The Midwest Makes No Sense
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2023
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SOURCES & FURTHER READING
The Midwest: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest...
The 13 Colonies: www.history.com/topics/coloni...
Midwest: www.britannica.com/place/Midwest
Is Chicago In The Midwest?: www.chicagomag.com/city-life/...
US Regions: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
Why Is It Called The Midwest?: www.investopedia.com/terms/r/...
Where Is The Midwest?: www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
Midwest On OED: www.oed.com/dictionary/midwest
Who’s watching from the Midwest?
Uhm, sort of. 🤔 But in a way it makes sense because it is west of the original 13 colonies and kind of smack in the middle ^.. I will be sharing this with our subscribers (:
Cheers
I am! I’m from Indiana!
I am from a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois called Lombard.
Minnesota.
Oklahoma and Tennessee are the South. I’d argue Ohio is part of the Northeast.
It's very amusing that there are a few flat suburbs of Chicago with deceptively not flat names including: Arlington Heights (with no heights), Vernon Hills (with no hills), and Glendale Heights (with no heights). 😜 Lol
It's my understanding that the deceptive names were to try to lure people to settle in their communities.
Speaking as a Midwesterner, I think you missed an important fact in this video: Mississippi River. When Americans say American West, they mean west of the Mississippi. The Mississippi being the largest river in the USA and its importance cannot be emphasized enough. Likewise, American East (though rarely used) means east of the Mississippi. Now do you see how the Mid-West came about? The states near the Mississippi on either side are the "Mid" part. And the "West" part comes from the same reason why Americans commonly say American West and not American East. It is viewed more west than east thus Mid-West.
The North West Ordinance that regulated the North West Territory was so named because it was north and west of Virginia which administered the territory. Virginia then have now become Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The North West Territory became portion of Minnesota east of the Mississippi River, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, AND Illinois. The North West Ordinance specified what today is the Pennsylvania-Ohio border as it's Prime Meridian, and drew 4 Parallel Meridians across the territory. Consequently, land was surveyed under the Public Land Survey System and divided into squares referencing those meridians. This PLSS survey and land division method was expanded west with the Louisiana Purchase, with new additional parallel meridians. This PLSS pattern was again replicated as the US expanded west, which is how we ended up with square, rectangular, and blocky shaped western states.
And before reaching the Mississippi, it was west of the Appalachians. Anywhere west of those mountains has at one point been considered "the West"
well said
Missouri River is the longest River in the US. But you are correct in saying the “West” was considered everything west of the Mississippi. St. Louis is often referred to as the Gateway to the West.
@@bandana_girl6507 Exactly, the Midwest is West of the Appalachians, East of the Rockies, and North of the 36th Parallel. Oklahoma's panhandle is north of that border, so they can argue either way. Generally, they get included if the conversation is really about the Heartland and disincluded if the conversation is about accents or cheese curds. The Upper midwest is the states that touch the Lakes or Canada, or really, anything above the Northern Cities shift line, which is about the 42nd parallel- that way South Dakota is included and the in-state divisions are accounted for.
I think it’s also important to note that for much of americas history the push further west was extremely prevalent in our culture. We started as east and grew west. The mid west is almost like a middle point on a timeline of westward continuation and resulting nomenclature.
Exactly yes, the Great Lakes side was the original Northwest Territory
Then Louisiana Territory, making up the Great Plains section push the Northwest border further
And then again Oregon Territory to the now current " Pacific " Northwest
mississippie finally stopped selling babies to muslim nations you can at least sit at the dinner table but any sister making out and your banned from my states our medical system has enough problems to add inbreds into the equation o nude beaches bad but but but sister fers good you people are a riot mississippie is the biggest joke in all of America and ive seen California and florida o sorry was my big data scientifically proven facts to much for these soy boys and set christen catholic red as heck states or evangelicals by how they act
I think when you're from the U.S. and know our history of westward expansion, you don't really question the name Midwest. I didn't.
100%
i never do as i live in wisconsin it makes sense to me when he brought it up i was like i guess but no its still midwest whats wrong about it and if your going to give it a name like he did at 2:55 like who would ever say that like miller park changing to american family field nope we're not saying that miller park is what it always will be thats a stuiped weird long name and he thinks thats fine
As a west-coaster, we definitely do.
@@crash.overrideas an Englishman I was intrigued lol
@@Dodo-ds7yk It was the Brits wot coined the phrase "Midwest." In their small-mindedness, it WAS the west. They simply couldn't fathom how much farther it went.
Fun fact: the midwest's longitude is actually partially in the middle of the western hemisphaere
Marathon County in Wisconsin. Pretty much dead on top of Wausau. Now pronounce it.
@@mpetersen6 Waus is like was as in wasp. Then The sau is like the ow is Moscow just with an s in front
@mpetersen6 What? Poniatowski? I've been there, drank at the bar and signed the 45/90 log. Pon-e-a-tau-ski
I still can’t believe how many seemingly “intelligent” people haven’t picked up on this. It’s called a globe. Use it.
The 45th Parallel runs through Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota. It's the halfway (middle) line between the equator and the north pole.
Illinois was also part of the original Northwest territory, but you forgot them. There is actually a clear remnant name in one of Illinois’ big universities, Northwestern University.
1:42 (wish i could timestamp half seconds haha)
I think 7:08 is what they were referring to. Illinois was left
I KNOW. Idk why he leaves Illinois out. It’s literally the best thing to come out of the nw territory 😭
The transition between 4:36 and 4:37
@@ryanescobar6660 Nah; the best thing to come out of the NW territory is definitely Michigan. 🙂
The “Old Northwest” is still a nickname for the Midwest, pretty common in business names and other similar stuff but most people don’t use it colloquially
Northwestern University is the most prominent example
Northwestern Mutual Insurance based in Milwaukee.
Northwest Territory, Northwest Ordinance. What would become Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the northeast corner on Minnesota.
The Pacific Northwest was actually settled by people from the Midwest, mostly the Upper Midwest, which explains why some people here pronounce bag as "bayg".
YEP!@@Steveofthejungle8
As an Italian born, and raised in Detroit. I have always felt like I accidentally spawned into a server way above my level.
Mitten gang represent.
@@wordytoed9887TH-cam allows me to translate this comment to English lol
I mean that goes for everyone born in Detroit m8
@@wordytoed9887 The land of Lions and Tigers.
