I thought of this scenario when I was a child. The Chicago area is the only thing that Illinois has of industrial might. Michigan has the manufacturing and population advantage over all the states combined. Yes, Wisconsin would quickly take the UP, but there is almost nothing there. Michigan would take Lake Michigan. Michigan has the large ports and the ability to build more warships. After securing the lake, Michigan would undercut Chicago metro and cut it and Milwaukee off from the rest of the state. It would then sweep Illinois then have Wisconsin for desert. It was nice to see Wisconsin win one. But it would be controlled by Illinois.
Contrary... Wisconsin builds warships and has built many submarines history... they also produce Automobiles farm tractors the finest motorcycles Small engines Lawn equipment and Beer... Fornicate Michigan
Chicagoland (not even the whole of Illinois) has a similar population to Michigan, though, and the area has plenty of industrial infrastructure (especially so rail and transportation). This metro area would act as a stronghold, and maneuvering around this in any meaningful capacity would be difficult, especially given that a defense of Indiana (the weakest of the four states) would face similar issues to Illinois; they would essentially have the same issues as a defense of south/central Illinois, whilst simultaneously lacking the kind of protection and maneuverability that Chicagoland and all its expansive infrastructure provides. Illinois and Michigan also hold a roughly equal amount of manufacturing jobs and companies, while Wisconsin and Indiana are also fairly close to one another (though Illinois and Wisconsin both slightly edge out Michigan and Indiana, respectively). Illinois and Wisconsin also are generally considered to have more robust and stable economies than their opponents in this scenario, with Illinois in particular being wealthier, more developed, and having higher economic output and productivity than any of the other three states. Both Illinois and Wisconsin have quite strong port infrastructure, as the second largest port in the Great Lakes is Chicago, not to mention the strong and defensible position of Green Bay and Wisconsin’s access to parts of Duluth’s port infrastructure via Superior, Wisconsin, that would allow them to monitor and conduct reconnaissance uncontested over much of the UP. Michigan has the other three beat in terms of motorized vehicle production capacity, but not in a variety of other factors that could be considered militarily significant (i.e., economic strength or the electronics/tech sector). I don’t believe Michigan and Indians would win in a protracted conflict if the scenario in the video played out.
