Abbreviated as IN, Indiana is one of the five central states of northeast of the North American Confederation, the smallest of these by surface (94,164 sq. km.), between the southern edge of Lake Michigan, the middle course of Ohio and the Wabash, which separates it from Illinois. The territory appears as a whole as an area with a weak undulation, which passes towards north and along the Ohio with a hilly landscape, there characterized by glacial forms (moraines, glacial lakes), here by a series of rocky hills (knobs), covered with woods, which herald the relief of the nearby Cumberland plateau. The diffusion of limestone locally allows a certain development of karst phenomena, but the surface hydrography does not appear significantly altered. The soil, rich in alluvial deposits, is among the most suitable for cereal cultivation, as in the finite Illinois, towards which the most intensely exploited areas extend; large areas are likewise covered by grasslands. Agriculture and livestock are here favored by the proximity of large urban centers and markets of world interest (Chicago) and, like the neighboring regions, find an incentive to increasingly intensive forms in industrial trends which in turn benefit from the wide possibilities offered by the riches of the subsoil (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.).
The cultivated land represents 89% of the total surface; the most important products are, in order, corn (about 50 million hectoliters in 1930), oats, rye, wheat, tobacco, potatoes, etc. In breeding, the first place is held by pigs (2.8 million heads); follow the cattle (1.5 million head, of which more than half of dairy cows), discreet and is also the number of horses (about 1 / 2 million) and sheep (800,000).
Coal is obtained from the deposits of Clay, Vigo, Sullivan, Vermilion, etc., the oil from the wells of Adams, Wells, Jay, Blakford; the annual production value has exceeded on average, in the last fifty years, 100 million dollars, of which 1 / 4 for the sole fuel. The most prosperous industries are the food and metallurgical industries; the latter have had a powerful impetus after implantation in Gary, Lake Michigan, the blast furnaces of the most colossal of the world (alone produces an amount on average equal to 3 / 4than the French one). In the approximately 5,000 factories of the state, just under 300,000 workers find work. Product disposal is facilitated by a dense network of communication routes, among which the waters (Erie Canal, Wabash, Ohio) still hold a notable place.
The population of Indiana, which at the time of the constitution of the state (1816) counted just 140 thousand inhabitants, grew at a very rapid rate after about 1840: it reached almost one million inhabitants. in 1850; it exceeded two million in 1890; 2.9 million in 1920; and in the 1930 census it rose to 3,238,503 residents (density 34.2). The last decade has been marked by a rather weak increase (10.1%), lower than the overall EU average (16.1%). Among the foreigners who enter the composition of the population, the Germans appear prevalent (24.8% of those born abroad in 1920); Italians account for approximately 0.4%.
Five urban centers exceed 100,000 inhabitants: besides Indianapolis (364,161 inhabitants), the capital and the most populous city, Fort Wayne (115,000 inhabitants); South Bend (104 thousand); Evansville (102,000), Ohio’s most important river port and large food market; Gary (100,000 residents). The latter has only been around for twenty-five years.
History
During the last quarter of the century. XVII Jesuit hunters, traders, and missionaries came from New France to explore the region north of the Ohio River, now known as the State of Indiana, and then in the possession of the Miami and Wabash Indians. However, only in the second decade of the century. XVIII the French began to erect forts to keep this territory under their dominion; the most important of them was Fort Vincennes, erected in 1731, which became the nucleus of the first permanent colonization in Indiana. The region in 1763 was ceded by France to England; later taken from the English by George Rogers Clark and his companions from Virginia (1778-1779), it became part of the United States by virtue of the pacts of the treaty of 1783. Organized as a separate territory in 1809, Indiana was admitted to the Union on November 7, 1816. Its population, which had grown rapidly after the war of 1912, came from all parts of the country: the settlers of the northern parts were emigrants from New England and the central Atlantic states, while the southern counties were populated by emigrants from the southern slave regions. Indiana sided with the Lincoln government during the civil war; but there were many who sympathized with the confederacy, and local politics were troubled by the workings of secret societies which were opposed to the cause of the Union. While, for a generation after the civil war, there was not much difference in strength between the Democratic and Republican parties, in the 9th century.
Gary
Gary is a city of the USA (105,000 residents Ca.), in Indiana, on the southern coast of the lake Michigan, 40 km SE of Chicago, now included in the metropolitan area of this city. It was founded in 1905, by the US Steel Corporation, in an area of dunes and marshes. Its location between the Appalachian coal and iron fields near the Lake Superior and the proximity of Chicago have given great impetus to its industrial growth. G. constitutes one of the major steel centers in the world; it also has chemical, cement and petroleum refining industries.
