The greatest westward expansion in American history took place during the 19th century. American farmers and stockmen conquered, and almost entirely settled, a continent. They did this in a single century, 1801-1900. Nothing quite like it had ever happened before. Starting from a thin line of people on the eastern seaboard (with a few incursions across the mountains as of 1800), farmers and herders pushed into a nearly empty land, dispossessed the Indians, and exploited the country. And in course of time the American pioneers wanted and received political organization. California entered the Union in 1850, the Plains states mostly in the 1880s, and more states, such as Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, came into the Union in the 20th century. At the same time, a nation that was weak and underdeveloped in 1801, had, by 1900, become the world's leading industrial nation. From virtually no industry in 1801, America rose to leading industrial power in 1900, with more railroads and more manufactured goods per capita than any other nation. Involved in the industrialization, and importantly so, was the farm implement and machinery industry. Factories everywhere supplied farmers with the sophisticated tools and machines of the new agriculture. In these years urbanization also went forward rapidly. Cities of the east grew fantastically, and even in the interior cities rose from wilderness outposts to gigantic metropolises. Within one man's lifetime Chicago increased from 350 people in 1830 to 1,099,000 in 1890. Simultaneously, tremendous developments in transportation kept the nation and its economy tied together. All of these developments had a profound influence on farming and farmers. The rich cities provided ever greater markets for the farmers' produce. The transportation system, rapidly moving farm commodities, made farming profitable in remote regions far distant from the coast. Farmers also felt the advantages of the return flow of goods and services: the mail order catalog, the industrially made reapers and threshers, and countless other items. City people made a countless range of devices for farmers--from steel plows to steam engines.