|
Advertising info:
China Visa
China Visa Application
China Tour Packages
China Airfare, Air Ticket
China Great Wall
Travel To China
China Tour
Chinese Visa Application
Mopeds, Moped
|
|
|
|
Alabama, the twenty-second State admitted into the Federal Union of America. It lies north
of the Gulf of Mexico, and is known as one of the Gulf, or South Central, States.
It is bounded north by Tennessee, east by Georgia, south by the Gulf and by
Florida, and west by Mississippi. It lies between the parallels of 30°15' and 35°
north latitude, and the meridians of 84°56' and 88°48' west of Greenwich. From
north to south it is 336 miles; and east to west, from 148 to 200 miles. It has an
area of 52,250 square miles, of which 710 is water surface and 51,540 land
surface. Its area in acres is 33,440,000. It has about 2,000 miles of navigable
rivers, and Mobile is its only seaport. The State may be roughly divided into the
Tennessee Valley on the north, highly productive of corn, cotton, cereals, and
fruits; the mineral region; the cotton belt; the timber and the coast regions. The
vegetation in the north belongs to the temperate zone, while in the south it is
semi-tropical. Fine hardwood, as well as ordinary timber, are to be found well
distributed over the entire State. The climate of the State is equable, and the
extremes of heat and cold are rarely experienced. Animals and birds, usual in
the West and Southwest, are to be found. The streams abound in fish of almost
every Variety. The principal crop is cotton, the yield in 1905 being 1,249,685
bales, giving the State the third position in cotton production. Corn, wheat, oats,
hay, and all other farm and garden products are profitably grown in considerable
quantities. Alabama has, in the last quarter of a century, taken very high rank as
a mineral State. The following are the statistics for 1905: iron ore, 3,782,831
tons; coal, 11,900,153 tons; coke, 2,756,698 tons; pig iron, 1,604,062 tons. In
addition to the items just named, clay, bauxite, cement, graphite, marble,
sulphur, and pyrites, silver and gold are mined in paying quantities. The growth of
the mineral interests has quickened the laying out of cities, the multiplication of
railroad lines, and the development of manufactures. In 1905 there were in the
State 1,882 manufacturing establishments with a capital of $105,382,859,
employing 3,763 officials, and 62,173 wage earners, and turning out a product
valued at $109,169,922. The eleven leading industries in 1905 were: car
construction, 16 plants; coke, 24; cotton goods, 46; fertilizers, 19; foundry and
machine shops, 78; blast furnaces, steel works, and rolling mills, 29; lumber and
timber products, 590; lumber-planing-mill products, 67; oil, cotton, and coke, 58;
printing and publishing, 241; and turpentine and rosin, 144. The following are the
statistics of railroad mileage, 1905: 4,227.70 miles of main track; 1,317.36 miles
of side track; total value of main line, side track, and rolling stock,
$53,706,025.93. The public debt of the State is $9,057,000. The State tax rate
cannot exceed sixty-five cents per annum on the hundred dollars.
