Georgia

The State Seal of Georgia shows an arch and a soldier standing ready to defend the constitution with the motto ‘Wisdom Justice Moderation’. Below the seal are flags important in Georgia's history. This flag was adopted in 2001.

Locator map for the US state of Georgia.

State in southeastern USA bordered to the northeast by South Carolina, to the north by North Carolina and Tennessee, to the west by Alabama, and to the south by Florida; area 149,976 sq km/57,906 sq mi; population (2000) 8,186,500; capital Atlanta. Georgia was named after King George II. The state is approximately 60% forested, and ranges from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the north, to the light, sandy, fertile soils of the coastal plains. Its many forests and swamplands give the state a wide range of wildlife, particularly birds. Service industries are Georgia's chief source of income. Atlanta has leading finance, trade, and transport centres, with major corporations having headquarters there. Savannah is home to many shipping companies. Agriculture is still central to the economy of Georgia, a former slave and cotton state, and pecans, peaches, and peanut production are especially important. The film epic Gone With The Wind, set against the background of the Civil War, was set in Atlanta and was written by Margaret Mitchell who was born in Georgia. Major cities include Columbus, Savannah, Macon, and Albany. One of the original Thirteen Colonies, Georgia seceded from the Union in 1861, and was not readmitted until 1870 after a two-year delay prompted by the state's initial refusal to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Georgia had originally ratified the US Constitution in 1788, becoming the fourth state to join the Union.

Physical Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River, and has six land regions: the Appalachian Plateau; the Appalachian Ridge and Valley region; the Blue Ridge; the Piedmont; the Atlantic Coastal Plain; and the East Gulf Coastal Plain. The Appalachian Plateau has narrow valleys and thin soils while the Appalachian Ridge and Valley is a region of fertile farmland. In the northeast the Blue Ridge Mountains rise to 1,459 m/4,784 ft at Brasstown Bald Mountain, the highest point in the state. The gently rolling hills of the Piedmont cover central Georgia, and this is where most of the state's major cities are located. The Atlantic Coastal Plain and East Gulf Coastal Plain in southern Georgia have light, sandy, fertile soils and produce most of the state's crops. The Okefenokee Swamp national wildlife refuge is located here. Georgia has a coastline approximately 145 km/90 mi long on the Atlantic Ocean, with many sea islands. Savannah and Brunswick are the chief ports. Jekyll Island, Sea Island, St Simon's Island, and Little St Simon's Island lie off Brunswick and are known as the Golden Isles. Tidal marshes and creeks on Georgia's warm coast provide the ideal habitat for birds such as herons, egrets, and osprey. Georgia's many fast rivers include the Chattahoochee, the Chattooga, the Savannah, the St Mary's, the Ogeechee, the Oconee, the Ocmulgee, the Altamha, and the Flint. Amicalola and Toccoa are the state's major waterfalls. Most of the lakes in Georgia were created by dams; the largest are Allatoona Lake on the Etowah River; Hartwell, and J Strom Thurmond Lakes on the Savannah; Lake Sidney Lanier on the Chattahoochee; Lake Seminole on the Flint and Chattahoochee; and Lake Sinclair and Lake Oconee on the Oconee.

Georgia has a large range of different kinds of tree, from beech, birch, cedars, hickories, maples, and walnuts to magnolia and moss-covered oaks in the south. Georgia is particularly famous for its tall pines. Wildlife in Georgia includes alligators, bears, beavers, opossum, and turtles. Georgia is famous for its many kinds of songbirds, and game birds such as quail and wild turkeys; a large number of different kinds of duck also thrive. Bass, bream, catfish, eels, and rainbow trout are found in inland lakes, with crabs, oysters, and shrimp found in coastal waters.