Michigan is NOT the mid-west. Nope, it's the east, I refuse to acknowledge it!
It's the midwest because rather than being far west, it was only kind-of in the west. It was semi-west, or mid-west.
But most of it is in the east!
East of where?
It's semi-west compared to the capital and original 13 colonies.
And definitely compared to prime meridian, the divider between the east and west hemisphere.
@@SeasideDetective2 The naming convention is with an east coast persons point of view. Anything passed the Appalachian Mountains up until the end of the 19th century was considered "The west". Then as the population spread further west post civil war, the line moved to the Mississippi (The original "Midwest" when the name became popularized) which spread to the Rocky Mountains with the plain states that didn't associate with "the South" being included.
@@TheRayzerBandit Right. But now we've moved so far west that the midpoint is well past the Appalachians. Now it's in Kansas. Anything east of Kansas should be "the East."
I always considered it midway to the west which is why it was called midwest
It’s ironic that the Midwest has an association with being rural farmland, since several of the nations biggest cities are within the region (eg Chicago, Indianapolis, etc).
Tbh, only Chicago holds ‘big’ city status, but I can see the Great Lakes region being a more ideal relocation place in the next years!
@@LosPalms Same with Minneapolis-St Paul & Detroit but most of the Midwest is Mid Size city’s like Milwaukee, Indianapolis,Cleveland etc.
@@KidRivera1115Columbus and Indianapolis each have 2.5 times the population of Cleveland
Indianapolis is the 16th largest city in the country. It's a pretty big city. Not over 1 million people, but only the top 10 cities are over 1 million.
@@LosPalms the Great Lakes region is (mostly) the best place in the country. We just like to ignore Chicago and Detroit…
From a geography class I had in college the origin was explained…the confusion of the ‘Midwest’ comes from false classification and leftover terminology. It’s 1800 and you’re in Washington DC, Michigan is to the Northwest (as mentioned), Tennessee is to the Southwest and Ohio is Midwest. Same as Virginia and Maryland are Mid-Atlantic. This is why Northwestern University is in Chicago. As the country expanded to have the East Coast and West Coast the idea of the Midwest changed-basically meaning anything that wasn’t the South, the Great Plains, the ‘West’ so yeah, it’s poorly named.
So Americans just gradually and subconsciously blended Ohio in with a region twelve times its size? Funny!
I'd call the region the "Mideast" if that name weren't already taken by Southwest Asia.
Northwestern is in Evanston
Yeah no shit, I’m sorely upset that people don’t automatically register this, it’s a sign of how little Americans know or consider history.
Fun trivia time: You know how the US has certain stereotypes regarding the South and the people who live there? That they're hillbillies, they're sometimes unintelligible, etc. We have similar stereotypes in Spain also regarding the southern part of Spain, which is where I'm from, btw. In fact, Cletus and his relatives, from the Simpsons, speak with a deep southern Spanish accent in the Castillian Spanish dub (as in Spainsh from Spain) and it works. I just think it's interesting that we share similar experiences with certain parts of our own countries.
Very interesting !
My wife and I (US Americans) just got back from two weeks of your wonderful country. We can't wait to go back! Even though I was surprised how extremely hot Andalusia was in October. The long pants and shirts went unused, Even in Madrid and Barcelona though in Barca I wore long pants to visit the Sagrada Familia and found myself to be one of the few people who did, lol.
When my brother went to Spain as a foreign exchange student, he was hosted by a family in the south of the country and was later informed that the fluent Spanish he had acquired during the experience had a “Catalan” (sp?) accent, i.e. a “hillbilly” accent! I’m sure this has been much reduced in the intervening years of his mostly speaking Spanish with those of Mexican origin, but we found this information pretty funny at the time! 🤣
@@misspatvandriverlady7555 I see, though the Catalan accent is not from the south, and is not nconsidered to be nearly as "hillbilly" as the southern accents. Maybe there was some confusion on the matter?
Turns out a lot of countries have a north-south divide like that, sometimes it's just flipped.
American football was called “Gridiron Football” not “American Rugby Football.” The adjective “American” was tacked on to distinguish it from Canadian Football when the two codes adopted different rules on the number of downs. It’s not the name we gave it internally. Both Canadian Football and American Football are types of Gridiron Football, which is the actual name for the sport.
The Midwest begins when you start hearing the word "ope."
You got the map of the OG USA wrong. You used the current borders of the states. Kentucky and West Virginia used to be part of Virginia, Maine was part of Massachusetts back then, Vermont was claimed by both New York and New Hampshire. Basically everything East of the Mississippi was the USA after the revolution, including half of the present day “Midwest”
Except Florida. Also Tennessee was part of North Carolina. and Mississippi and Alabama was part of Georgia.
Also was there anything really west of Albany in NY at that point? I know all the lake cities in NY are relatively newer compared to NYC.
Until it joined the union Vermont governed itself as an independent country
I've just always thought the Midwest was in the MIDdle of the country and it was WEST of the original settlement. The Midwest isn't firmly defined. Some Easterners even consider parts of western New York and Pennsylvania as Midwestern (basically they'll say anything west of the mountains), and others will divide it into the Great Lakes states and the Great Plains.
I think its people OUTSIDE the Midwest, that have trouble defining it. Most Midwesterners have no issue. Its 12 states. Not hard to remember.
@@BadgerCheese94Ageed, as a Michigander.
@@BadgerCheese94 More like 6, maybe 7 if you include Iowa. Not sure Missouri should be included, given their role in the Civil War. the rest of them are Great Plains.
@@jakeaurod Iowa is as Midwest as it gets lol Not including Iowa as Midwest is akin to not including Alabama as the South. MO was a border state in the Civil War. It stayed with the Union. Most of the GP states are Midwest. GP is a region in the sense thar Great Lakes is a region, but its not separate from Midwest
@@BadgerCheese94Buffalo or Erie PA are closer to Cleveland or Toledo culturally and geographically than they are to NYC or Philly.
The United States didn't obtain the Northwest Territory in 1787, but gained it from the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Treaty of Paris (1783), due to the fact that it would be difficult to administer colonies in an area blocked by the U.S. 1787 was the year that the Territory became organized rather than as extensions of other states.
The claims by Eastern states was chaotic
@@mpetersen6they are hilarious to look back on, they all just claimed the entire continent west of themselves so that Mega Virginia would stretch from sea to shining sea.
