Missouri

Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It ranks 21st in terms of land area and is bordered with eight states (tied for most with Tennessee). These include Iowa to the north and Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee to east, Arkansas to south, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska to west. In the south are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Missouri River, named after the state, flows through the middle into the Mississippi River which forms the eastern border. With more than six million residents, it is the 19th-most populous state of the country. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia; the capital is Jefferson City.

Missouri has been home to humans for at least 12,000 years. The Mississippian culture, which emerged at least in the ninth century, built cities and mounds before declining in the 14th century. When European explorers arrived in the 17th century, they encountered the Osage and Missouria nations. The French incorporated the territory into Louisiana and founded Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764. After a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired Missouri as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory. Missouri was admitted as a slave state as part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Many from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee settled in the Boonslick area of Mid-Missouri. The Missouri Rhineland was soon formed by heavy German immigration.

The Gateway Arch demonstrates that Missouri played a key role in the westward expansion and development of the United States. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail and California Trail all began in Missouri. As a border state, Missouri’s role in the American Civil War was complex, and it was subject to rival governments, raids, and guerilla warfare. After the war, both Greater St. Louis and the Kansas City metropolitan area became centers of industrialization and business. Today, the state is divided into 114 Counties and the independent city St. Louis.