Features Georgia has many historic sites and monuments. Prehistoric American Indian burial mounds can be seen at Etowah Mounds in Cartersville and the museum at Ocmulgee National Monument, near Macon, is one of the largest museums of American Indian history in the USA. The Antebellum Trail passes through the historic towns of Athens, Watkinsville, Madison, Eatonton, Milledgeville, Old Clinton, and Macon. Examples of mansion houses in Georgia include McDaniel-Tichenor House (1887) in Monroe; Rhodes Hall (1904) in Atlanta, Hay House (1855) in Macon, and Ezekiel Harris House (1797) in Augusta. Savannah has a 4 sq km/2.5 sq mi historic district, with town squares and over 1,000 restored houses, including Regency houses designed by 19th-century English architect William Jay. Historic buildings in Savannah include the Owens-Thomas House (1817), Telfair Mansion and Art Museum (1819), Juliette Gordon Low National Center (birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts in the USA), Isaiah Davenport House (1815), Olde Pink House (1771), and King-Tisdall Cottage (1896), now a museum of black history and culture. Savannah is also notable for the site of the Siege of Savannah (1779), a restored seafront and possibly the first African Baptist Church, dating from 1788. Savannah is home to the Fort Pulaski National Monument, the Georgia Historical Society, the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum, Old Fort Jackson, and the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum (1966), which is housed in the William Scarbrough House (1819).

Several of Georgia's sea islands have a significant history from before the American Civil War. Fort Jackson, on Salter's Island, is the oldest colonial fort in the state. Fort Frederica National Monument, on St Simon's Island, was established in 1736 as the southernmost post of the British colonies in North America. Jekyll Island has a historic district, with mansions built by wealthy US families such as the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts. Georgia has many military sites and museums. Andersonville National Historic Site, or Camp Sumter, marks the largest Confederate military prison, built in 1864, and features the National Prisoners of War Museum (1999). The National Infantry Museum (1959) is based in Fort Benning. The Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park includes several famous Civil War battlefields. Kennesaw is home to the Kennesaw Civil War Museum (1972) and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. The Port Columbus Civil War Naval Center (2001) in Columbus is devoted to a particularly innovative chapter in naval history. Crawfordville is home to A H Stephens State Park and Confederate Museum. The Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum (1898) is home to the world's largest painting, The Battle of Atlanta.

Georgia also has many relics of the plantation era. Hofwyl Broadfield, near Brunswick, is a former rice plantation that is nearly 200 years old. Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville is another example. Seabrook Village, an African-American living history museum located near Midway, marks the place where freed slaves founded a community using post-Civil War land grants. The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains preserves the homes of the former president.

Atlanta is famously associated with Martin Luther King, Jr, and features a special national historic district including his birthplace and Ebenezer Baptist Church. Stone Mountain Park in Atlanta features a memorial to Confederate war heroes - the world's largest sculpture memorial; the CNN Center; and the World of Coca-Cola. The Fox Theater (1929) in Atlanta is a National Historic Landmark with star-studded foyer, balconies, and exotic gilding.

Georgia is an important state for wildlife preservation: it has one of the largest natural bird refuges in the country at Okefenokee Swamp, covering 1,813 sq km/700 sq mi in the south. Georgia's national forests are Chattahoochee and Oconee and there are numerous state parks, including 79 wildlife management areas. Callaway Gardens near Pine Mountain features 1,010 ha/2,500 acres of meadows, hills, lakes, flowers, and woodlands and the Day Butterfly Center (1988), the largest glass-enclosed tropical butterfly conservatory in North America.

Culture A former Confederate state, Georgia has a distinctly southern heritage culture. The preservation of historic sites, antiques, and Civil War relics feature strongly. The Georgia Historical Society, based in Savannah, is an important preservation organization. Georgia's numerous heritage museums include the Thronateeska Heritage Center with a Museum of History in Albany; the Bartow History Center in Cartersville; the Gwinnett Historical Society in Lawrenceville, with the Elisha Winn House; a living history museum in Lumpkin, depicting an 1850 west Georgia villa known as Westville, Georgia's Working 1850 Town; Washington County Museum in Sandersville, featuring Civil War relics; the Lowndes County Historical Society and Museum, preserving local cultural; and Obediah's Okefenok in Waycross, a 19th-century restored homestead representing the lifestyle of an early settler.

Georgia has a large African-American population. The King Center (1968) in Atlanta documents the life of Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Apex Museum (1978), also located in Atlanta, explores all facets of African American history. The Tubman Museum (1981), in Macon, is devoted to African-American art, history, and culture. The Mount Zion Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum charts recent history and is situated in Albany.

Atlanta is an important centre for the music recording industry and two prominent annual music festivals take place there: the Montreux Atlanta Music Festival, which features Latin, R&B, rock, reggae, African, country, and blues music; and the ten-day Atlanta Jazz Festival. Arts organizations based in the city include theatre companies, a symphony orchestra, a ballet company, and an opera company. The Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival takes place annually at the historic Fox Theater. Atlanta's many cultural museums include the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center; the High Museum of Art, one of the largest art museums in the USA; the Oglethorpe University Museum; and the Michael C Carlos Museum, devoted to ancient art. The Atlanta History Center traces Atlanta's past. Also based in Atlanta are the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum; the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, devoted to the author of the book Gone with the Wind; and the Museum of the Jimmy Carter Library.