@jasonreed7522 I think the Carolinas did that too at one point. Before it was split north and south.
The center of the mainland US is in Kansas, the center of the American population is in Missouri, and the geographic center with the tug of Alaska (and slight nudge of Hawaii) is in South Dakota. Making the center of the US in every sence is in the western part of the Midwest.
Middle and Center are not synonyms, in the same was as Mode, Median, and Mean are similar but different.
I only think the "Midwest" makes sense as related to the "Far West" which includes the states further west than the "Midwest". It's still a very East-Coast-centric naming perspective, but given that that's where the country started, that's understandable. As to why the "Midwest" doesn't include the states a bit to the south of it like Oklahoma and Texas, A) often they're just considered part of the "South", and B) once in a while, I actually do hear them included in a greater conception of the "Midwest".
If you consider "the Midwest" to be defined more culturally and economically than geographically, then Oklahoma would probably qualify. East Texas is in The South and West Texas is in The West.
I have NEVER heard TEXAS considered Midwest. Oklahoma is wrong but at least they border Kansas and Missouri
@@BadgerCheese94 Oklahomans who don't necessarily consider themselves Southerners are the ones who usually start the argument. Their argument is that they are actually geographically the middle of the West. And yes, Texas is never, ever included. I sometimes think the Oklahomans are just trying to make sure they aren't in the same group as Texas.
The east coat centric naming is definitely related to historical population distributions, it took a long time for the center of population to get west of the Appalachians, and by then the Midwest was already named. (And obviously this is due to the nation's origin as a European colony that broke off, and then continued to attract European immigrants)
@@MuriKakariThat is true, Oklahomans tend to call themselves Midwestern but most people in the actual Midwest don’t consider them Midwestern.
A remnant of the name of the North West is found in Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Also why we specify PACIFIC North West. To make sure you don't think of the original North West region.
People say Northwest all the time in reference to the Pacific Northwest. Nobody outside of Illinois thinks of Illinois when they hear "Northwest". They think of Washington and Oregon.
I think of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota as the _Great Lakes States._
The states west of there I consider the _Great Plains States._
The Great Lakes region has great cities and vast energy. It’s coastal, with the cosmopolitan air of Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul resulting from lots of immigration from many parts of the world.
The Great Plains region has traditionally been more insular.
They are two distinct regions.
the problem there is people in the southern parts of OH, IL, and IN don't think they're near the Great Lakes, but reckon they are near the Ohio and/or Mississippi Rivers
Its like any region, there are miniregions within there or cross regions. Great Lakes also includes PA and NY as well as Canadian province of Ontario. You can also divide us by upper and lower. Some states, like Missouri and Iowa, are neither Great Lakes nor Great Plains
I agree with both comments on my post. But this video went by state lines - all or none of a state being included. I’d put the western parts of Nebraska and the Dakotas in the West, not the Midwest.
And Western Pennsylvania and NY State from Buffalo and westward in the Great Lakes.
^ in the Great Lakes _region,_ that is. I wouldn’t put them in the lakes. 🫢
@@brianarbenz1329 well, there's the problem. we have people pretending that state lines are what's relevant here, when these geographic terms are precisely those that historically do not reflect state lines. the fact that Cleveland is on a lake doesn't make Cincinnati part of the Great Lakes region anymore than Marseilles being on the Med makes Calais a Mediterranean city.
In my opinion if you draw a semicircle from Fargo to Buffalo, that's the Midwest.
Wrong. Buffalo is a NE Rust Belt city.
@@kbrewski1the rust belt *is* the urban Midwest. Cleveland, Detroit, Flint, Milwaukee are all undeniably Midwestern and Buffalo sits on the same lake as two of them.
@stephenm.stouter2238
Lmfao. NYC and Miami are both on the Atlantic Ocean. That doesn't mean NYC is in the South. 🤪🤪🤪
Pittsburgh and Erie are part of the Rust Belt. They aren't in the Midwest.
Obviously you were in detention during grade school geography.
There’s steel mills in Allentown, Scranton, Philly, New Jersey! Does not make anything midwestern. Anything in upstate New York and western pa is clearly in the east coast and far to hilly to be midwest.
@@leftovermike4663 you think Buffalo is hilly?
If they grow corn or soybeans, they're the MidWest. The western boundary where they grow wheat or are a prairie is the Great Plains; the eastern boundary is the Appalachian mountains.
Most Midwesterners know that farmers don’t grow corn OR soybeans, but corn AND soybeans. The fields are alternated year by year to save the soil. Corn depletes nitrogen in the soil and soybeans replace the nitrogen. I know that seems to be a trivial point, but a great deal of the world food supply depends on that triviality.
@@courtneyraymer6586 Actually, there are a lot of farms that stick with one or the other over long term, using synthetic nitrogen and other fertilizers instead of crop rotation. Driving through South Dakota summer before last, there were whole districts planted in only corn, where if they were doing crop rotation you'd expect that the fields would be intermixed. Here in Colorado, you see growing winter wheat fields alternating in a regular pattern with fallow fields.
Wheat isn't grown east of the Mississippi anywhere close to the Appalachians. That's ridiculous. You need to get out more.
100th Meridian is generally considered to be where "The West" begins.
I grew up in Illinois as a "Child of the 80's." When I was in "American Geography" class, we were taught that All the 13 original colonies/states had undefined western borders and the Virigina more or less tried to claim everything west of the Appalachian mountains. As a result, the "Northwest Territory" was so named as it was the northwestern part of what Virginia claimed for itself. It was explicitly defined as the area that now comprises the 5 states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, though up north where nobody (at the time) knew exactly where the Mississippi River was it got a little fuzzy still. This is also why Northwestern University sits on the shores of Lake Michigan just to the north of Chicago.
After the lands to the west of the Mississippi were obtained from France in the early 1800's the new areas became known more as "The West" (there's even an area in Missouri that was named "Far West" in the 1830's and retains that name still), the "northwest" moniker didn't work so well anymore, and thus as you speculate, "northwest" became "midwest."
FWIW, in the 80's all the states west of the Mississippi (including Minnesota) that are now so often included in "the Midwest" were called "The Plains States." I's only been in the last 20 years or so that I've noticed that "Plains" moniker dropping off and the whole kit-n-kaboodle being collectively lumped as "the Midwest" anymore.
