Abbreviated as IA by ABBREVIATIONFINDER, Iowa is a US state located in the Midwest of the United States, an area often referred to as the “American Heartland”. The name comes from the Iowa people, one of the many Native American tribes that inhabited the state at the time of the European invasion. Iowa was part of the French colony of New France. After the Louisiana Purchase, settlers laid the foundation for an agricultural economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. Iowa is often known as the “Food Capital of the World”, however, Iowa’s economy, culture and landscape are diverse. In the middle and end of the 20th century, Iowa’s agricultural economy shifted to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, processing, financial services, biotechnology and green energy production. Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states to stay in. Des Moines is Iowa’s capital and largest city.
History
When the first Amerindians arrived in what is now called Iowa more than 13,000 years ago, they were hunter-gatherers living in a glacial landscape from the Pleistocene epoch. When the European explorers arrived, the Amerindians had become farmers with an economic, social and political infrastructure. This transformation was carried out gradually. During the Archaic period (10,500 – 2,800 years ago) the Amerindians adapted to the environments and ecosystems, becoming more sedentary as the population increased. For more than 3,000 years, during the late Archaic times, Native Americans in Iowa began to grow domesticated plants. The following period, Known as the ‘Woodland period’, it was characterized by a greater dependence on agriculture and a more complex social structure. The use of mounds and pottery increased. During the late prehistoric period, which had its beginnings around 900 AD. C., the cultivation of corn was increased. Social changes fostered stable settlements. The arrival of European products and diseases of the post-historical period through European explorers and other ethnic groups of Amerindians produced upheavals in the population, in the economy and in the social structure.
The first Europeans to visit the region were French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673. They arrived by sailing down the Mississippi River, and after surveying the area, they wrote that Iowa appeared to be a green and fertile region. The territory was inhabited by Amerindians, including the Ioway, Sauk, Mesquaki, Sioux, Potawatomi, Oto and Missouri.
Julien Dubuque (1762 – 1810), born to Norman parents in St. Pierre les Brecquets, located on the southern bank of the St. Lawrence River just over a hundred kilometers east of Quebec City, Canada, was the first European to live in what is now Iowa. In 1788 he obtained permission from the chiefs of the Fox tribe, (and later also from the Spanish authorities) to mine galena (lead sulfide) in the hills next to the Mississippi River in the contronos of the city that today bears his name.
- CountryAAH: Offers a full list of cities and towns in Iowa, together with postal codes for each of them, and including capital city of Iowa.
The United States obtained Iowa as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The Patowatamie, Oto and Missouri had sold their territory to the federal government before 1830, [4] and in June 1833 The official colonization of Iowa by the States United began. Most of the early settlers came from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia.
The first settlers faced a lonely and harsh life in the first decades. They had to adapt to the extensive grassland that was devoid of trees and suffered from extensive annual wildgrass fires that covered the entire terrain. Only the extreme east of the territory had enough forests to supply the needs of housing construction and fuel. The arrival of the railroad in the 1850’s and 1860’s opened the national and international market more to the agricultural products of the region and the population grew from 43,112 (1840) to 1,194,020 (1870). As a partial result of an official campaign to attract immigrants in 1869, many arrived from European countries (primarily from Germany, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands.
The federal government accepted Iowa as a state of the Union on December 28, 1846.
Politics
Politically, Iowa is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. In 1992 and 1996, Bill Clinton was supported, in 2000 Al Gore received Iowa’s electoral votes and in 2004 George W. Bush gained the confidence in the presidential election. In the 2006 congressional election, two of Iowa’s Republican representatives were replaced by two Democrats.
The state receives a lot of attention every four years when a so-called caucus, nomination meeting, is held before the presidential election. Together with the primary election in New Hampshire a week later, Iowa’s caucus marks the beginning of the process in which the two parties nominate their presidential candidate.
Religiously, 50% of the population profess Protestantism, of which the largest group are Lutherans with 16%.
Economics and education
Iowa is the leading agricultural state in the United States with an annual agricultural income of more than $ 10 billion. Iowa has two high-class universities; University of Iowa and Iowa State University. Both universities have their strengths in agricultural research.
