Georgia was founded in the 1732 by a group led by the British philanthropist James Oglethorpe and named for King George II. Atlanta is the capital and the largest city and the population around 9,540,000. It is bordered by the Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama; the Atlantic Ocean lies to the southeast.



In the United States the Georgia was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. It was the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. It was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution on January 2, 1788. Georgia played a pivotal role in shaping the South and the nation. Its history is one of stark contrasts, both painful and inspirational, filled with hatred and high idealism, poverty and prosperity. Between the 1810 and 1860, three powerful trends shaped Georgia, the removal of Creeks and Cherokees, the expansion of cotton plantations and slavery and the rise of sectional tensions between North and South. In 1810 Indian territory still encompassed two-thirds of Georgian lands, plantation slavery was limited largely to the coast, and the southern states had no collective identity as Dixie. By 1814, completely new Georgia moved toward civil war.

World War II a major turning point in Georgia's history. It brought massive federal investment in the defense plants and military camps. Black outmigration soared as defense plants outside Dixie recruited workers, while rural whites moved to booming shipyards. Progressive governor Ellis Arnall eliminated the poll tax and boosted the higher education. Largest city Atlanta is located in the north-central Georgia, atop a ridge southeast of the Chattahoochee River. Largest cities in Georgia are Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Albany, Dalton, Warner Robins, Valdosta, Brunswick, Rome, Hinesville, LaGrange, Statesboro, Dublin, Milledgeville, Waycross, and Calhoun. In the Georgia are 15 Fortune 500 companies and 26 Fortune 1000 companies with headquarters in Georgia, including such names as Home Depot, UPS, Coca Cola, Delta Air Lines, AFLAC, Southern Company, and SunTrust Banks.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is the most widely recognized orchestra and largest arts organization in the southeastern United States. Most popular and famous novel has probably been Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, also the basis of a wildly successful movie. State song "Georgia On My Mind" by Hoagy Carmichael, was originally written about a woman of that name, but after Georgia native Ray Charles sang it, the state legislature voted it the state song on 24 April 1979.