Regional definitions vary from source to source. The states shown in dark red are usually included, while all or portions of the striped states may or may not be considered part of the Northern United States.

The Northern United States is a large geographic region of the United States of America. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Although the region includes a considerable portion of what is often called the American Midwest, most Americans refer to the region as simply "The North". Given its large size, the Northern United States includes a wide variety of socioeconomic, religious, ethnic, and cultural differences in its people. Socioeconomics or socio-economics is the study of the relationship between economic activity and Social life. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic

History

One way of identifying the North is to compare and contrast its development with the Southern United States. The Southern United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South &mdashconstitutes a large distinctive Before the American Revolution the South tended to be settled by people of British or German Protestant stock, most of whom came to America as either indentured servants or to simply better their fortunes from what they had known in their homeland. In this article the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies that supported the American Revolution are primarily referred to as "Americans" with occasional references to "Patriots" The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. An indentured servant is a form of Debt bondage worker The Laborer is under Contract of an Employer for some period of time usually three to The North, however, was settled by a much wider variety of groups - the Dutch founded the New Netherlands colony in what is now New York, the Swedes founded New Sweden in what is now Delaware, and in New England the Puritans, a well-educated and strict English Protestant religious group, founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. New Netherland (Dutch Nieuw-Nederland, Latin Novum Belgium or Nova Belgica) 1614–1674 is the name of the former Dutch territory on the eastern coast New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous New Sweden ( Nya Sverige in Swedish and Uusi-Ruotsi in Finnish) was a small Swedish settlement along the Delaware River Delaware ( is a state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of Worship and Doctrine, The Massachusetts Bay Colony (sometimes called the Massachusetts Bay Company, for the institution that founded it was an English settlement on the east coast of North America The Puritans saw themselves as establishing a "City Upon A Hill"; this view of America as a "special place" would have a profound effect upon American history.

During the antebellum period before the Civil War, the North and South developed in very different ways. " Antebellum " is an expression derived from Latin that means "before war" ( ante, "before" and bellum The colder climate and rockier soils of the North led to less emphasis on agriculture than in the South. Northern farmers were usually subsistence farmers, while in the South large plantations were not unusual. Fundamentally a plantation is usually a large Farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country on which Cotton, Tobacco Furthermore, Northern farmers usually grew a wide variety of crops, including corn, wheat, beans, and large numbers of livestock. Maize (ˈmeɪz ( Zea mays L. ssp mays) known as corn in some countries is a cereal grain domesticated in Mesoamerica Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. Bean is a common name for large plant Seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae used for human food or animal Livestock is the term used to refer (singularly or plurally to a Domesticated Animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce such as Food Southern farmers often focused on growing a few large cash crops, such as cotton or tobacco. Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp Tobacco is an Agricultural product recognized as an addictive drug processed from the fresh Leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. In turn, the North developed a society in which manufacturing and industry played a large role. Manufacturing (from Latin manu factura, "making by hand" is the use of tools and labor to make things for use or sale In addition, large numbers of immigrants came to the Northern United States; many of these were Irish Catholics driven from their homeland in the 1840's by the Great Irish Famine. Irish Catholics is a term used to describe people of Roman Catholic background who are Irish or of Irish descent. German Catholics and Scandinavians also moved to the North in large numbers during this period. Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well The South, in contrast, received very little foreign immigration before the Civil War. The North also developed the nation's first large cities; by 1860 Cincinnati, Chicago, Buffalo, and Cleveland all had well over 100,000 residents, while Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City each had over 400,000 residents. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State. Cleveland is a City in the US state of Ohio and the County seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə The City of New York By contrast, the South remained overwhelmingly rural, with few large towns or cities. Rural areas can be large and isolated (also referred to as "the country" and/or "the countryside over the course of time

Despite these differences, however, it was the issue of slavery that drove the North and South apart. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another Although most white Southerners did not own slaves, wealthy slaveowners, i. e. the so-called "tuckahoes", tended to control Southern politics, and they vigorously defended the institution of slavery as essential to the region's unique character and prosperity. Tuckahoe was a term used during the 18th and 19th centuries to describe a cultural group i In the North, a small but growing and passionate group called abolitionists declared that slavery was immoral and had to be ended, by force if necessary. Abolitionism was a political movement of the 18th and 19th century which sought to make Slavery illegal particularly in the United States and British West Indies In addition, the North's rapidly growing population gave it increasing power in the federal government, a fact which worried Southerners who felt that a Northern-dominated government might try to free the slaves. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois Republican, was elected President. Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 &ndash April 15 1865 the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest internal Lincoln's victory came entirely from the Northern states; in most Southern states his name was not even on the ballot. Although Lincoln was a moderate on the slavery issue and declared that he did not intend to interfere with the practice of slavery in the South, many Southerners did not believe him, and in late 1860 and early 1861 eleven Southern states seceded and formed their own nation, the Confederate States of America. Secession (derived from the Latin term secessio is the act of withdrawing from an organization union or especially a political entity The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, and CSA) formed as the government set up from 1861

