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2.1. General Facts:
(Florida and Texas will be done more detailed and are sometimes not considered in this chapter!!!)
11 states (capitals): Arkansas (Little Rock), Alabama (Montgomery), Florida
(Tallahassee), Georgia (Atlanta), Louisiana (Baton Rouge), Mississippi (Jackson), North Carolina (Raleigh), South Carolina (Columbia), Tennessee (Nashville), Texas (Austin); Virginia (Richmond)
largest state: Texas (267 338 square miles, 2nd largest state of USA;
population: 16 986 500)
smallest state: South Carolina (31 055 square miles, population: 3 486 700),
Mississippi (47 689 square miles, population: 2 573 200)
total area: ¡Ö 620 000 square miles
population: black pop.: varies from state to state between 16% (Tn) and 35% (Mi)
Indians: about 110000, most of them in North Carolina (60%)
total population: 710 mill.
highest points: Mount Mitchell (2037m, NC)
Clingmans Dome (2024m, Tn)
lowest point: Gulf of Mexico / Atlantic Ocean (sea level)
largest cities (inhabitants): Atlanta (2,6 mill.), New Orleans (1,32 mill.), Memphis
(935 000), Nashville (800 000)
climate:. The South is dominated by a subtropical climate with an average temperature
of about 22¡ãC during the summer, which means maximum temperatures between 30¡ãC and 40¡ãC. Late spring is the best time for travelling because in August and September the humidity is pretty high. The water temperature varies between 14¡ãC and 29¡ãC.
In winter there can be heavy storms and sometimes temperatures below zero.
2.2. Economy:
In the 18th century agriculture was the main income of the people. They cultivated corn, rice, indigo, tobacco, sugarcane and of course cotton. Huge plantations with a big number of black slaves dominated the area. The cultivation of tobacco was done by Indians.
Nowadays new sorts of agricultural products such as soybeans, peanuts or potatoes are added. Stock farming is common in Texas and Louisiana owns large fishing-grounds as well as North Carolina. Lumber production is widespread in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
main branches of industry: - fabrication of food and semi-luxuries (Coca-Cola in
Atlanta)
- tobacco and textile industry (North Carolina & Virginia)
- natural gas and oil production in Texas and Louisiana
(also most important state in sulfur and salt production)
- tourism chiefly in Alabama, Mississippi, New Orleans,
North and South Carolina (Charleston)
- metal and engineering industry around Birmingham (Al)
- the most important trade centers are Memphis (cotton)
and New Orleans with the second largest port in the world
- Atlanta is the hometown of many company headquarters
and in Nashville the most important record companies are located
The average income of the inhabitants lies between 8857$ in Mississippi, which is the lowest income in the US, and 12158$ in Georgia.
2.3. Culture and Science:
The South has always been very important for music. Many music styles preferred by people all over the world have their origin there. Jazz. Blues, Gospel, Dixieland and Rock¡¯n¡¯Roll are the most famous. It is the native country of stars such as Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong and many more.
But the South can also offer a lot in literature. For instance Mark Twain and Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner are well-known not just in America.
There is a number of really good universities in every state. Chapel Hill was the first national university founded in the U.S. (1795) and creates together with Durham and Raleigh the so called Research Triangle Park, an institution with many research facilities.
Oak Ridge (Tn) is a very important location for the U.S. Army nuclear research since 1942 and the Space & Rockets Center in Huntsville (Tn) plays a big part in building space shuttles.
2.4. Texas:
a) Quick Facts
population: 19 426 500 (ranks 2nd)
area: 267 338 square miles (ranks 2nd)
border states: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma
capital: Austin
largest city: Houston
others: San Antonio, Dallas, Forth Worth
shoreline: 3 359 mi. (ranks 7th)
nickname: Lone Star State
highest point: Guadalupe Peak (8 749 ft.)
counties: 254
governor: George W. Bush
statehood: December 29, 1845
b) History
Possibly by accident, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was first to land on the Texas coast in 1528. His account of his adventures provide the first written report in this area. By 1550 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto had penetrated separate parts of the territory in Spain¡¯s hunt for gold. Only when Spain¡¯s dominion was threatened did they make any effort toward permanent settlement.
Ysleta, the first town, was an outgrowth of a Spanish mission and Indian pueblo relocated in an attempt to quell Indian revolts in New Mexico in 1680. Similarly, when Robert Cavelier de la Salle established Fort St Louis at Lavaca Bay in 1685, Spain promptly dispatched a force to destroy it. Finding the French outpost deserted they proceeded to the Neches River, where they built the first of the east Texas mission and named it San Francisco de los Tejas.
The word tejas came from the name of a confederacy of local Indian tribes. Its generally accepted meaning is ¡°friendly¡±. However, the Tejas did not remain tejas very long. In 1693, the eastern missions were abandoned, having yielded little more than a name for the hot, brushy outback that Spain finally had claimed officially in 1681.
A second French appearance in the early 1700s spurred the establishment of more Spanish missions in the south-central area. Around them grew the towns of Goliad, Nacogdoches and San Antonio. At the beginning of the 19th century these were still the only settlements of any substance in Texas.