Growing up in Omaha in the '80s, Nebraska's common motto was "Gateway to the West" and if someone claimed it was in the Midwest, they would be corrected and told the Midwest was East of the Missouri River.
I'm from Washington state. I was taught that the same about the plains states. They weren't the midwest.
Indiana born and raised in the 80s & 90s. The Midwest should only include what they call the Great Lakes Region (MI, IN, OH, IL, WI). I give a grudging pass to MN to be included as a Midwest state on most days. When I start hearing Iowa, Missouri, Kansas... nah. That's the Great Plains states.
I used to work as a lifeguard trainer and swim instructor for the YMCA of the USA, and they had the state of Kentucky classified as Midwest, which always confused us. As I see it, if Kentucky belongs to any group of states, it should be Appalachia, with Pennsylvania, West Virginia and maybe Tennessee.
Kentucky is traditionally considered the South or Southeast but it could be argued as being the Midwest, It was a slave state like the South but didn't join the Confederacy which somewhat makes it Midwest. The same argument could be made for Missouri which I never hear called part of the South.
@@timmmahhhh Missouri is kinda hard to pin down. St Louis almost feels like a southern city even though it's the "gateway to the west.' Even some of the smaller river towns north of STL like Hannibal feel kinda southern just because they're on the Mississippi. KC is pure midwestern though.
I’d put Tennessee as Deep South more than Appalachia, again it’s more of the mindset thing. But either way I really hope nobody actually thinks Kentucky is Midwest
@@pjmburg yeah I can see that, I was surprised how much twang I heard in STL. I'm from the Chicago area and I've been to STL but not KC yet.
Kentucky is where regions meet. There is fundamentally three regions: Bluegrass, Southern, and Appalachian.
-Bluegrass (the northern hump) includes Northern KY (southern Cincinnati), Louisville, and Lexington. This region is very midwestern and where a majority of the state's economy & population live. This is where the cities, bourbon, and horses are.
-The southern strip is very similar to Tennessee. Southern, but not deep southern. This is the cave area of the state (Mammoth cave).
-Eastern Kentucky is part of Appalachia's core, but is the least populated and poorest part of the state. Extremely similar to west Virginia. This is where the coal mining is, and images of poverty & failing education systems come from.
That is why it is hard to place Kentucky. Most of the land is in the southern region. Most of the population is in the blue grass region which has more in common with Ohio & Indiana than Tennessee. And most media focuses on the Appalachian area.
For those of us who live in the Old Northwest, including Illinois, this is the actual Midwest. Anything west of the Mississippi is the Great Plains region.
You want an example of confusion? Lots of people talk about the "Old West" outlaws who did shootouts, stagecoach and train robberies. You know that most famous outlaw from the "Old West" named Jesse James? He operated in Missouri.
Yes! The Midwest is such a loosely defined place. I’d not consider anything West of Minnesota to be one of us.
I am a distant relative of Jesse James. My grandmother who raised me was penpals with his granddaughter Bernice.
@napalm_lipbalm86: Your statement as written makes no sense: "I am a distant relative of Jesse James. My grandmother who raised me was penpals with his granddaughter Bernice."
Just because I work in the same building as the grand-nephew of Ernest Hemingway (I do), does not make me a distant relative of Ernest Hemingway.
@@robertlarson7224even border cities like Fargo?
@@robertlarson7224Not even the 2 Dakotas?
I grew up in New Orleans ("south of The South" as I like to call it because the culture of New Orleans is different from that of the surrounding region) but moved to Chicago when I was about 40. A friend of mine from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wrote to me at the time and said, "Welcome to the Upper Midwest." Even Americans can't clearly define the region.
Upper Midwest is anything that touches the Great Lakes or the Canadian Border- anywhere Winter starts early.
As a lifelong Chicagolander, I've always done the typical Chicago thing of defining the Midwest in relation to myself. The Upper Midwest is anything north of Chicago, and Lower Midwest south of Chicago. Chicago itself is the transition zone, along with cities like South Bend and Des Moines. You can feel it culturally, too. To an outsider it might all look like "Midwest", but to a Midwesterner there's obvious but mild differences between Hoosiers and Wisconsinites. Even the landscape agrees, as lakes get more and more common the farther north you go.
@@TheSpecialJ11 100%. I grew up in rural north-central Iowa, and have lived north-west of Des Moines for the last 27 years. There is a difference that most Iowans know as the thirds. North of US 20, US 20-US 6, and US 6 south. Northern Iowa and southern Iowa have different winters, and different geology; even different ethnic backgrounds. The north had as a rule more Germans and Dutch, Norwegans, Danes etc. The south more English, Welsh, Scots etc. But I would classify Iowa as "The western Cornbelt, in the Middle-West"
The Dakotas and Nebraska, once you get about 75 miles west of the Minnesota/Iowa borders become the Great Plains.
@@seththomas9105 Was a Des Moines kid who went to school at UNI for a while, those winters in Cedar Falls hit different even though I'm sure the stats say it only gets like 2 degrees colder.
@@MuriKakari Agreed. I have always thought of there being a difference from MN, WI, and MI from the rest of the Midwest. Its more "Northerner" or Canadian-like lol
The "west" part is because at one time, everything west of the Appalachians was considered "The West".
It's very amusing that there are a few flat suburbs of Chicago, Illinois with deceptively not flat names including: Arlington Heights (with no heights), Vernon Hills (with no hills), and Glendale Heights (with no heights). 😜 Lol
It's my understanding that the deceptive names were to try to lure people to settle in their communities.
I live in Lombard which is a short drive from the suburbs I just mentioned.
Don't forget Mount Greenwood neighborhood in Chicago itself. Which is barely on a hill.
@@CortexNewsServiceYes, that too. 😜 lol
@@CortexNewsServicealso Mount Prospect (with no mountain)
Lol
Are/were there any Lombards [Latin: Longobardi], or immigrants from the Lombardy region of Italy there?
Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. The FIBs don't have a lock on this.
It’s more a history and population thing. What is now called the West was, and mostly still is, much more sparsely populated. I once had an atlas that was published in the UK that included Utah in the Midwest, probably for the reasons you have outlined. I found it odd because I’ve heard plenty of people with the various European accents, including English, visiting Utah and reveling in the vast open scenery and cowboyishness. You know what the West is all about.
