Missouri (U.S. state)
Missouri is one of the states of the United States of America, having become a state in 1821. In the American Civil War of 1861–1865, Missouri's elected government did not cecede from the union, but it had a "rump government", an unelected group that proclaimed secession in 1861[1] and was accepted into the Confederate States of America, while the United States continued to claim Missouri as its own. At the time, Missouri allowed slavery and had both Unionist and Confederate counties, including some Unionist slave-owners.
The state's area is 69,697 square miles (180,516 square kilometers) and its estimated population is 5,911,605 (in 2008). To its north lies Iowa and across the Mississippi River to the east Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. To the south Missouri is bordered by Arkansas (U.S. state) and to the west by Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.
Slightly more than half of the population lives in the two major urban areas, St. Louis, Missouri and Kansas City, Missouri. "Kansas City (metropolitan area)" is actually a single urban area of Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, split by the Missouri River. Jefferson City is the capital of Missouri.
See also
- ↑ The text of Kentucky's Ordinance of Secession.