Cahokia (State)

Cahokia, officially known as the State of Cahokian Illinois, is the 38th state of the United States of America. It gained statehood in 1868 after secession from Illinois in 1861. It's largest population centres include the Greater St Clair Metropolitan Area, Carbondale, Centralia, Rosiclare, and it's capital Cairo. It's economy remains strongly reliant on coal mining, petroleum, and timber. Cahokia relies strongly on rivers like the Wabash, Ohio, and the Mississippi for transporting it's coal and lumber. Cahokia's name originates from the Cahokia tribe, an Illiniwek tribe that inhabited the area in the 17th century. Most residents can draw their lineage from French, German, and Swedish settlers, as well as African-Americans which still make up a large percent of the population in the southern regions of the state. Even after gaining statehood, Cahokia continued to be overshadowed by bordering Missouri and Illinois, especially as Chicago grew into one of the largest cities in the United States. After the Industrial Revolution, Cahokia's population began to grow more in the east as St Louis grew on it's border, while declining in the south as poorer residents moved to larger cities outside of the state for opportunity. Cahokia suffered the greatest during the Great Depression of all states in America, as just under 40% of the population moved further west, this decline in population was so great that in 1932 some of the remaining residents of Cahokia petitioned for Cahokia to again merge with Illinois. With the United States entering the second world war in 1942, Cahokia saw it's first population increase in 10 years as cities like Chester and Colinsville saw new economic prosper through manufacturing airplanes for the US Army. 
== History ==
Cahokia was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years prior to European settlement, as evident by the Cahokia Mounds. The first European settlers were French, first reaching the area around 1614. Due to conflict with Native Americans up north by the Great Lakes, the French installed most of their military fortifications further south, with towns like Kalkaska and Prairie du Rocher originating from these forts. The French lost control of the area after the French and Indian War, but settlers remained largely French in the area, especially on the western side along the Mississippi River. The area became part of the Northwest Territory in 1787, and then the Indiana Territory in 1800, the Illinois Territory in 1809 and later as the free state of Illinois in 1818. As the city of Cairo grew to be of commercial importance, the divide between southern residents of Illinois and the northern residents began to show. The majority of residents of the Little Egypt region were white southerners, who left the slave-owning south sometime before the Civil War. During the Civil War, the division between north and south reached a peak, the south was majority Copperhead, with growing support being shown to the Cofederate forces. During this time, lawyer Amos Green rose to prominence, being hailed as the "Voice of the American Bottom" by local newspapers across Illinois, his control over the region became so powerful he was considered by many in the area as the "Governor of Little Egypt". Green strongly critizised Lincoln, and the Union, instead sympathizing with the southern cause, all beliefs held by the already Copperhead majority people of the region. In May of 1861, multiple units of Tennessee infantry regiments of the Confederate Army lead an offense into southern Illinois under the control of General John C. Vaughn. By the time morning came on the next day, Vaughn had already reached Carbondale. They were met with positive reception by locals and little to no hostility, that afternoon, Amos Green gave a call to action in Karnak, calling for men in the region to organize militias and give their aid to the southern cause; this short speech was sent via telegram to trusted affiliates in the region and spread from there, allowing the union to remain in the dark. Militias began being organized in a variety of sizes, the largest of which, lead by a local carpenter Pewee Green (no relation to Amos Green) was organized in Carmi in the east of the state. As pre-planned before the attack commenced, two days after Amos Green released a statement in publications across Illinois posing as a concerned citizen under an alias saying that a massive army in direct communication with Robert E Lee was heading to Springfield, with the intent of burning the city to the ground and that they had passed his cottage near Vandalia earlier that day. In reality Vaughn's men were camped near New Athens 60 miles away with the intention of reaching St Louis to meet up with the Missouri militia of Governer Clairborn Fox Jackson. The statement came into publication the next day in most weekly newspapers, quickly gaining the attention of William T. Sherman in Camp Butler. On the night of the 6th of May, Vaughn's men met with the Missouri militia as well as a local militia in Dupo, where they send a group of 20 men from the Duplo militia, lead by a lower rank of Vaughn's men across the river to the St. Louis Arsenal. Using an improvised timed gunpowder-dynamite explosive, they set off the gunpowder in the arsenal resulting in a fiery explosion that decimated much of the Kosciusko area of St Louis. They then set fire to the Benton Barracks on the other side of St Louis, but at that time, many of the soldiers had already been awoken by the explosion at the Arsenal leaving the tents of the barracks mostly empty. When oil coated tents were set on fire on both sides of the barracks, soldiers