Picking apart calling those states The Midwest is like telling a dark haired woman named Flavia to change her name, not that I don’t get it.
Petition to force all Flavio's and Flavia's to dye their hair flaxen blonde.
Utah really isn't in any region but it is in the middle of the West. There are companies here named Mid-West.
Born and raised in rural Wisconsin, now live in Minnesota. Being from the upper Midwest, I admit that I’m a purist for defining the region. I consider the entirety of Ohio not part of the midwest, nor Detroit/SE Michigan. Western edges of the Dakotas, Kansas, and Nebraska, as well as the lower 1/4 of Indiana and Illinois get the boot too. Only the northernmost portion of Missouri stays. Basically, you can’t draw the midwest entirely following state lines. The geographic and cultural differences are too distinct.
Edit: the UP belongs by right to Wisconsin. We just need to invade and claim annexation already 😤
You’ll have to pry it from our cold dead hands, and we’ll have already glued it to our cold dead hands
It really should be part of Wisconsin. Makes no sense having Michigan split like that.
Ridiculous. St Louis is an old Eastern type heavily Italian, German and Irish Catholic city. You think its a "southern city"?? Its pure Midwest, ie the Gateway to the West. At least the top half of Missouri is midwest. I admit the Bootheel (where you see cotton growing) and the Ozarks have a more Southern feel. But St Louis and above the Missouri River is Midwest. Flat, corn etc.
My late parents were from Kansas/Missouri area. Similar situation as the thread starter.
Minnesota resident here! Love your content!
But yeah haha, doubtful we'd ever change from being the "Midwest"
We take a lot of pride in our unique name.
In America the East is really only the part between the Appalachians and the Sea. Its important to remember that the Colonies started around 1600, and until the Revolution, the British had treaties with the French (until the Seven Years War) and then several Native tribal groups. They actually discouraged their colonists from crossing the Appalachians. So for more than 150 years, the English speaking perspective of America was just those Colonies. The French were in what is now the Midwest, and they called it the Pays D'en Haute (the Upper Land, or the Land on Top). This name made a lot of sense at the time, because they traveled almost exclusively by canoe and the Great Lakes are upstream from the St Lawrence River and Montreal. But that whole time, to English-speakers, all of that was just the West. Right after the Revolution, Americans poured into the whole Ohio River Valley, so that was the West, and then there was the Louisiana Purchase, and that just added more West. The East stayed the East, but the West just got bigger and bigger. So the Middle West is just the part of the West that is closer to the East. Its just like how the Middle East isn't really the middle of Asia. Its just the closest place that Europeans considered "Eastern." For some reason in English terminology for geography "middle" seems to mean "close". But anyway, in America, the East was the East for over a century and a half that we often gloss over, with just Pilgrims... then, yay George Washington! And then, only 70 years after the Revolution, California was a State. So we got from the Appalachians to the Pacific in less than half the time we spent stuck on the Eastern Seaboard, and we did most of it with steamboats and trains instead of horses and canoes. And that really shows in names for regions and the size of the states from one side of the Appalachians to the other. The South is the South because of the Civil War, but everything has to be some kind of West. So Middle West it is.
Not only does "middle" have a sense of closeness to it, but the Middle East used to be what was between the "Near East" (Byzantine Empire followed by the Ottoman Empire), and "Far East" (India, China, and Japan). We lost "Near East" at some point, and "Far East" became "South Asian" and "East Asian", probably as Westerners figured out the geography and cultures of Asia better.
@@TheSpecialJ11 I've never been sure exactly what the difference was between the terms "Middle East" and "Near East". Thanks!
One thing you kinda miss is that people from the Midwest wouldnt really consider western Dakotas and such as midwest.
The midwest is very tied to the idea of farming, the water system, and being decently settled. In the midwest, you dont expect to drive ling without cominf across a small settlement. There are few bif cities, but gazillions of small villages.
Once you hit rhe Great Plains, that all changes.
The Great Plains, Rockies, and southwest, with the much more spread out population, cattle based economy, and less pervasive water systems feels very different to someone from the midwest. Those are the things that defined "the West".
And the west coast isnt part of the West. Its seen as its own area.
Another way to think of it is to imagine the heights of the Rockies as the coast. The Rockies arent along the west coast as some people often seem to imagien them, they are way far inland.
The rockies are the "coast" of settlement, and the West is the area leading up to it that features starkly different terrain and lifestyles.
By that point youve moved the meter a lot, right? Now calling it "Midwest" makes sense. Its clearly distinct from the West (Great Plains), the Southwest (desert), and the coast of settlement (Rockies), and obviously not the West Coast.
This whole idea of the coast of settlement is also why the border of Midwest seems to gradually move west over time into places like the Dakotas as they become less sparsely populated, though as you get further into the different terrain areas become more and more resistant to gaining the label.
Ohio, Indiana, MIchigan, Wisconsin, Illinois & Minnesota are often referred to as "The Great Lakes States"
Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas (and Oklahoma too) are often referred to as "The Great Plains"
Great Lakes should be a separate region from Midwest, but no way it could include all of Illinois, and maybe not all of Minnesota.
Personally, I’ve always seen the ‘Midwest’ as not a location term, but a historically accurate one. People during the gold rush and the Oregon Trail and such would consider anywhere past the Mississippi River west. Then making all this land, the middle of the country but the start of the journey west. For example a nickname for Nebraska is the ‘Gateway to the West’
I always thought it was like a global reference, like how China is the Far East and then the Middle East. Dearborn Michigan has many people who immigrated from the Middle East to the Midwest
Geographically accurate regions:
The Midwest - Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah
The Mid-Atlantic - Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey
The South - New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma (maybe Mississippi)
The Southeast - Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, South Carolina (maybe Mississippi)
The Pacific Northwest - Washington, Oregon (maybe the northern third of California)
The Southwest - Arizona, Nevada, California (or the lower 2/3 of California)
The Northeast - Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massechusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York
The Appalachian States - Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky
The Mideast or Great Lake States - Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois (maybe Minnesota)
The Central States - North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri (maybe Minnesota)
i live in northern indiana and recently i mentioned the midwest in class and my professor said that he considers us more in the “great lakes region” and now i think about that a lot.
it kinda makes sense
In South Dakota, anywhere west of the Missouri River is pretty much the West rather than the Midwest. The Midwest is typically associated with flat lands and the Great Plain. Once you go west of the Missouri River in South Dakota, you will see canyons and mountains that are more similar to the Mountain West. I personally define the Heartland differently. For me, the Heartland includes all Midwestern states, but I also include Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.
