Topeka is the seat of Shawnee County, the capital of Kansas, and center of a metropolitan statistical area that includes all of Shawnee County. Throughout its history, Topeka has been at the forefront of progress; created as a principal link in the westward expansion of the railroad and settled by New England antislavery supporters in the nineteenth century, the city was in the twentieth century a world leader in the treatment of mental illness. In the last two decades Topeka has experienced business growth with a number of Fortune 500 companies relocating or expanding in the area.