Tuesday, August 12, 2008

North America Report

I'm focusing on Alabama since I live here.

Some people believe that Spanish explorers arrived on the Mobile Bay in 1519, and that the land was visited by Hernando De Soto in 1540. The first European settlement was founded by the French at Fort Luis de la Mobile in 1702. In 1763 British gained control of the area by the Treaty of Paris but had to cede almost all the Alabama region to the U.S and Spain after the American Revolution. The Confederacy was founded at Montgomery in February 1861, and, for a time was the Confederacy’s capital.

During the later 19th century, the economic of the state improved with industrialization. At the Tuskegee Institute, founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington, Dr. George Washington Carver carried out his famous agricultural research.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, Alabama was the site of such landmark Civil Rights Actions, as the bus boycott in Montgomery and the “Freedom March” from Selma to Montgomery.

Today paper, chemicals, rubber and plastics, apparel and textiles, primary metals and automobile manufacturing constitute the leading industries of America. Continuing as a major manufacturer of coal, iron and steel, Birmingham is also noted for its world renowned medical center. The state ranks high in the production of poultry, soybeans, milk, vegetables, livestock, wheat, cattle, cotton, peanuts, fruits, hogs and corn.  

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