The secession crisis precipitated the Civil War. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South The Civil War is often considered to be the easiest historical way to identify "The North". A total of 23 Northern states, calling themselves the Union and dedicated to preserving the United States of America as a single, united nation, went to war with the Confederate States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Led by President Lincoln, their primary goal was to crush the Confederates (or "rebels") and bring them back into the Union. After the Battle of Antietam in 1862 President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the rebel Southern states and thus transforming the conflict into a war to end slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. The conflict lasted for four years, and while relatively few battles were fought on Northern soil (the great exception being the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in 1863), the North suffered heavy losses in the war. Background and movement to battle See also [[Gettysburg Campaign]] [[Gettysburg Battlefield]] [[Gettysburg Confederate order of battle]] [[Confederate order of battle]] The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern However, by the summer of 1865 all Southern resistance had been crushed, slavery had been ended, and the Union had been preserved. The Union, or Northern, states which fought in the Civil War are: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were deeply divided by the war, and although they did not formally secede they sent large numbers of troops to fight on both sides of the conflict. Other states which supported the Union, but are not generally considered to be a part of "The North", are Kansas, California, and Oregon.

Following its victory in the Civil War, the North would dominate American politics, economics, and industry for decades to come. Not until Woodrow Wilson in 1912 would a Southerner become President, and not until Lyndon Johnson in 1964 would a presidential candidate be elected from a former Confederate State. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28 1856—February 3 1924 was the twenty-eighth President of the United States. New York City would become the economic and cultural capital of the nation, while prestigious prep schools and universities in New England such as Yale and Harvard would train Northerners for national leadership positions in government and industry. The City of New York History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the In the years from 1860 to 1930 the North would become the most populous and heavily urbanized region of the nation. Urbanizationn (also spelled urbanisation) is the physical growth of Urban areas into rural or natural land as a result of population in-migration to an existing It was also the most ethnically diverse; in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries millions of immigrants would pour into the North from Italy, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Germany. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Many of these immigrants would arrive at Ellis Island in New York City; they would then create large ethnic neighborhoods in the North's larger cities. Ellis Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor

Beginning in the 1950s the North began to lose population to the South and West, a region known as the "Sunbelt". The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest (the geographic southern United States Much of this exodus was due to the declining industrial base of the North, as many factories closed and moved to the Sunbelt or even overseas to low-wage markets. This led some sociologists to nickname the North as the "Rustbelt", after the large number of closed factories in the region. This article provides a list of sociologists and major contributors to Sociology (even if they did not primarily work as sociologists The Rust Belt, sometimes called the Manufacturing Belt, is an area in parts of the Northeastern United States, Mid-Atlantic States, and portions of the By 1990 the South had passed the North in population, and as the North declined in relative population its political power declined as well. In the 1952 presidential election the 17 Northern states that fought for the Union in the Civil War held 254 electoral votes, by the 2004 presidential election they had only 200 electoral votes. Following the defeat of Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election not a single Northerner has served as President, and no Northerner has actually been elected President since John F. Kennedy in 1960. Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr (July 14 1913 December 26 2006 was the thirty-eighth President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 and the fortieth Vice President John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of Generally speaking, the Northern states (and especially the Northeastern United States), have become identified with the Democratic Party, usually voting Democrat in Presidential Elections. The Northeast is a region of the United States. As defined by the U

Definitions

In addition to the 18 states which fought for the Union in the Civil War, the states of North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska are sometimes considered to be a part of "The North", although most of the residents of these states usually consider themselves to be simply Midwesteners. North Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern and Western regions of the United States of America. South Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. Nebraska ( is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and The states of West Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland are historic border states; they have divided loyalties between North and South. West Virginia ( is a state in the Appalachian Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Missouri ( or) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( is a state located in the East Central United States of America. In a European context the term Border states policy, and Border states in a specific sense refer to attempts during the Interbellum to unite the countries that Though divisions still remain, most Missourians do not consider themselves to be Southern, West Virginians remain divided, most Marylanders consider themselves Northern, and most Kentuckians consider themselves Southern. Another definition used to constitute a northern state is climate. Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of Northern states predominately have a Humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa or Dfb). The humid continental climate is a Climate found over large areas of land masses in the temperate regions of the mid-latitudes where there is a zone of conflict between By this definition, excluded would be parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Kentucky, which become subtropical (Köppen Cfa), as well as Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota, which have primarily a semiarid steppe climate (Köppen Bsk). The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern Delaware ( is a state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Nebraska ( is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and South Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. North Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern and Western regions of the United States of America.

One former Confederate State that is becoming more divided in its identity is Virginia; the rapid influx of Northern-born settlers to the suburbs which surround Washington, D.C. (with a particularly large portion of these immigrants coming from D. The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D C. ) in Northern Virginia has led that state to increasingly resemble a border state rather than a true Southern one. Residents of Northern Virginia usually think of themselves as part of the BosWash, an amalgam of Northeast cities and suburbs, rather than as Southerners or even typical Virginians. Northern Virginia (colloquially referred to as "NOVA" or "NoVA" consists of several Northeastern_United_States#The_Northeast_as_a_megalopolis BosWash (also referred to as BoWash, BosNYwash, the Northeast Corridor, the However, the counties around Richmond are very Southern, and south of Richmond you can easily identify a Southern accent.

Facts

• Population: 113,479,422 people
• Density: 50/km²

See also

• U.S. Southern states
• New England
• Yankee
• U.S. Northeast
• List of regions of the United States