HISTORY
The territory now included in the State was for hundreds of years the home in
part of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indian tribes. It is not
possible to place any approximate limit to their occupation, and their early
history is involved in obscurity. Certain it is that the aboriginal inhabitants, first
encountered by European explorers in this region, were the direct ancestors of
the tribes named. In the early years of the sixteenth century daring sailors
doubtless touched the shores of Mobile Bay; and survivors of the ill-fated Narvaez
expedition are believed to have passed across the lower part of the State. In 1540
De Soto traversed the State, entering near Rome, Ca., and passing out not far
from Columbus, Miss. On the 18 of October of that year he fought the great
battle of Mauvila, the most sanguinary of Indian conflicts on the American
Continent. He made no settlements, and his expedition was of no value further
than for the record left by his chroniclers concerning the Southern Indians. In
1560 a Spanish colony was located at Nanipacna, believed to be in the present
Wilcox county, Ala., but it was short-lived and no details are preserved. A
century and a half pass, and a dark veil of obscurity covers the land. In 1697, or
1698, three Englishmen, coming overland from the Carolinas, descended the
Alabama River to the village of the Mobilians on the Mobile River. La Salle had in
the meantime (1682) taken formal possession of the Mississippi, and named the
country Louisiana. Entering the Gulf of Mexico in 1699, Iberville explored the
southern coast of what is now the United States, and made temporary
settlement at Old Biloxi, near the present Ocean Springs, Miss. In January,
1702, he transferred his colony to 27-Mile Bluff, Mobile River, in the limits of what
is now Alabama, and gave it the name of Fort Louis. This was the first attempt at
a permanent settlement on the Gulf Coast, and was the site of Old Mobile. It is
an interesting fact that in 1707 a number of the colonists went down to Dauphin
Island, where they settled and planted small crops, thus becoming the first
farmers in this territory. In 1711, the site of Fort Louis proving unsatisfactory, the
whole colony Was removed to the present Mobile, and this town was, until 1720,
the residence of the governors and the capital of the Province of Louisiana. In
1714, Fort Toulouse, at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, was
planted as a remote outpost for Indian trade and as a buffer to the English
advance from the South Atlantic settlements; in 1721 the first African slaves were
landed at Mobile; in 1736, Fort Tombeckbé was built on the Tombigbee River in
the heart of the Choctaw country, to keep that tribe under French control; on 18
February, 1763, France ceded all her possessions east of the Mississippi,
excepting the Island of Orleans, to Great Britain; by treaty of 30 November, 1782,
marking the close of the contest of the colonies with the mother country, Great
Britain ceded to them all her claims north of latitude 31 ; and on 27 October,
1795, Spain relinquished to the United States her claims to West Florida, south
of line 31 . Mississippi Territory was created by Act of Congress, 7 April, 1798,
and under this and subsequent Acts of enlargement the present States of
Alabama and Mississippi constituted one Territory until 1817. The Creek Indian
War of 1813 and 1814, fought largely in Alabama, and which started General
Andrew Jackson on his long public career, temporarily retarded the growth of the
Territory. On 1 March, 1817, Alabama Territory was formed, and after the
adoption of a constitution under an Enabling Act of 2 March, 1819, the State
was, 14 December, formally admitted into the Federal Union. St. Stephens was
the seat of government for the Territory. Cahaba was selected as the capital in
1818; Tuscaloosa, 1826; and Montgomery, 1846. In 1825 General Lafayette, on
his last tour through the United States, visited several towns in Alabama. In the
thirties the State University was opened, the terms of the judges were fixed for
six years, the first railroad track west of the Alleghany Mountains was laid from
Tuscumbia in the direction of Decatur, the Indians were removed to the West, a
financial panic fell heavily upon the people, a State penitentiary was provided by
law, and imprisonment for debt, except in cases of fraud, was abolished. To the
struggles of the heroic Texans Alabama contributed a number of brave sons; and
to the Mexican War she gave 3,026 volunteers.
Under the leadership of William Lowndes Yancey, Alabama had early taken a
most advanced position in opposition to the Abolition sentiment and agitation of
the North, and in 1860 the Legislature provided for a convention, in case of the
election of Lincoln, to do whatever in the opinion of said convention, the rights,
interests and honor of the State of Alabama require to be done for their protection
. The convention met 7 January, 1861, and on 11 January passed an Ordinance
of Secession by a vote of 61 to 39. After its passage the members of Congress
from Alabama withdrew in a body. On 4 February, 1861, in the Senate Chamber
of the State capitol at Montgomery, the delegates from six seceding States,
including Alabama, met and formed the Provisional Government of the
Confederate States of America. On 15 April, 1861, Abraham Lincoln, President of
the United States, issued a formal proclamation of war, and at once the brave
and patriotic people of the State rallied to her defense. The Tennessee Valley
was the theater of numberless raids, and the people suffered many indignities at
the hands of the Federals. The forts below Mobile, although strongly defended,
were taken in 1864, and the town was taken 1865. The University buildings were
wantonly burned in 1865, by an invading force under General Croxton. Selma and
Montgomery were taken in 1865. Alabama contributed to the war from 1861 to
1865 more than 100,000 men, out of a total white population, in 1860, of 526,271.
