Hernando de Soto, the Spanish
explorer, first traveled parts of Georgia in 1540.
British claims later conflicted with those of Spain.
After obtaining a royal charter, Gen. James
Oglethorpe established the first permanent
settlement in Georgia in 1733 as a refuge for
English debtors. In 1742, Oglethorpe defeated
Spanish invaders in the Battle of Bloody Marsh.
A Confederate stronghold, Georgia was the scene of
extensive military action during the Civil War.
Union general William T. Sherman burned Atlanta and
destroyed a 60-mile-wide path to the coast, where he
captured Savannah in 1864.
The largest state in the southeast, Georgia is
typical of the changing South with an
ever-increasing industrial development. Atlanta,
largest city in the state, is the communications and
transportation center for the Southeast and the
area's chief distributor of goods.
Georgia leads the nation in the production of paper
and board, tufted textile products, and processed
chicken. Other major manufactured products are
transportation equipment, food products, apparel,
and chemicals.
Important agricultural products are corn, cotton,
tobacco, soybeans, eggs, and peaches. Georgia
produces twice as many peanuts as the next leading
state. From its vast stands of pine come more than
half of the world's resins and turpentine and 74.4
percent of the U.S. supply. Georgia is a leader in
the production of marble, kaolin, barite, and
bauxite.
Principal tourist attractions in Georgia include the
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Andersonville
Prison Park and National Cemetery, Chickamauga and
Chattanooga National Military Park, the Little White
House at Warm Springs where Pres. Franklin D.
Roosevelt died in 1945, Sea Island, the enormous
Confederate Memorial at Stone Mountain, Kennesaw
Mountain National Battlefield Park, and Cumberland
Island National Seashore |
