In the east of the USA lies Indiana – the 19th federal state of the Union, which was joined to it on December 11, 1816. The state occupies an area of 94,321 km2 and has around 6 million inhabitants. In the north, the natural border is Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan, and it borders Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois.
The name Indiana originally referred to the territory that the American Congress assigned to the original Indian population in 1800 – it means the Land of the Indians. Indiana is characterized by a gently undulating landscape covered with cornfields and forests.
The population is made up mainly of whites, with a large group of blacks, Indians and Asians as well. The people are Christian, the vast majority are Protestants, but the Roman Catholic Church also has a great influence here. In the city of South Bend, there is even one of the most important Catholic universities in the USA – the University of Notre Dame. While in the big cities the inhabitants are mainly Protestants and Catholics, in the villages evangelicals and many other conservative Protestant trends prevail.
- LIUXERS: Offers a list of schools with federal school code in Indiana, including contact information, graduation rate, retention rate and transfer rate for each college located within Indiana.
An important branch of the state’s economy is agriculture, the most important of which is the cultivation of corn, wheat, soybeans, fruit, vegetables and tobacco. Pigs and cattle are raised here. The mining industry is also of great importance, especially the mining of iron ore, oil, natural gas and hard coal. Steel, chemical, engineering and food industries are also developed in the country.
The capital is Indianapolis, which with its 800,000 inhabitants is also the largest city in Indiana.
Indianapolis
According to COUNTRYAAH, the capital and largest city of the US state of Indiana is Indianapolis, which is also often called Naptown. It is the county seat of Marion County and has a population of less than 800,000. Indianapolis is thus the third largest city in the Midwest and the 14th largest city in the USA. It covers an area of 953.5 km2 and its population density is 845.9 inhabitants per square kilometer.
The place where the new capital of the state of Indiana will stand was already chosen in 1820, and a year later Indianapolis was also founded. Supreme Court Justice Jeremiah Sullivan gave the name to the newly formed city. Combining the word Indiana with the Greek word “polis” meaning “city” gave rise to the name Indianapolis. Translated into English, Indianapolis could thus be translated as Indiana City. The city was built near the White River because it was assumed that the river would serve as a major transportation artery. Later, however, a railroad connecting Indianapolis with the city of Madison was introduced here.
On January 10, 1825, Indianapolis officially became the capital when the government moved from the original capital of Corydon. The architect Ralston, who was an apprentice of the prominent French architect Pierre L’Enfant, was to take care of the appearance of the new capital. In the center of the city, a large circular building of the Governor’s Circle House was built, which was supposed to serve as the governor’s residence. However, part of the governor’s residence was demolished in 1857, and in its place today stands the 87-meter-tall neoclassical limestone and bronze Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, which is a memorial to fallen American soldiers and sailors. The surrounding area is now known as Monument Circle.
After the end of the American Civil War, blacks began to move to Indiana from the American South. Most of them came here between 1910 and 1920. Many of them had to deal with a lot of racism here. In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was the largest and most powerful social organization here, with forty percent of the white male population belonging to it. The mayor of Indianapolis himself belonged to the Ku Klux Klan, and this organization controlled the governor’s office and the making of laws. Black arrivals also faced strong discrimination in employment and rarely managed to do anything other than purely manual work. The civil promotion of a black man to a higher position in the factory provoked a revolt among the white workers.
SoulFest – an annual festival whose purpose is to celebrate black culture and black entrepreneurship – is held regularly in the city of Indianapolis to this day. But for years there have been violent fights between young blacks at this festival, and many of them also steal there. In 1993, a tragedy occurred at this festival: young black hooligans shot an eighteen-year-old black boy. Another person was killed at this festival in 1998. As a result, violence, crime, drug use and refusal to work have all taken root in Indianapolis as in other American cities over the past decades.
Currently, the city is a center of education, healthcare and finance. Tourism is an important component of the local economy. The city regularly becomes the scene of many sporting events, the most famous of which is probably the “Grand Prix of Indianapolis” motorcycle race. Other major sporting events include the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard or the NCAA basketball tournaments. Among the city’s biggest tourist attractions is the Indiana War Memorial Museum, which was built after the end of World War I and is part of the War Memorial Plaza Historic District. It is located right in the center of the city and occupies an area of almost 6000 square meters. The museum was founded in memory of the victims of the First World War, but later exhibits from the War of Independence to the war in Iraq also entered the expositions. Most of the exhibited exhibits are original, visitors are alerted to possible copies with a label. One of the museum guides is a retired USAF Brigadier General, Mr. J. Stewart Goodwin.