There are numerous other cultural museums in the rest of Georgia. The Columbus Museum in Columbus is one of the largest in the Southeast, focused on American art; the Georgia Museum of Art (1945), based at the University of Georgia has a collection ranging from the 6th to the 20th century; the Morris Museum of Art (1992) in Augusta encompasses a history of painting in the South; the Telfair Museum of Art (1886) in Savannah is an important US permanent collection. Among Georgia's other museums are the Georgia Children's Museum, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame (1996) and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame (1998), all in Macon.

Georgia is a popular destination for outdoor activity, sports, sea, and sun, with many resorts and a highly developed tourist industry, particularly along the coast. The most famous sporting event is the Masters golf tournament that takes place at the Augusta National Golf Course (1933) every second week in April. Georgia's shallow coastal waters and warm climate make it particularly popular with the elderly and with the physically disabled.

Among Georgia's popular flower festivals are the Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, the Dogwood Festival in Atlanta, and the Thomasville Rose Festival; other traditional rural events include the Blessing of the Shrimp Fleet in Brunswick; the Vidalia Onion Festival; Georgia Mountain Fair in Hiawassee; Georgia National Fair in Perry; the Oktoberfest Celebration in Helen; Prater's Mill Country Fair near Dalton, and the Marietta Pilgrimage in Marietta.

Government Georgia's state constitution The constitution was approved by voters in 1982 and went into effect on 1 July 1983. Earlier constitutions date from 1777, 1789, 1798, 1861, 1865, 1868, 1877, 1945, and 1976.

Structure of state government The state legislature, called the general assembly, has a Senate of 56 members and a House of Representatives of 180 members, all elected to two-year terms. Georgia is represented in the US Congress by two senators and eleven representatives, and has 15 electoral votes in presidential elections.

The governor of Georgia is elected to a four-year term and can serve a maximum of two terms. The governor largely controls state finances and state appointments. The rates and services of public companies are controlled by state commissions.

The highest court is the Georgia Supreme Court, with a chief justice and six associate justices, elected to six-year terms and headed by a chief justice who serves a four-year term. There are 45 superior courts, with judges serving four-year terms, while judges on the Atlanta circuit serve eight-year terms.

Georgia has 159 counties and about 535 cities, towns, and villages. Local governments are entitled to home-rule. The mayor-council form of government dominates.

Economy Service industries are Georgia's chief source of income. Atlanta has leading finance, trade, and transport centres, with major corporations headquartered there. Savannah is home to many shipping companies. Agriculturally, tobacco, maize, cotton, and soybeans are staple crops and poultry is also important. Food processing, particularly peanut products, is the leading manufacturing industry in Georgia. Other forms of manufacturing include clothing and textiles, carpets, aircraft, paper products, and lumber, especially pine products. China-clay mining, crushed granite, and marble also provide significant revenue. Other mined products include limestone, mica, peat, slate, and talc. The chemicals industry produces cleaning compounds, adhesives, paints, pharmaceuticals and plastics resins. There is some fishing, and Georgia has a valuable annual shrimp catch.

History English Colonial rule Georgia's first inhabitants, the Creek and Cherokee peoples, were Moundbuilders. The region was explored in 1540 by Hernando de Soto, as he crossed the area en route to the Mississippi River. The Spanish general Pedro Menéndez de Avilés built forts along the Atlantic coast, including one on St Catherines Island in the Georgia region in 1566. From 1629 the English ruled the area, building a fort on the Altamaha River in 1721. King George III granted a royal charter set to last for 21 years to a small group of colonists, led by James Oglethorpe, a philanthropist. They landed on 17 November 1732 at what is now Savannah. Oglethorpe's colony was greatly helped by aid from Tomochichi, a Creek chief who maintained diplomatic relations between the colonists and nearby Creek tribes. Savannah was the first planned community in the North American colonies. During the war between England and Spain, Oglethorpe attempted to capture Florida and won a major victory against the Spanish in the Battle of Bloody Marsh on St Simon's Island in 1742. Georgia became a royal province in 1754. After 1775 anti-British feeling spread through the colonies and Georgia's governor fled. Georgia ratified the Articles of the Confederation on 24 July 1778. British troops captured Savannah in 1778 and it was not until 1782 that the British finally left Georgia. Georgia ratified the US Constitution as the fourth state on 2 January 1788. An agricultural colony, Georgia saw Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793, and quickly became a major producer. In 1795 a bribery scheme known as the Yazoo Fraud caused uproar among Georgians, who elected a new legislature in response.

