Illinois became a state in 1818, 42 years after the formation of the United States of America and after thousands of years of Native communities and peoples inhabiting the land. 

Illinois figured prominently in the expansion of the United States of America as the scene of extensive French and British exploration and early economic generation with the fur trade. It served as a frontier boundary for Westward expansion, and as a place of forced removal of Native Americans, as well as a place that furthered historic and contemporary systems of inequality through the enslavement of African American people. Illinois was a key state in the American Civil War and was the first State to ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. 

Millions of people have emigrated from and immigrated to Illinois, or sought refuge in our State, bringing with them their culture, lifeways, knowledge, and labor, which has shaped Illinois into one of the nation's most diverse states. More than 110,000 African Americans came to Illinois as a part of the Great Migration and Illinois has proudly been made home by immigrants and their descendants from Ireland, Italy, China, Poland, Eastern Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan, Central and South America, Russia, Somalia, Eritrea, and across the continents of Africa and Asia, the Caribbean, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and many other parts of the world. Illinois is also responsible for numerous social and economic movements and innovations that helped to shape the infrastructure and social fabric of our nation.