填空题
Which state(s) ...
· witnessed the earliest European settlement? 71. ______
· experienced the most frequent change of hands among European powers? 72. ______
· turned vast tracts of land into military uses? 73. ______
· was meant as a settlement site for criminals and the poor? 74. ______
· grew cotton in the 18th century? 75. ______76. ______
· has developed in most diversified industries? 77. ______
· experienced a change in its agricultural patterns after its main crop was attacked by pests? 78. ______
· profited from its natural resources? 79. ______
· has immigrants from Latin America? 80. ______

Alabama In the 16th century the main powers were the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Cherokees. The first European explorers were Spanish, including Hernando de Soto in 1540, but the first permanent European settlement was French, as part of French Louisiana after 1699. During the 17th and 18th centuries the British, Spanish and French all fought for control of the territory; it passed to Britain in 1763 and thence to the US in 1783, except for a Spanish enclave on Mobile Bay, which lasted until 1818, Alabama was organized as a Territory in 1817 and was admitted into the Union as a state on 14 Dec. 1819. The economy was then based on cotton, grown in white-owned plantations by black slave labor imported since 1719. Alabama broke away from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War (1861) and joined the Confederate States of America; its capital Montgomery became the confederate capital. After the defeat of the Confederacy the state was readmitted to the Union in 1878. During the reconstruction period, Birmingham began to develop as an important center of iron- and steel-making. Most of the state was still rural. In 1915 a pest epidemic attacked the cotton and forced diversification into other farm produce. More industries developed from the power schemes of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s.

B

Alaska In the 18th century there were a number of Indian, Eskimo and Aleut tribes. Russian fur-traders made the first European contact after Russian expeditions, and discovered the Alaskan coast in 1741. After 1799 the territory was administered by the Russian-American Company and was known as Russian America, its capital after 1806 being at Sitka. The company's charter was due to expire in 1861 and the US began negotiations to buy Alaska in 1859 until dealings were interrupted by the Civil War. The territory was administered by a Russian governor until 1867 when the purchase was completed on 30 March. American settlement was stimulated by gold-rushes during the 1880s. In 1884 the territory was organized as a district governed by the laws of the neighboring state of Oregon. On 24 Aug. 1912 the district became an incorporated territory. The first legislature sat in 1918 at Juneau, which had become the capital in 1906. During the Second World War the Federal Government acquired large areas for defense purposes and for the construction of the strategic Alaska Highway. In the 1950s oil was found. Alaska became the 49th state of the Union on 3 Jan. 1959. In the 1970s new oilfields were discovered and the Trans-Alaska pipeline was opened in 1977. The state obtained most of its income from petroleum by 1985. Questions of land-use predominate; there are large areas with valuable mineral resources, other large areas held for the native people and some still held by the Federal Government. The population increased by over 400G between 1940 and 1980.

C

Florida There were French and Spanish settlements in Florida in the 16th century, of which the Spanish, at St Augustine in 1565, proved permanent. Florida was claimed by Spain until 1763 when it passed to Britain. Although regained by Spain in 1783, the British used it as a base for attacks on American forces during the war of 1812. Gen. Andrew Jackson in 1818 captured Pensacola for the US. In 1819 a treaty was signed which ceded Florida to the US with effect from 1821 and it became a territory of the US in 1822. Florida became a state in 1845. About half of the population were black slaves. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 the state left the Union. During the 20th century Florida continued to grow fruit and vegetables, but real-estate development (often for retirement) and the growth of tourism and the aerospace industry have prevented it from remaining a typical ex-plantation state. There has been some recent immigration from Caribbean States, notably Cuba and Haiti.

Georgia Originally the territory of Creek and Cherokee tribes, Georgia was first settled by Europeans in the 18th century. James Oglethorpe founded Savannah in 1733, intending it as a colony which offered a new start to debtors, convicts and the poor. Settlement was slow until 1783, when growth began in the cotton-growing areas west of Augusta. The Indian population was cleared off the rich cotton land and moved beyond the Mississippi. Georgia became one of the original 13 States of the Union. A plantation economy developed rapidly, using slave labor. In 1861 Georgia broke away from the Union and became an important source of supplies for the Confederate cause, although some northern areas never accepted secession and continued in sympathy with the Union during the Civil War. At the beginning of the war 56% of the population were white, the remaining 44% were black slaves. By 1980 the state was still about 40% black. The city of Atlanta, which grew as a railway junction, was destroyed during the war but revived to become the center of southern state during the reconstruction period. Also in Atlanta were developed successive movements for black freedom in social, economic and political life. Atlanta was confirmed as state capital in 1877.