In 1821 Mexico, which included Texas, tore free from Spain. Anxious to colonize the territory, the new nation immediately offered generous land grants to anyone who would settle and develop it. That same year Stephen F. Austin led 300 American families to new Texas homes. The Austin settlement was the first of what became a flood: Within 15 years Americans would outnumber Mexican in Texas four to one.
Because it was so preoccupied with the swift and often ruthless succession of governments during this turbulent period, Mexico could not deal with the cultural and political clashes that resulted from the growth of the American population. The government employed forceful measures to control the colonists¡¯ unrest. Consequently, the first overt act of rebellion, the unsuccessful Fredonian War, erupted as early as 1828.
Finally, in 1832 and again in 1833, a group of indignant Texans called a convention. Austin carried their petitions to Mexico, where General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna not only refused to see him but also jailed him for treason. Shortly after Austin¡¯s release in 1835 the Texas Revolution began in earnest.
During the revolt, the Texans won only three major battles: the first at Gonzales, in October 1835, the second, the capture of San Antonio, in December, and the last, at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. Other engagements were often disasters, at least partly because of the division and confusion within the command. Independence itself was not agreed upon until the Mexicans, having retaken San Antonio, were mustering against the holdouts at the Alamo.
This last-minute unification that created the Republic of Texas came too late for the 187 men at the Alamo and for Colonel James Fannin Junior¡¯s hapless force of 350, whom Santa Anna executed at Goliad after their surrender. But these events furnished the battle cry that spearheaded the final rout of the Mexican Army at San Jacinto. The war was over and the Republic of Texas stood alone, shaky but determined, until 1845.
Throughout this period one of the most influential figures was Sam Houston. First commander of the Texas Army, then as president of the republic, he continued to serve Texas as U.S. senator and governor after annexation. But Houston was ardently pro-Unionist while most of his constituents were not.
Texas seceded in 1861, and when Governor Sam Houston refused to pledge allegiance to the Confederacy he was removed from office. He died in 1863, spared the additional agony of witnessing the decay of his beloved state after the war. Much depleted, Texas rejoined the Union in 1870.
Modern Texas in on the crest of a gusher in the Spindletop oilfield near Beaumont in January 1901. Contemporary Texas might be symbolized by the green light of the mission control room at Houston¡¯s Lyndon Baines Johnson Space Center.
c) Geography
Within its borders Texas offers four major geographic zones: the Rocky Mountains, the great Plains, the Central Lowlands and the Gulf Coastal Plains.
The Rocky Mountain province tumbles southward through that westernmost angle of the state known as the Trans-Pecos, presenting some of the country¡¯s most dramatic scenery. While desert vegetation covers the low section, Douglas fir and ponderosa pine flourish on the upper slopes. The highest elevations are in the Guadalupe Mountains on the New Mexican border and the awesome wilderness of the Big Bend of Rio Grande. Both areas are national parks.
The Great Plains spill across the Panhandle and into the south ¨Ccentral part of the state. The northern portion, he Llano Estacado or Staked Plain, is table flat except for an occasional canyon. The rough southern upland is the Edwards Plateau. The Great Plains province ends abruptly at the Balcones Escarpment, which sweeps across the state from south to north.
The Balcones Escarpment probably is the most significant topographical feature at all, for it dictates the climate and affects agriculture and livelihoods. Warm air from the Gulf of Mexico encounters the scarp and releases most of its moisture on the lower eastern 40% of the state, leaving the western portion with little rain.
The Central Lowlands is a 200-mile-wide swath of fertile, rolling land marked by several areas of hills. On the south and east it blends into the Gulf Coastal plain . This last region also has two parts. The wooded strip that borders the Sabine River supports some 26 million acres of pine, oak and cypress forests.
In the southern part of the woodlands lies one of the rarest natural preserves of native plant and animal life in the country: the nearly impenetrable Big Thicket. The other part is the heavily populated and industrialized coast, guarded by a string of barrier beaches that include 110-mile-long Padre Island, 83 miles of which is a national seashore.
d) Economy
Perhaps the oil derrick comes to mind as the most obvious symbol of the Texas economy, but test tubes, microchips and rockets might be more appropriate. The Texas economy has diversified since the impetuous days of the oil boom. Plummeting oil prices in the 1980s brought an end to a decade of phenomenal growth and resulted in an awareness of the necessity of diversification to insure economic stability.
Service-oriented sectors such as trade, transportation, public utilities and finance have helped to diversify Texas¡¯ economy. Internationalization of the economy has occurred through direct investment, exportation and the establishment of twin plants, along tthe Texas-Mexico border.
High-technology industries such as computers, semiconductors and instruments are major contributors to Texas wealth. The large Texas Medical Center in Houston has acted as a magnet to biotechnology firms, as has San Antonio¡¯s Texas Research Park, site of the University of Texas Institute of Biotechnology.
Cotton, cattle and oil ¡ª natural resources that built Texas¡¯ fortunes ¡ª are still important to the state, but high-tech, service industries and also tourism are the building blocks of its future.
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