There was no important battle east of the Mississippi River in which her troops
did not perform an honorable part. Among the general officers credited to
Alabama were Longstreet, Gordon, Withers, Forney, Rodes, Clayton, Allen,
Pettus, Morgan, Gracie, Battle, Sanders, Kelly, and Gorgas. Admiral Semmes
and the gallant John Pelham were on the Confederate rolls as from Alabama. On
21 June, 1865, by the appointment of Lewis E. Parsons as Provisional Governor,
civil government was in a measure set in motion, but it was almost ten years
before the people of the State finally entered upon a normal and healthy growth.
The period from 1865 to 1874, known as the Reconstruction Era, was one
continuous series of sickening experiences in social, business, and political life,
and as a legacy a debt of many millions was fixed upon the people.
Constitutional conventions have been held in 1819, 1861, 1865, 1867, 1875, and
1901.
History
View Table Important dates in Alabama
Indian days. Cliff-dwelling Indians lived in the Alabama region 8,000 years ago. Excavations in Russell Cave, in northeastern Jackson County, have revealed details of their lives. Later the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians lived in the region. Whites called these groups the Civilized Tribes because they adopted many European customs. See Five Civilized Tribes.
Exploration and settlement. Alonso Alvarez de Pineda, a Spanish explorer, sailed into Mobile Bay in 1519. In 1528, an expedition led by Panfilo de Narvaez passed through Alabama coastal waters. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the first European to cross North America, was a member of this expedition. Hernando de Soto, another Spaniard, led an expedition into the Alabama region from the northeast in 1540. He became the first white person to explore the interior. De Soto (also called Soto) and the Indians fought a bloody battle at Mabila, north of present-day Mobile. De Soto's forces defeated Chief Tuscaloosa and his warriors.
In 1559, Tristan de Luna, a Spanish adventurer from Mexico, searched for gold in the Alabama region. He organized small settlements on Mobile Bay and at the present site of Claiborne. In 1561, he was removed from his command and was forced to return to Mexico.
The first permanent group of white settlers in the Alabama region were French. In 1699, two French-Canadian brothers, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, sailed to Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay. In 1702, they founded Fort Louis nearby along the Mobile River. Fort Louis became the capital of the French colony known as Louisiana. In 1711, river floods forced the French to move 27 miles (43 kilometers) south to the present site of Mobile. This settlement, also called Fort Louis, became the first permanent white settlement in Alabama. It was renamed Fort Conde in 1720. The settlement was the capital of French Louisiana until 1722, when New Orleans became the capital.
In 1763, the French gave most of their colony of Louisiana to the United Kingdom in the Treaty of Paris. This treaty ended the French and Indian War. The Mobile area became part of West Florida, under British control. Northern Alabama was included in the Illinois country, a region in what is now the central United States.
In 1779, Spain declared war on the United Kingdom. In 1780, Bernardo de Galvez captured Mobile from the British. In the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783, the United Kingdom gave the Mobile region to Spain.
Territorial days. In 1795, Thomas Pinckney, a U.S. statesman, negotiated the Treaty of San Lorenzo. This treaty, also called the Pinckney Treaty, fixed the southern boundary of the United States along the 31st parallel of north latitude. All of present-day Alabama except the Mobile area lay north of the line and became part of the United States. In 1798, the Alabama region, except the Mobile area, became part of the Mississippi Territory organized by the U.S. Congress.
During the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom, the United States seized the Mobile area from Spain. On April 15, 1813, the Stars and Stripes flew over the entire Alabama region for the first time. Also in 1813, the Creek Indians massacred several hundred pioneers at Fort Mims near Tensaw. In 1814, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The Creek then surrendered their land to the United States. William Weatherford, a Creek chief also known as Red Eagle, led the tribe in its bitter fight against Jackson's troops.
In 1817, the Alabama Territory was organized. St. Stephens, on the Tombigbee River, was the capital.
Early statehood. A constitutional convention met in Huntsville in 1819 and drew up the territory's first Constitution. On Dec. 14, 1819, Alabama entered the Union as the 22nd state. Huntsville served as the capital of Alabama for a little more than a year. William Wyatt Bibb, who had been governor of the Alabama Territory, became the new state's first governor. Cahaba became the capital in 1820. In 1825, floods from the Alabama River caused great damage to Cahaba. Because of the floods, the capital was moved to Tuscaloosa in 1826.
