a town in the far southern part of Indiana, was named the second capital of the Indiana Territory in May 1813 in order to decrease the threat of Native American raids following the Battle of Tippecanoe. was passed to provide an election of delegates to write a . On June 10, 1816, delegates assembled at Corydon to write the constitution, which was completed in 19 days. was elected the fledling state's first governor in August 1816. President approved Indiana's as the on December 11, 1816..[19]

Many European went west to settle in Indiana in the early 19th century. The largest immigrant group to settle in Indiana were , as well as many immigrants from Ireland and England. Americans who were primarily migrated from the Northern Tier of New York and New England, as well as from the mid-Atlantic state of Pennsylvania. The arrival of steamboats on the Ohio River in 1811, and the at Richmond in 1829, greatly facilitated settlement of northern and western Indiana.

Following statehood, the new government worked to transform Indiana from a into a developed, well-populated, and thriving state, beginning significant demographic and economic changes. In 1836, the state's founders initiated a program, the , that led to the construction of roads, , railroads and state-funded public schools. The plans bankrupted the state and were a financial disaster, but increased land and produce value more than fourfold. to African-Americans.

Civil War and late 19th century industry[]

During the , Indiana became politically influential and played an important role in the affairs of the nation. Indiana was the first western state to mobilize for the United States in the war, and soldiers from Indiana participated in all the war's major engagements. The state provided 126 infantry regiments, 26 batteries of artillery and 13 regiments of cavalry to the .[26]

In 1861, Indiana was assigned a of 7,500 men to join the . The only Civil War conflicts fought in Indiana were the , a bloodless capture of the city; and the , which occurred during leaving 15 dead, 40 wounded, and 355 captured.[29]