The American Civil War Slave labour, the wide availability of land after the removal of the Creek Indians during the late 1830s, and railroad development in the 1840s allowed many of Georgia's farmers to prosper. Georgia was firmly a slave state at the outbreak of the Civil War and seceded on 19 January 1861. Georgia's governor at the time, Joseph E Brown, later became vice-president of the Confederacy. During the Civil War, General W T Sherman's Union troops cut a wide swathe of destruction as they marched across the state, burning Atlanta in November 1863 and capturing Savannah in December 1864. Military rule by federal troops in Georgia during Reconstruction lasted until 1870. Georgia was first readmitted to the Union in 1868 but its refusal to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment caused it to be expelled from the Union until July 1870. After this crisis had passed, Georgia was able to rebuild its economy and once again prospered as a leading agricultural state.

Industrialization Although Georgia's crop production diversified as an outcome of the end of slavery, cotton remained an important source of income for Georgia. Nevertheless its dominance in the economy came to a dramatic end in the early 1920s when a boll weevil plague struck. Many Georgians were forced to leave the state through bankruptcy and in 1929 the Great Depression caused Georgia's agricultural economy to flounder further. Georgia became dependent on federal programmes, and saw increased urbanization in the search for economic recovery throughout the 1930s. After World War II, Atlanta grew rapidly as the financial and transport centre of the southeastern USA. As many Georgians moved from the countryside to the major cities during the 1960s, legislative districts were reapportioned accordingly.

Politics in the 1960s and 1970s The 1960s were a time of great turbulence for Georgia. Racially divided, it took federal court orders and a suit by the US Department of Justice to enforce desegregation. In 1964 Georgians backed Republican presidential candidate Barry M Goldwater, turning away from the Democratic Party for the first time. Racial integration in other areas of public life beyond education was met with hostility and resistance. A major scandal of the civil rights years concerned the election of black civil rights leader Julian Bond, a Democrat, to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965, when the House refused to seat him, on the grounds of his public opposition to the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court of the USA overruled the Georgia House claiming Bond's right to freedom of speech. Georgia supported George C Wallace, leader of the American Independent Party, in the 1968 presidential election, and Republican Richard M Nixon in 1972. Former Georgia governor, Democrat Jimmy Carter, carried the state in 1976 and 1980. Maynard H Jackson, Jr, was elected the first black mayor of Atlanta in 1973.

The 1980s and 1990s The legacy of Georgia's rapid industrialization was the creation of large slum areas after the slump in manufacturing of the 1970s, with associated social problems, including gang activity and drug pushing. Flooding in July 1994 in central and southern Georgia caused 31 deaths and millions of dollars worth of damage. Atlanta underwent an accelerated economic expansion throughout the late 1990s.

Georgia state flag In 2001 the Georgia Senate voted to replace the 1956 state flag, which prominently featured the Confederate battle flag, a symbol regarded by many as epitomizing the hatred and division within the old South. The new flag emphasizes the state seal, with the Confederate emblem appearing on a ribbon alongside four other historic Georgia flags. A campaign has since been launched to restore the old flag.

Famous people sport Ty Cobb (1886-1961), baseball player; Bobby Jones (1902-1971), golfer; Jackie Robinson (1919-1972), baseball player

the arts Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), writer; Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949), writer; Erskine Caldwell (1903-1987), writer; Carson McCullers (1917-1967), writer; Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964), writer; Ray Charles (1930- ), singer; Jasper Johns (1930- ), painter; Gladys Knight (1944- ), singer; Alice Walker (1944- ), writer; Jessye Norman (1945- ), opera singer

society and education James Oglethorpe (1696-1785), English soldier

politics and law Rebecca L Felton (1835-1930), first woman appointed US senator; Jimmy Carter (1924- ), 39th president of the USA; Martin Luther King, Jr (1929-1968), civil-rights leader; Julian Bond (1940- ), civil-rights activist.