Prehistory When
Indigenous peoples of the Americas first arrived in what is now Iowa more than 13,000 years ago, they were hunters and gatherers living in a
Pleistocene glacial landscape. By the time European explorers and traders visited Iowa, Native Americans were largely settled farmers with complex economic, social, and political systems. This transformation happened gradually. During the
Archaic period (10,500 to 2,800 years ago), Native Americans adapted to local environments and ecosystems, slowly becoming more sedentary as populations increased.
Early colonization and trade, 1673–1808 The first known European explorers to document Iowa were
Jacques Marquette and
Louis Jolliet who traveled the
Mississippi River in 1673 documenting several Indigenous villages on the Iowa side. The area of Iowa was claimed for France and remained a French territory until 1763. The French, before their impending defeat in the
French and Indian War, transferred ownership to their ally, Spain. Spain practiced very loose control over the Iowa region, granting trading licenses to French and British traders, who established trading posts along the
Mississippi and
Des Moines Rivers. In 1800,
Napoleon Bonaparte took control of Louisiana from Spain in a
treaty. After the 1803
Louisiana Purchase, Congress divided the new land into two parts—the
Territory of Orleans and the
District of Louisiana, with present-day Iowa falling in the latter. The
Indiana Territory, created in 1800, exercised jurisdiction over this portion of the District;
William Henry Harrison was its first governor. Much of Iowa was mapped by
Zebulon Pike in 1805, but it was not until the construction of
Fort Madison in 1808 that the U.S. established tenuous military control over the region.
War of 1812 and unstable U.S. control Fort Madison was built to control trade and establish U.S. dominance over the Upper Mississippi, but it was poorly designed and disliked by the Sauk and Meskwaki, many of whom allied with the British, who had not abandoned claims to the territory.
Fort Madison was defeated by British-supported Indigenous people in 1813 during the
War of 1812, and
Fort Shelby in
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, also fell to the British.
Black Hawk took part in the siege of Fort Madison. Another small military outpost was established along the Mississippi River in present-day
Bellevue. This poorly situated stockade was similarly attacked by hundreds of Indigenous people in 1813, but was successfully defended and later abandoned until settlers returned to the area in the mid-1830s. After the war, the U.S. re-established control of the region through the construction of
Fort Armstrong,
Fort Snelling in
Minnesota, and
Fort Atkinson in
Nebraska.
Indian removal, 1814–1832 The United States encouraged settlement of the east side of the Mississippi and removal of Indians to the west. A disputed
1804 treaty between
Quashquame and
William Henry Harrison (then governor of the
Indiana Territory) that surrendered much of
Illinois to the U.S. enraged many Sauk and led to the 1832
Black Hawk War. The
Sauk and
Meskwaki were forced to sell some of their land in the
Mississippi Valley to the U.S. in 1832 in the
Black Hawk Purchase Treaty and sold their remaining land in Iowa in 1842, most of them moving to a reservation in Kansas. In 1856 the Iowa Legislature passed an unprecedented act allowing the Meskwaki to purchase the land. The federal government, in contrast, used treaties to force the
Ho-Chunk and the
Dakota from Iowa by 1848 and 1858, respectively. Western Iowa around modern
Council Bluffs was used as an Indian Reservation for members of the
Council of Three Fires.
U.S. settlement and statehood, 1832–1860 along the Mississippi, 1848 The first American settlers officially moved to Iowa in June 1833. Primarily, they were families from
Ohio,
Pennsylvania,
New York,
Indiana,
Kentucky, and
Virginia who settled along the western banks of the
Mississippi River, founding the modern day cities of
Dubuque and
Bellevue near the site of Julien Dubuque's 1785–1810 lead mining operation. On July 4, 1838, the
U.S. Congress established the
Territory of Iowa. President
Martin Van Buren appointed
Robert Lucas governor of the territory, which at the time had 22 counties and a population of 23,242. Almost immediately after Iowa achieved territorial status, a clamor arose for statehood. On December 28, 1846, Iowa became the 29th state in the Union when President
James K. Polk signed its admission bill into law. Once admitted to the Union, with the state's boundary issues resolved and most of its land purchased from Natives, Iowa set its direction to development and organized campaigns for settlers and investors, boasting the young frontier state's rich farmlands, fine citizens, free and open society, and good government. Iowa has a long tradition of state and county fairs. The first and second
Iowa State Fairs were held in the more developed eastern part of the state at
Fairfield. The first fair was held October 25–27, 1854, at a cost of around $323. Thereafter, the fair moved to locations closer to the center of the state and in 1886 found a permanent home in Des Moines. The State Fair has been held annually since then, except for a few exceptions: 1898 due to the
Spanish–American War and the
World's Fair being held in nearby
Omaha, Nebraska; from 1942 to 1945, due to
World War II, as the fairgrounds were being used as an army supply depot; and in 2020 due to the
COVID pandemic.