That's daffy.
It's funny that there was a statement about the old north west, because I actually heard or read in elementary school that it was actually called "The Old Northwest." This was, of course in US History classes, and was necessitated by the need to explain US expansion chronologically. The way people on the East Coast and West Coast refer to the country differently as explained. As a New Englander, I only use "Yankee" to describe New Englanders, and almost always refer to New England, rather than "The Northeast," when communicating with other Americans.
This is another very interesting and data rich Name Explain Video!
When I moved to Texas, my in-laws patiently explained that a "Yankee" was anyone from north of the Red River. They probably would have defined it as anyone from outside of Texas, but it was hard to defend calling Georgians or Alabamians "Yankees."
@@rmdodsonbills
Remember the three main products of Texas are oil, beef and bullshit.
I'm a Midwesterner and I call the area "New England" too. I associate those states with "England" more than other states (minus maybe Washington). I get kind of offended when non-Americans call us "Yankee", but if an American does it I'm suddenly okay with it. Weird.
I live in Virginia and for us, anybody who is North of the Mason Dixon line is a Yankee- so NE + NJ, NY, and PA. Maybe Ohio, but not really. Also most of the people who live in NOVA are Yankees, but that's because of immigration not geography.
People from the Midwest LOVE to explain the Midwest.
I'm from albany, New York, and I visited the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. These are Midwestern cities in culture. Anyone who was raised in let's just say the Northeast megalopolis look at Western New York, Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois as far to the west. And most of us who haven't been to California really can't fathom how far west it really is; us calling those places Midwestern makes more sense than anything on Earth.
Really gonna name off all the states around Indiana and not include them when talking about the Midwest 😢lol (We are used to it at this point)
@@TheRayzerBandit" fly over country " lol
Buffalo is definitely the Midwest.
Buffalo is NOT a Midwestern city, that's laughable. Its an Eastern Rust Belt city.
@@kbrewski1what is an eastern rust belt city and what makes it different from a midwestern one?
Midwest known as being more rural and slower pace; meanwhile there is Chicago being the 3rd largest city by population and 5th by population density in the US.
what can we say. they're our outliers
We [MidWesterners] do talk about Chicago [ or Detroit ] as they are to my knowledge _"crime-holes"_ (patent pending)
America is not divided straight down the middle, the Mississippi carves the country into a densely populated eastern part and a relatively sparsely populated West. In the Civil War the "western theater" was Illinois and everything south of it. The states in the middle now were all territories and not quite "USA". The Rockies also separate the Pacific coast from the rest of the USA, making them their own region more or less
As a native of Minnesota, I always just called us the "North."
as a Midwesterner i've always thought the "Midwest" was Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North and south Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Kansas. i've never seen Ohio or Indian or Michigan as midwestern i've always saw them as Eastern states.
I grew up in Nebraska, and was told we were not Midwest, but great plains. Some people would go to great lengths to note the difference.
Agree, 100%
I would include Michigan.
Indiana is certainly NOT an eastern state. Michigan seems more of an Eastern state because of Detroit and its a "Rust Belt" state. Same with Ohio with Cleveland. Those states that border the Great Lakes could be grouped as Mid East or Midwest, but not really eastern.
As someone from Indiana, I usually call Ohio, Michigan, Indiana Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri midwest, sometimes also including the Great plains states of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas
The name makes a lot of sense when you consider how America expanded. From the east coast, they looked west. Early on, they knew what the true “west” was. The Rockies. The desert. The Pacific. Thus, everything “on the way there” was considered midway-to-the-west. Think of the Oregon trail. The destination was mining country, firmly in the “west” category.
Same goes for Middle East (occasionally referred to as “mid-East). From the European perspective, India and China are the “East,” and the Arab/Persian/Turkish world is what happens to be in between them and the “East.”
Also wanna point out that your maps of the northwest territory are incorrect. Illinois was part of the northwest territory. There’s even a storied university just north of Chicago named “Northwestern,” for hopefully obvious reasons.
The Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas aren't the Midwest, they're the Great Plains states (along with Oklahoma).
Those states are defined as midwestern by Census maps. The midwest is also split into, or more accurately overlaps with The Great Plains and The Great Lake states. The other thing to consider with the states you listed are where their population centers are located. Think Grand Forks, Fargo, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, Omaha, and the Kansas side of the Kansas City Metro. With the exception of Sioux Falls all those cities fall exactly on state lines with states that are most definitely midwestern.
There is no overall region called "Great Plains." The Great Plains region includes part of the Midwest, South and West.
As an East Coaster, the term Midwest makes perfect sense. It's the middle of the country and it's west. And seeing as how the largest city and the US capitol are also in the east, it makes sense to them too.
And here's my test if something is in the Midwest: if they say "pop" to refer to a carbonated beverage.
There's some irony in a British dude calling out Americans for having vestiges of old names that make no sense.
It's the middle of the Western Hemisphere.
Growing up in Nebraska, some people would make a distinction between the Midwest, and the great plains states, with the latter being the flatter states to the west, including parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and texas.
Before June of 1984, the Midwestern United States was called the North Central states. I think name change reflects the history of the US much how the Southern United States is defined by their Civil War affiliations by the US Census Bureau.
As someone who was born in Sioux Falls, SD, grew up in Minnesota, lived in the Chicago, IL area, and have lived in St Louis, MO for decades, I can confidently say ALL THOSE STATES ARE IN THE MIDWEST. I AM A MIDWESTERNER!!
Those states are ALL smack dab in the middle of the country. Its known as the Midwest because when the Nation was originally the 13 colonies and later expanded a little more past the Appalachians, the area to the North and West was most of what is now the Midwest. Its also the Great Lakes states and the northern central plains. But Midwest is just easier to keep as a reference. The Southwest is still known as Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona etc. Not that confusing to Americans.
Home sweet home! I’ve had a lot of people say that my state (Indiana) and Michigan and Ohio shouldn’t be in the Midwest because we’re (mostly) on eastern time. They don’t know the history!
Native Hoosier here too. Always grew up thinking it was the Midwest. Though I have occasionally heard it referred to as the northernmost Southern state. Probably because of politics.
