State of Alabama posted by special event
Special event wants to guide the peoples. Alabama is located south of Tennessee, between the more eastern Georgia and the more western Mississippi. The eastern part of southern Alabama is bordered by Florida, and a small western section of the southern border is washed by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The territory of Alabama is 131,334 square kilometers; in its jurisdiction is part of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The state owes its name to the Alabama River, which in translation from the language of the Choctaw Indians, the indigenous inhabitants of these places, means "a gatherer of plants." Obviously, this was the name of one of the Indian tribes.
The population of the state is over 4.3 million people, with more than a quarter of Alabamans being black Americans, making Alabama one of the "blackest" states in the United States. Roughly 60 percent of the population lives in cities. The state capital is Montgomery with a population of about 190 thousand people. In 1861, this city became the temporary capital of the Confederation of the South, for which the city and the entire state are sometimes referred to as the "cradle of the Confederation." In terms of population, Montgomery is ahead of the largest city in the state of Birmingham (300 thousand inhabitants), the same industrial city-worker as its senior namesake in Great Britain, and Mobile (197 thousand inhabitants), the main port of Alabama.
The terrain in Alabama is gradually decreasing from north to south. In the north of the state, the southern spurs of the Appalachian Mountains rise, but most of the state lies in the Mexican lowlands. Some of the central regions resemble hilly prairies, and the Mobile Delta, which flows into the bay, is home to some of the state's most fertile lands, which are part of the black belt along the Gulf of Mexico.
The state is located in the subtropical zone, which determines its climatic conditions: the winter is short, free from frost, but with heavy rains, and the summer is long and very warm. Due to the softening effect of the Atlantic Ocean, sweltering heat is rare here.
The state is called "the heart of Dixie", investing in this concept an idea of the traditions of the slave South, which were fully manifested in the life of Alabama. The state owes this nickname to a song born among black slaves, which was so loved by the soldiers of the Confederation and which was their battle anthem. According to one version, Dixie was a kind and fair owner of one of the Alabama plantations, who did not offend his slaves. Slaves and planters have long been history, but some Alabama towns still retain their former southern charm, combining ease, elegant dignity and hospitality in their atmosphere.
The traditional crop grown in Alabama is cotton - from the early 19th to the early 20th centuries, it was he who determined the well-being of its inhabitants. Nowadays, peanut and corn plantations also bring significant income, but many previously cultivated lands were abandoned, overgrown with grass and began to be used as pastures for livestock. This did not happen because of the negligence of local residents. At the beginning of the 20th century, hordes of weevils attacked the cotton fields of Alabama, and those of the farmers who did not go broke were forced to switch to livestock and poultry farming. And yet, some former agricultural land swallowed up forests: nature took its toll, because earlier almost all of Alabama was covered with pine forests, which were cut down for plantations. The massive felling gave impetus to the development of the oldest industry in the state - woodworking. Woodworking, and paper production currently plays an important role in the state's economy, but now no one will mindlessly cut down overgrown forests. It turned out that commercial wood can be obtained on artificial plantations, where they grow mainly fast-growing southern pine. New trees are planted at the site of the felling.
Alabama's industry began to develop fully only in the second half of the 20th century. There are deposits of iron ore and coal on the territory of the state, which made it possible to develop the production of iron and steel. However, in the 1970s, iron ore mining in the state ceased, and the operating metallurgical plants began to bring it from other places. Iron and steel production has secured Alabama a leading position among the states of the American South. Alabama's coal mines are the deepest in the United States. The state ranks first in the United States for the extraction of bauxite. The production of oil and gas from fields located in the southern part of the state, which began in the 1990s, also plays an important role. In Alabama, there are also food and light industry enterprises operating mainly on local raw materials. The state is famous for the production of cotton yarn and cotton fabrics, as well as products from them and products of tanneries. At the same time, they produce rolled aluminum and copper, computers and all kinds of peripheral devices for them, space and aviation equipment, car tires.
The first Europeans to set foot
on the land of Alabama in the early 16th century were members of the Spanish
expedition Penile de Narvaez, who surveyed the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. In
1539, the bloody De Soto passed here, inciting hatred of the indigenous
population. Because of his senseless cruelty, the Spaniards never managed to
establish settlements in Alabama. But the Indians borrowed horses and cattle
from the failed colonists. The real colonization of Alabama began with the
arrival of the French in Louisiana, but the first French fort, Fort Louis, appeared
in Alabama only in 1702. Seventeen years later, the first African slaves were
brought to these lands, which were forced to clear forests for plantations and
cultivate cotton on them. In 1763, Alabama passed to Britain, then for two
decades, from 1783 to 1813, Spain again owned it, after which it went to the
United States. Alabama received the status of the state in 1819, but during the
conflict between the North and South it was among the eleven apostate states
that formed the Confederation of the Southern States, but returned to the
United States in 1868, retaining its historical serial number 22nd state. For
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