Civil War, 1861–1865 Iowa supported the Union during the
Civil War, voting heavily for
Abraham Lincoln, though there was an antiwar "
Copperhead" movement in the state, caused partially by a drop in crop prices caused by the war. There were no battles in the state, although the
Battle of Athens, Missouri, 1861, was fought just across the Des Moines River from
Croton, Iowa, and shots from the battle landed in Iowa. Iowa sent large supplies of food to the armies and the eastern cities. Much of Iowa's support for the Union can be attributed to
Samuel J. Kirkwood, its first wartime governor. Of a total population of 675,000, about 116,000 men were subjected to military duty. Iowa contributed proportionately more soldiers to Civil War military service than did any other state, north or south, sending more than 75,000 volunteers to the armed forces, over one-sixth of whom were killed before the
Confederates surrendered at
Appomattox. Iowa troops fought at Wilson's Creek in
Missouri,
Pea Ridge in
Arkansas, Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Rossville Gap as well as Vicksburg, Iuka, and Corinth. They served with the Army of the Potomac in
Virginia and fought under Union General
Philip Sheridan in the
Shenandoah Valley. Many died and were buried at Andersonville. They marched on General
Nathaniel Banks' ill-starred expedition to the Red River. Twenty-seven
Iowans have been awarded the
Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government, which was first awarded in the Civil War. Iowa had several brigadier generals and four major generals—
Grenville Mellen Dodge,
Samuel R. Curtis,
Francis J. Herron, and
Frederick Steele—and saw many of its generals go on to state and national prominence following the war. to 1,624,615 in 1880. The American Civil War briefly brought higher profits. In 1917, the United States entered World War I and farmers as well as all Iowans experienced a wartime economy. For farmers, the change was significant. Since the beginning of the war in 1914, Iowa farmers had experienced economic prosperity, which lasted until the end of the war. which were mainly for processing materials grown in the area, Iowa has experienced a gradual increase in the number of business and manufacturing operations.
Depression, World War II and manufacturing, 1930–1985 The transition from an agricultural economy to a mixed economy happened slowly. The
Great Depression and World War II accelerated the shift away from
smallholder farming to larger farms, and began a trend of urbanization. The period after World War II witnessed a particular increase in manufacturing operations. In 1975, Governor Robert D. Ray petitioned President Ford to allow Iowa to accept and resettle
Tai Dam refugees fleeing the Indochina War. An exception was required for this resettlement as State Dept policy at the time forbid resettlement of large groups of refugees in concentrated communities; an exception was ultimately granted and 1200 Tai Dam were resettled in Iowa. Since then Iowa has accepted thousands of refugees from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Bhutan, and Burma. The
farm crisis of the 1980s caused a major recession in Iowa, causing poverty not seen since the Depression. The crisis spurred a major, decade-long population decline.
Reemergence as a mixed economy, 1985–present After bottoming out in the 1980s, Iowa's economy began to reduce its dependence on agriculture. By the early 21st century, it was characterized by a mix of manufacturing, biotechnology, finance and insurance services, and government services. The population of Iowa has increased at a slower rate than the U.S. as a whole since at least the
1900 census, though Iowa now has a predominantly urban population. The Iowa Economic Development Authority, created in 2011 has replaced the Iowa Department of Economic Development and its annual reports are a source of economic information. ==Geography==