Indiana, Michigan and half of Ohio should be in the central time zone.
From a cultural point of view Michigan and Ohio are actually probably closer to Western and Central New York and Pennsylvania. And they were settled predominantly by New Englanders and New Yorkers so it’s probably more accurate to label those two states as Mideast.
I've been waiting for someone to say this! I've long resented the name "Midwest," not only because every place in America on the opposite side of Lebanon, Kansas, is in the continental EAST, but because Americans of both major political persuasions use the term knowing full well it carries stereotypical connotations - and those stereotypes are highly inaccurate. There are plenty of counterexamples to most of those states being "normal" or "boring" or whatever. Chicago, Illinois, was once the second-largest city in the whole country, hence its nickname of "Second City." Ohio was one of the most ethnically diverse states before nonwhite immigration became common, since Cleveland was a magnet for immigrants from nearly every country in Europe. Protestant Christianity is also more diverse in the region than elsewhere, especially in the western half where Roman Catholics are often in the minority. And, contrary to the popular tropes, states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas have a prominent history of liberal and even socialist political activity.
1894 was 110 years after the northwest ordinance. By that time, California had been a state for almost 40 years.
Yet it isn't today. Speaking from Kentucky it hasn't been part of America since the 60's.
As comedian Charlie Behrens says “the Midwest is everything that’s not east, north, or south.”
I live in Missouri, 2 hours south of St. Louis, a lot of folks on the southern side of Missouri are pretty southern even act like it but everyone still call us midwest, even when growing up I learn to call it the midwest and heartlands. I guess it just depends place in time 😅
I have family friends that live in Springfield, MO (I'm from northern Indiana) and we both agreed on the same thing. the line from St. Louis to Kansas City is about as far south you can go before it starts to become "Southerners".
However it does play off the origins of the state, similar to Kansas. Missouri from its origin claimed more ties to the south and Kansas declared more ties to the north, both causing major contention leading up to the civil war. So it makes sense that the culture around these areas may have stayed grounded all this time leading to this present case. Knowing that the vast majority of Kansas claims to be connected to the Midwest.
Perhaps it’s not called the Midwest because it’s the Midwest of the US maybe it’s called Midwest because it’s Midwest of the globe because it’s intended to be parallel to the Middle East
And US is considered the west by other nations
Not sure what English say, in many European languages we often call the Middle East as "Near East". Middle East mathces better with the American point of view
@@sergicb1533ah lol
“Midwest is more rural”
As I sit in a census tract in the Midwest with a density of like 60k per square mile.
I truly don’t know how we got that association because we have a fair amount of cities. The Midwest even had like 3 of the top 5 largest cities in the country at one point.
as a pacific northwesterner, there’s many northwests. the pacific northwest - western washington, western oregon, and southern alaska. inland/mountain northwest - eastern washington, eastern oregon, idaho, montana, and wyoming. northwest - pacific and inland/mountain northwests, and arctic alaska combined. arctic northwest - northern/arctic alaska. cascadian northwest - washington, oregon, idaho, and southeastern alaska. and last yet not least, columbia basin northwest - eastern washington, eastern oregon, and idaho.
At 4:09
Maine....
You forgot to color in Maine. Technically, it was also part of the original 13 states....it was a part of Massachusetts at the time.
Uhm, sort of. 🤔 But in a way it makes sense because it is west of the original 13 colonies and kind of smack in the middle ^.. I will be sharing this with our subscribers (:
The reason why it is called the mid west is because they probably established that region before the USA gained their western states
1:00 - The Midwest is not all rural, such as Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Tulsa
I’ve always wondered why there were so many “North’s” in the Midwest. Northwest Airlines, Northwestern University, NorWest Bank etc. Interesting 😊
The term "Midwest" wasn't popularized until the 1880's. These companies usually have ties to their origin being before this time (Northwestern Uni. being founded in 1851) or just going off the "Old Northwest" sub-name the region uses.
Also the old Northwestern Bell phone company. Still a prominent communications hub in Minneapolis in a former Northwestern Bell building, although a quick look on street view looks like they took off any old Northwestern Bell signage. We have a smaller old Northwestern Bell building in Des Moines that still has the Bell signage and plaques all over it.
I'm from the Midwest, and I, too, don't like how it's called the Midwest even though theyre really the north central states of America. I guess "Midwest" is more snappy than "North Central" as far as ordinary nicknames go.
Its moreso a historical and cultural keepsake from times before the migration to the west after the civil war. Passed the Appalachians was "the west" but there was a divide between the far west and near west. Most people collectively referred to the land passed the Missouri river or even the Rockies as "The west" thus the land between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains came to be known as the "Midwest"
As someone from the Midwest. Nothing west of Texas is really America. So we are just the north west.
Wait until this guy hears about the Near East, Middle East, and Far East.
I had always learned that it was called the Midwest bc of the Great Lakes. The MidEast being below the Mediterranean, the Midwest being below the Great Lakes. Essentially referring to the western hemisphere and how the Great Lakes are the closest thing to the Mediterranean in the western hemisphere.
wow who taught you that.... certainly wasn't a professor of american history ... god help us otherwise.
@@psilocybemusashi high school history teacher. Logic wise, it does make sense though. The Great Lakes are certainly the closest thing to the Mediterranean in the Western Hemisphere or even really anywhere else in the world.
I would argue ND, SD, NB, KS, and OK could be considered a region called the Plains States. You could include Montana and Wyoming and Colorado in that too. More than 1/2 of MT is plains, ⅓ in WY and about 1/6 in CO. The plains actually stretch from Canada all the way to Texas. Some say OK s more a southwest state in culture though.
We have three distinct cultural regions in Oklahoma. Central, Northeast and Southeast Oklahoma is culturally Appalachian south, North Central and the Panhandle are Midwest, and west central/southwest are Southwestern.
The plains are geological feature, not a region. Oklahoma has a completely different culture than the Dakotas. The plains encompass only a portion of Oklahoma.
@@kenthefley2226 Oklahoma is 3/4 plains. I don't know where you get the idea that it's only a "portion" when it's nearly the entire state.
@@soonerproud Not even close bro. Okies like you need to study geography. The actual great plains end around Woodward in the northwest. You can verify that with a satellite image. You then transition into "rose bed" plain; which is a mixture of woods, plain and prairie. Central Oklahoma is where the cross timbers begin and almost the entire eastern and southern half of Oklahoma is forested and mountainous.