In 1838, federal troops marched into the remaining Indian territory of Alabama, in the northeast section of the state. They demanded that all the Indians move to the West. By 1840, all but a few scattered tribes had moved west beyond the Mississippi River.
Alabama suffered severe financial troubles during the 1840's and 1850's. The state bank, created during the 1820's, was poorly managed. The bank issued too much money and, as a result, the money decreased in value. The bank also loaned large amounts of money for political reasons. In 1837, a financial panic and depression swept across the United States. The Alabama state bank could not afford to pay back the money it owed to its depositors. For this reason, Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick began to liquidate (close) the bank during the early 1840's. Many Alabamians lost all their savings. The state also suffered from a drought that ruined crops, and from several epidemics of yellow fever.
During the 1840's, many people in the North wanted the federal government to outlaw slavery in the nation's Western territories. In 1848, a Democratic state convention in Alabama adopted the "Alabama Platform" supported by William L. Yancey, a prominent statesman. This platform declared that the federal government did not have the right to bar slaves from the territories.
The Civil War and Reconstruction. Disagreements over slavery continued during the 1850's. Economic rivalries between the agricultural South and the industrial North and disagreements about the rights of states also created conflicts (see States' rights on World Book Online). These conflicts deepened after Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. Alabama seceded (withdrew) from the Union on Jan. 11, 1861, and declared itself the Republic of Alabama. The Alabama secession convention invited other Southern States to send delegates to Montgomery. On February 8, the convention established the Confederate States of America, with Montgomery as its capital. For this reason, Montgomery is known as the Cradle of the Confederacy. The capital of the Confederate States was moved to Richmond, Virginia, in May 1861.
The most important Civil War action in the state was the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, won by Union forces under Rear Admiral David G. Farragut (see Farragut, David G. on World Book Online). Union forces also made several raids into Alabama during the war. In 1863, Confederate forces led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest captured a much larger group of Union raiders at Cedar Bluffs. In 1865, Union General James H. Wilson led the largest raid into Alabama and won victories at Selma and Montgomery.
Most of Alabama escaped the ruin that spread across the South during the Civil War. However, Florence, Huntsville, Montgomery, Selma, and other cities in the northern and central parts of the state suffered destruction and looting.
Alabama faced mounting financial problems during the Reconstruction period that followed the war. The state debt increased from $8 million to more than $32 million from 1866 to 1873. The state government came under the control of former Northerners called carpetbaggers and Southerners called scalawags. On June 25, 1868, Alabama was readmitted to the Union. In 1874, conservative Democrats succeeded in electing most state officials. The state government was reformed, and a new constitution was adopted in 1875.
State prosperity followed the Reconstruction period. During the 1870's, several railroads were completed. Also during the 1870's, Alabamians proved they could make iron by burning iron ore with coke, rather than with charcoal. This was important because north-central Alabama had large deposits of coal, from which coke is made. The same region also had vast supplies of iron ore and limestone, the two other minerals needed to make iron and steel. In 1880, Alabama's first blast furnace, Alice No. 1, began operating in Birmingham. Within a few years, Birmingham became a great iron and steel center. Important iron and steel works were also built in Anniston, Bessemer, Decatur, Russellville, and Talladega. By 1890, iron and steel making had become Alabama's most important manufacturing industry. The lumber industry and the textile industry also grew rapidly in the late 1800's.
World War I and the Great Depression. Alabama's industry and commerce grew after the United States entered World War I in 1917. Shipbuilding became an important industry in Mobile. Alabama farmers increased production of cotton and food to meet the demands of the war effort. In the mid-1920's, the Alabama State Docks agency built new port facilities at Mobile. Alabama's trade with other countries increased greatly as a result. In 1929, the Alabama-Tombigbee river system flooded large areas in southern Alabama, causing about $6 million damage.
Many Alabamians suffered financial setbacks during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Between 1929 and 1931, more than 60 Alabama banks failed, with a loss of more than $16 million. During the early 1930's, Alabama passed a state income tax law and the Budget Control Act to help save the state from bankruptcy.
