The city of Chicago is the largest city not just in Illinois but in the entire Midwest. Chicago is the third most populated city in all of the United States with an estimated number of residents put at close to 3 million just within its city limits. In Chicago’s greater metropolitan area there are close to 10 million inhabitants, making Chicago the 26th most populated metropolitan area in the world.
Chicago began in 1833 near a small port which serviced the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. An American Indian tribe, the Potawatomi was removed by force from their land as a result of the Treaty of Chicago. As the city developed it became a central focus for transportation and communication in North America, a reputation which it still has today. O’Hare International Airport, the airport which serves the Chicago area, is the second busiest airport in the world.
Chicago has developed in recent years an additional reputation as a center of business and finance. It has been listed as one of the world’s best ten “Global Financial Centers.” Chicago has long been famous as a stronghold of the Democratic Party and was called an “alpha world city” by the Loughborough University World Cities Study Group because of the crucial role Chicago plays in the international economic system.