The extreme southeast is swampland. Learn it, know it, live it.
@@soonerproud Southeast Oklahoma is not "appalachian south." It is a genetic mixture of deep and upland southern. The entire state is culturally southern to some degree.
I’ve been arguing this point since I was a little kid.
as a midwesterner, can confirm that the midwest is entirely a mindset.
i’ve always pictured the midwest as the foil to the middle east, since it’s the middle of the western & eastern continental landmasses respectively
although i very much do like the sound of ‘the midnorth’
Cleveland, Ohio checking in!
Hello from Wisconsin in the Midwest! What you said about the Midwest being more an idea or concept than a geographical area is probably right.
The name you suggested, "The Old Northwest" would never be recognized by an American. You'd have to explain it. Then they'd say, "oh, you mean the Midwest!"
Another sub region of the midwest is called Great Lake states (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota). Technically the Great Lake States also include Pennsylvania and New York, which are not midwestern at all. States like north and South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma are often referred to as the Great Plains states.
Being from Arkansas, we call it the Mid-South. The college in my hometown is even called “ASU Mid-South”
Makes plenty of sense to us, we freeze half the year call all carbonated drinks pop and last to fall when SHTF, that rural town and scattered city livin is where it’s at gentlemen, burn rubber, raise hell and praise Dale.
Abso-fuckin-lutely.
All I know is that everything in the mid west is mid
This video lets my ghost rest. It had been roaming the halls, rattling chains for decades.
Born and raised Minnesotan, and I can pretty confidently say that not much happens in the Midwest. It's slow and small; even our cities aren't that large relatively speaking.. I will also add that Minnesota has its own subculture. We're very often referred to as "basically southern Canadian", and I know this because I just moved outside of the Midwest lol
edit: also as a proud Midwesterner/Minnesotan, some of those states on that map have no business being included lol
Minneapolis is not that small. Twin Cities is 3rd largest metro in the region and will likely pass Detroit sometime this decade. We may not be California, Texas or Florida in size (And thank God for that) but we arent North Dakota either.
As someone who has lived on the western north american coast for a large portion of my life and having recently moved to the "mid west", I like to give the locals a hard time for calling themselves the mid west :)
It should be the Excellent North. Nothing Mid about it.
Also people back then considered the "west" as anything west of the Mississippi River. Which is why St. Louis's Arch is known as "the gateway to the west."
As a rural Midwesterner, my local town has a dollar store, gas station, hunting store, trailer park, small Cafe, and of course, a gun store.
If your asking, it's Union Michigan
Well if you're looking for a cool small town I might recommend Stone City Iowa and it is properly tiny.
One of the things nobody considers about iowa is that we have tons of limestone quarries, and famously pure white limestone at that. Stone City has tons of very beautiful old limestone buildings, and like one restaurant. Try some local favorites. Iowa style tenderloin, sweet corn, fried morrels if they're in season, barbecue, hot cider, the works.
As someone who lives in South Dakota, I've always prefered the title of the Great Plains to describe where I live. The Great Plains basically go into North Dakota down to Texas and that would be a good way to describe the Dakotas, Kansas and Nebraska.
The easiest explanation is when the Midwest was settled in the 1790s-1830s, "west" meant "west of the Appalachian Mountains". By that time Jefferson also made the Louisiana Purchase which opened up the 'Far West' making the lands inbetween the 'Far West' and 'West of Appalachia' the 'Midwest'.
Don't forget about the Midwest's manufacturing history. It's not all just farmland.
Yeah that name is more general idea - settling on territory between the great mountain ranges - Appalachian & Rockies. North of the Mason Dixon line.
As European Americans began invading the Great Plains and displacing Indigenous populations… the early 1830s, … a great portion of the current American West belonged to Mexico & Indigenous Nations. America would annex the entire Southwest up to the current borders in the Mexican-American War in the 1840s.
You have to look at this from a historic context:
For the longest time, the Appalachian Mountains were the western-most boundary of the US - not dissimilar from how the Ural and Caucasus Mountains define the eastern boundary of Europe. Everything along the Appalachians was "The Frontier", while everything beyond was simply "The West". Again paralleling how Europe separated the huge continent of Asia into "The Middle East" and "Far East", the US distinguished the flatter agrarian basin from the distant hilly/mountainous region as "The Middle West" and "The Far West".
Over the years, "The Far West" became further compartmentalized into "The Pacific Northwest", "The Southwest", and so on. Meanwhile, "The Middle West" (lacking divisive geological features) remained homogeneous and the identifier gradually truncated into "The Midwest".
The Appalachian Mountains were never the western-most boundary of the US. While it was still a collection of colonies, kinda. But the USA's original borders included just about everything up to the Mississippi.
@@adamperdue3178 Geographically, not politically. (Though somewhat politically due to geography.) Even after the Cumberland Road (built 1811-1834), access to the Midwest from the east coast was quite difficult - most westward settlement came via New Orleans and the Mississippi River.
Given that New York, Philadelphia, and (eventually) Washington DC all served as the US Capitol - all of which are solidly *east* of the Appalachians - 'the people writing the history books' considered the Appalachian Mountains the boundary of 'civilized society'.
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri. That's da midwest, plain n simple
I'm watching from Wisconsin. Names no one uses except the government are East North Central and West North Central. Normal people will say Great Lake States and Great Plain States.
Or Upper Midwest AKA Youbetchaland
Small note: on your 13 colonies map Maine should be highlighted because it was part of Massachusetts
The University of Michigan fight song, "Hail to the Victors," was written in 1898 and contains the line "the champions of the west."
Pittsburgh, PA was once the "Gateway to the West" (Hence "Gateway Center" downtown). We ceded that title to St. Louis, MO (Hence the "Gateway Arch"). Also Pittsburgh's "Kennywood" (amusement park) was once known as "The roller coaster capital of the world", Again we ceded THAT title to the Midwest too, It's now "Cedar Point" in Sandusky, Oh. 😜
As a Minnesotan the term Midwest is actually pretty simple and accurate both historically and geographically. Also, if you think about the "Middle East" it makes just as much if not more sense than that vague geographical area of the world.
Shouldn't the Midwest be Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Half of Montana, Half of Minnesota Iowa, Kansas, and 1/3 of Missouri?