Mississippi: general description and a brief history

Mississippi - the state that is the twentieth in a rowbecame a member of the United States. In this indicator, as the population, it is located at 31 positions in the country. The largest local city and at the same time the capital is Jackson. The official name of the region in translation into Russian means "magnolia staff".

Short story

About one thousand years ago on thisThe territory was inhabited by a large number of Indian tribes. Many of them were at a fairly high level of development. The first Europeans who appeared here in 1540 were the members of the Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto. Since 1682, for more than 80 years, the state was under the control of the Bourbon dynasty. In 1763, they were forced out by the British, who did not last long. Sixteen years later, the current state of Mississippi and a few more adjacent regions were captured by the Spaniards. December 10, 1817 he became part of the United States.

Geographical position

The total area of ​​the Mississippi is almost 126thousand square kilometers. The state is located in the southern part of the state on a weakly hilly plain. In the east it borders Alabama, in the north - with Tennessee, in the northwest - with Arkansas, in the southwest - with Louisiana. The southern part is washed by the Gulf of Mexico. Particularly distinguished territory, bordering the largest local river Mississippi and its left tributary, which is called Yazoo. The feature of this area is very fertile soils, in which chernozems predominate. About half of the territory is covered with forests.

Weather

The state of Mississippi is characterized by a humid and hot summer. The only exception can be called unless the north-eastern areas, where the air is fresher. Winter in the whole territory is quite warm. The column of the thermometer in January is at levels in the range of 6 to 10 degrees above zero. As for the precipitation, their number gradually increases in the direction from north to south. On average, they drop about 1,300 millimeters per year. An interesting feature is considered quite frequent tornadoes, from which the southern regions suffer regularly. Each year, from the Gulf of Mexico, on average, there are 27 such hurricanes of varying capacity and duration.

Population

Based on the latest population census,conducted in 2010 by the US government, Mississippi is populated by almost 3 million inhabitants. According to historical information, as of the thirties of the last century, more than half of the people living on its territory were African-Americans. However, about 360 thousand of them for a few decades emigrated to the west and north of the state in search of a better life. However, at present 37% of the local residents are representatives of the Negroid race. In this indicator, Mississippi leads the country. In some cities and districts of the state (in the center and in the southwest), the Negro population generally dominates. Less than 1% of the population is of Asian origin.

Economy

The state of Mississippi is one of the mostagricultural regions of the state. The most grown crops here are soybean, cotton and rice. Fish breeding and poultry farming are well established. The rapid development of industry in the region began in the thirties of the twentieth century. This was facilitated by the rather large reserves of oil and natural gas found at that time. At the same time, the government launched several more manufacturing industries, for example, a number of enterprises operating in the woodworking, food and chemical industries were built. High profit in the treasury brings fishing, established in the Gulf of Mexico, gambling, as well as the space center and several military bases located in the bay of St. Louis. Despite all this, Mississippi is characterized by one of the lowest per capita income levels in the entire state.