pursued the Dupo men, killing 10 including the man from the Tennessee regiment. When the dust settled, the attacks were attributed to Confederate sympathizers, which had done somewhat similar attacks in the past (although not nearly to the scope of this). It was also thought to be very unlikely that Confederates could have reached so far north so early in the war. Vaughn thought that a full on attack on St Louis would have been costly and ultimately pointless, especially since the large German population was very supportive of the Union, and chose instead to secure the area east of St Louis and set up a wall of defense from Bethalto to Millstadt. After the wars end, the sites of these fortifications would grow to become large towns and cities. Vaughn's campaign in the east St Louis area is remembered by major battles at Caseyville, Horseshoe Lake, Bunker Hill,, and Litchfield as well as the Union's humiliating defeat at Black Walnut. While many more regiments and generals fought in Cahokia, Vaughn is remembered as the most influential, not only in the war but in the creation of the Cahokian identity. Other major battles during the Civil war that decided Cahokia's border between Illinois albeit in a unclear way took place in Hutsonville, Vandalia, Centralia, Vincennes, and Mattoon. The confederates managed to hold Cahokia for the majority of the war but were pushed slightly north of Carbondale by 1865 when the Confederate States surrenderred. Cahokia was readmitted to the Union as the 38th state on July 9 1868 along with South Carolina and Louisiana under the Illinois Compromise. After the Reconstruction era, Cahokia prospered from the growing population of St Louis while simultaneosly struggling to compete with the quickly industrializing Illinois to the north. The post-war period and early years of 20th century were marked by economic depression and population dispersal for Cahokia. Cahokia relied strongly on Chicago and St Louis for money, depending on the small trickles of money coming from large events in nearby states like the Chicago World Columbian Expedition and the Olympics in St Louis. In 1895, the Charleston Earthquake further devestated Cahokia killing 84 and levelling Cairo's downtown, which wouldn't be fully rebuilt until 2 years later in 1897. In 1898 Cahokia was plagued once again with deaths in the Battle of Virden and again in 1899 with the sinking of the Cape Girardeau near Grand Tower. This era was defined by labour struggles in Cahokia which drew nationwide attention, with the Carterville Mine Riot, Pana Riot, and the aptly named Cahokia Coal Wars. Cahokia's small economic prosper in the 1920s was short-lived when the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 destroyed towns along the Mississippi river, those towns where one of Cahokia's only reliant source of income. While the late 1920s and the 1930s were some of the worst years for Cahokia, some towns in the extreme northwest of the state saw some success with the help of mobsters from nearby Chicago, that being Brussels. The rest of the state was not so fortunate being even more devestated by the Ohio River flood of 1937. The 1940s gave some hope to Cahokia with new industry and a fast growing economy. Cahokia's population grew substantially in the 1980s with the steel industry boom in cities like Salem, Mt Vernon, and Kinmundy. Cahokia has voted majority Republican since the 1950s. Growth stagnated slightly in the early 2000s, but Cahokia has had a steady population increase since then, with industries and metro areas growing through the 2010s.
== Geography ==
Cahokia is located in the Midwest region of the United States.
=== Boundaries ===
Cahokia's eastern border with Indiana starts as a north-south line from the southern shore of Sugar Creek to the Wabash river south of Terre Haute, following it southwest until it's confluence with the Ohio river which continues south until it confluences with the Mississippi river at the southernmost point of the state south of the state capital, Cairo. The border then follows the Mississippi river northwest up to St Louis where it becomes a east-west straight line near Gilead, and continue east past Jerseyville until it goes north along State Route 4 then east along Litchfield Road until 39.236048, -89.681936 where it goes northeast in a diaganol line which eventually lines up with Route 48 until it becomes a east west line which travels east to Tower Hill where it becomes a diaganol northeast line that eventually lines up with Route 16 until it passes Little Wabash Creek, which it follows until it reaches Crabapple Creek which it follows east until Dorans where it becomes an east-west line again until north of Charleston where it goes north on Route 130 where it then turns into an east-west line that eventually lines up with part of Route 133, until it contues east following a township road until the northernmost point of the Twin Lakes north of Mattoon, which it follows south into Sugar Creek to the Indiana state border.
=== Topography ===
Cahokia is low lying with interior plains in the north and Mississippi floodplains in the south that form the American Bottom. It has highlands in the Shawnee Hills.
=== Divisions ===
Cahokia is divided into 40 counties, most of them consist of the same borders they had as part of Illinois, the only changes being the Cahokia portion of what was Calhoun County merging with Jersey County, portions of the county that were in part in Illinois were divided at the border, Macoupin county was split between the states with it becoming Southern Macoupin County and the portion of Cole County that was in Cahokia merging with Cumberland county.