The Midlands

Founded by English Quakers in William Penn's Delaware Valley (1680s) and swelled by heavy German immigration. Pluralist and tolerant from the outset, ethnically and religiously mixed, with a pragmatic, middle-class commercial temperament and a distrust of both top-down government and sweeping ideological causes. Often the moderate, pivotal 'American heartland' between the more zealous cultures to its north and south.

• Existed: 1680 CE – present
• Type: Entity