The history of Georgia involved a number of different settling groups until the time of the American Revolution, and while Georgia was then a part of the newly-created United States, that would cease for a time with the coming of the Civil War. Georgia from the first involved a clash between different cultures, first between the Native Americans and the Spanish, then between the Spanish and the English, with periods of conflict with the French as well. As Georgia developed as an entity, the people of Georgia kept largely to themselves, having little to do with the beginning of the American Revolution, though they fought in it and suffered for it as much as the other colonies. Conflict between groups continued, however, including conflict between Georgia and the United States itself.
Georgia was the last of the thirteen British colonies established along the Atlantic seaboard. The state was founded by James Edward Oglethorpe with 114 original settlers on February 12, 1733, at the present site of the city of Savannah. Oglethorpe and a group of twenty friends had been granted a charter by King George II to establish a colony named after the king, and hence, the region was named Georgia ("History of the Georgia State Capitol").
Georgia had a long history before the coming of Oglethorpe, first with Native American tribes, then with a period in which Spanish missionaries and English traders also inhabited the area. The last pre historic cultural development in North America was the Mississippian Culture, which thrived from about 800 AD until the arrival of the European explorers. The Mississippian people were accomplished craftsmen and practiced sophisticated religious rituals. Chief Priests governed fortified towns, and the leaders lived in temples atop large earthen mounds overlooking a central ceremonial plaza. Population centers were found in river basins because the culture was sustained by the cultivation of crops. The ...