Wisconsin

Wisconsin was admitted to the Union as the thirtieth state on May 29, 1848. Located in the eastern north-central United States, it is bordered by Lake Michigan, Illinois , Iowa , Minnesota , Lake Superior, and Michigan .

The Ojibwa, Sauk, Fox, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, and other tribes inhabited the area that is now Wisconsin in the seventeenth century. Historians believe the first European visitor was Jean Nicolet, who landed on the shores of Green Bay in 1634. Within thirty years, Jesuits had established missions while the French began a successful fur trade.

The state was primarily antislavery throughout the American Civil War (1861–65). During the late nineteenth century, the economy prospered. Dairy products, food processing, and lumber were main industries, and the city of Milwaukee became an important industrial hub and a major center for German immigration . Immigration increased in the 1880s as more Germans and also Scandinavians arrived.

Wisconsin was a progressive state, ahead of many others in social reform. It developed one of the first workers' compensation programs, a railroad commission to regulate rates, and an old-age pension act.

Industry increased, as did a trend toward urbanization , into and even past World War II (1939–45). During the 1960s and early 1970s, Milwaukee's African American population was discontented because of the segregated school system. In 1986 the Milwaukee School Board and nine suburban districts agreed on a plan to integrate their schools. Nearly three thousand minority students would voluntarily transfer to schools in the nine suburbs, while between nine thousand and ten thousand suburban students would attend Milwaukee schools.

Wisconsin's economy remained stable into the twenty-first century. By 2006, more than 5.5 million people lived in the state, and the population was projected to reach 5.8 million by 2025. Milwaukee was the largest city, followed by capital city Madison and Green Bay. The majority (88.1 percent) of the state's total population was white, 5.7 percent were African American, 4.5 percent were Hispanic or Latino, and 2 percent were Asian.

The state's economy depends primarily on manufacturing, though farming (dairy, in particular) remains an important sector. Wisconsin's industries are diversified and include nonelectrical machinery, food products, paper and pulp products, and transportation equipment. This diversity of Wisconsin's economic activity minimized the impact of the nationwide recession that began in 2001. By the end of the following year, employment rates were rising more rapidly than those of the nation overall.

Wisconsin has a healthy tourist industry that features forty-eight state parks as well as the Wisconsin Dells gorge, forty-three automobile racetracks, thirty-six ski areas, and the world's largest music festival, Summerfest. The state's legendary football team, the Green Bay Packers, is the last remaining publicly owned professional sports team. People from all over the globe flock to watch the team compete, and the waiting list for season tickets holds more than sixty-seven thousand names.