In 1933, the federal government created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA was given the responsibility of building flood-control and electric-power projects on the Tennessee River. The TVA took over Wilson Dam and two nitrate plants at Muscle Shoals. The dam and plants had been built by the government during World War I and the 1920's. The TVA later built Wheeler and Guntersville dams on the Tennessee River. The Alabama Power Company, a private firm, also built dams and hydroelectric plants during the 1930's. These plants provided inexpensive power for Alabama factories, and so boosted the state's industrial growth.
The mid-1900's. During World War II (1939-1945), Alabama's agricultural and industrial production expanded greatly. The government established the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville in 1941. The arsenal developed the rockets, satellites, and spacecraft that launched the United States into the space age.
After the war, Alabama became an important producer of chemicals, minerals, rubber products, and textiles. Alabama's industrial growth slowed down during the 1950's, and many Alabamians left the state to find jobs in the North and West. Iron ore production in Alabama dropped sharply during the 1950's. By the early 1960's, most of Alabama's iron ore mines had closed.
During the 1950's and 1960's, Alabama farmers became less dependent on cotton. Farm income came increasingly from broiler chickens, cattle, hogs, peanuts, and soybeans. As agricultural methods and products changed, fewer farmworkers were needed. Many moved to the cities, and Alabama became mainly an urban state.
Like many other states, Alabama faced serious racial problems in the 1950's and 1960's. In 1955 and 1956, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., directed the Montgomery bus boycott. Many blacks refused to ride in public buses in Montgomery because the law required them to sit in the rear. In 1956, a federal court ordered Montgomery to desegregate its buses.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled that compulsory segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. But in 1963, Governor George C. Wallace personally tried to halt the integration of Alabama's public schools. In June, he stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and refused to admit two blacks. President John F. Kennedy called the National Guard to active duty, and the troops enforced the law. In September, Wallace tried to prevent the integration of public elementary and secondary schools in several cities. President Kennedy again called in the National Guard, and the black students were admitted. Since 1963, Alabama has gradually integrated most of its public schools. In March 1965, King led a five-day march from Selma to Montgomery to protest discrimination in voter registration. In August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which made thousands of Alabama blacks eligible to vote.
Republicans gained increasing success in Alabama, a traditionally Democratic state. In 1964, Barry M. Goldwater became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Alabama since 1872.
In 1960, the government established the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville. The Saturn 5 rocket system, which powered the first missions that landed astronauts on the moon, was developed at Huntsville during the 1960's.
Recent developments. Alabama, like other states, faced financial problems in the 1980's and early 1990's. The state government sought ways to provide sufficient funds for such services as state-supported nursing homes and public education. In 1980, the state legislature increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to increase funds for government services.
The rising costs of petroleum and natural gas have led to increased use of coal. This action has spurred further development of Alabama's coal deposits.
Industry continues to grow in the state, and the population has been rising steadily. African Americans are playing an increasingly important role in local and state politics. Republicans have also been gaining strength in local and state governments. In 1986, Guy Hunt became the first Republican to be elected governor of Alabama since Reconstruction. But he was removed from office in 1993, following his conviction for felony ethics violations. He was sentenced to pay fines and to perform 1,000 hours of community service. In 1998, Hunt was pardoned by a state parole board.
-->
 Angel Island, San Francisco, Chinese Immigration History - aiisf.org 09:12:47 01/20/03 (71)
Hartford's Chinese Community - Stephen Brown 13:02:07 12/24/02 (57)
El Paso's Chinatown - part II - Carry Beverly 11:27:52 12/24/02 (54)
El Paso's Chinatown - Carry Beverly 11:26:11 12/24/02 (53)
Chinatown Yellowpage - Add To
HOME
|
|
Terms You Are Always Confused With
China Travel [Introducing China]
[Chinese Cuisine Guide]
[Chinese Shopping Guide]
[Chinese Festival Guide]
[Ancient China]
[Beijing]
[Shanghai (2)]
[The Great Wall of China]
[Provices Map & Guide]
[Provices Guide 2 ] new
[Books On China]
[China Columns]
[Doing Business in China]
[Laws and Regulations]
[China Market]
[China Map]
Stalwart Web Design - (713)822-0925
China Travel China Tours China Vacations
China Visa, Chinese Visa
Moped Motor Scooter
More ...
your sponsorship ...
|
