Moline ( moh-LEEN) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with adjoining East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities have an estimated population of 381,342. The city is the ninth-most populated city in Illinois outside the Chicago Metropolitan Area. The corporate headquarters of Deere & Company is located in Moline, as was Montgomery Elevator, which was founded and headquartered in Moline until 1997, when it was acquired by Kone Elevator, which has its U.S. Division headquartered in Moline. Quad City International Airport, Black Hawk College, and the Quad Cities campus of Western Illinois University-Quad Cities are located in Moline. Moline is a retail hub for the Illinois Quad Cities, as South Park Mall and numerous big-box shopping plazas are located in the city.

In the mid-1990s, the city undertook major efforts to revitalize its central issue district, which had declined after suburban addition and retail changes after the 1950s and 1960s. Today, Moline’s downtown anew serves as one of the civic and recreational hubs of the Quad Cities; many events accept place at the 12,000-seat Vibrant Arena at The MARK (formerly known as The MARK of the Quad Cities, iWireless Center, and TaxSlayer Center) and at John Deere Commons. Downtown Moline features hotels such as Radisson, The Element Moline, The Axis Hotel, and Stoney Creek Inn, along with personal ad areas such as Bass Street Landing and the historic 5th Avenue.

Moline acquired its broadcast after it was platted (surveyed and planned) in 1843. The proclaim derives from the French moulin meaning “mill town”.

Indigenous peoples of shifting cultures inhabited areas along the river exceeding thousands of years, using it for transportation, water and fishing. According to the Rock Island County Historical Society, the first more permanently contracted inhabitants of the Moline area are thought to be the Sauk and Meskwaki Indians, who founded the village of Saukenuk in 1720 along the Rock River not far afield from its confluence behind the Mississippi. This tribe saw the home between the Rock and Mississippi rivers as ideal for farming and fishing. By the in advance 19th century, this like peaceful area became a site of violent confrontations amongst European-American settlers, arriving in greater numbers and encroaching upon Native American land, and the Sauk and Fox tribes. In 1832 Chief Black Hawk confirmed war on the United States, initiating the Black Hawk War. When the battle ended progressive that year, Black Hawk and his people were annoyed to leave the Place and go north, paving the artifice for more European-American settlers to enter the Mississippi Valley.