I
State (pop., 2000: 8,186,453), southeastern U.S. It is bordered by Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama; the Atlantic Ocean lies to the southeast.
The last of the original 13 English colonies, Georgia covers 58,930 sq mi (152,629 sq km) and is the largest state east of the Mississippi River; its capital is Atlanta . The area was inhabited by the Creek and Cherokee Indians when Spanish missionaries arrived in the 16th century. English settlement began in 1733 at Savannah when American Revolution , and the last of the Indians were forcibly removed in the 1830s. Georgia seceded from the Union in 1861, and the American Civil War was particularly hard on the state. It was the last former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union in 1870. Its landscape sweeps from the Blue Ridge in the north to the Okefenokee Swamp (which it shares with Florida) in the south. For most of the 19th century it was the capital of the cotton empire of the South; in the 20th century industry predominated. The state's population grew throughout the 20th century, with Atlanta especially attracting national corporations.
II
officially Republic of Georgia
Country, Transcaucasia.
Located within the Caucasus Mountains , on the southeastern shores of the Black Sea, it includes the autonomous republics of Abkhazia and Adzharia. Area: 26,911 sq mi (69,700 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 4,961,000. Capital: Tbilisi . Two-thirds of the people are Georgian (Karttvelebi); minorities include Armenians, Russians, and Azerbaijanians. Language: Georgian (official). Religion: Georgian Orthodoxy. Currency: lari. Most of Georgia is mountainous, and many peaks rise above 15,000 ft (4,600 m). The Caucasus protect it against cold air from the north, and the climate is mainly subtropical. Fertile lowlands lie near the shores of the Black Sea. It has a well-developed industrial base noted for its hydroelectric power, coal mining and steel making, machinery production, and textiles. Agricultural land is in short supply, and farming is difficult; crops include tea, citrus fruits, grapes (for viticulture), sugar beets, and tobacco. It is a republic with one legislative body; its head of state and government is the president. Ancient Georgia was the site of the kingdoms of Iberia and Colchis , whose fabled wealth was known to the ancient Greeks. The area was part of the Roman Republic by 65 BC and became Christian in AD 337. For the next three centuries it was involved in the conflicts between the Byzantine and Persian empires; after 654 it was controlled by Muslim caliphs, who established an emirate in Tbilisi. It was ruled by the Armenian Bagratids from the 8th to the 12th century, and the zenith of Georgia's power was reached in the reign of Queen Tamara, whose realm stretched from Azerbaijan to Circassia, forming a pan-Caucasian empire. Invasions by Mongols and Turks in the 13th–14th centuries disintegrated the kingdom, and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 isolated it from Western Christendom. There were repeated invasions over the next three centuries by the Armenians, Ottomans, and Ṣafavid Persians. Georgia sought Russian protection in 1783 and in 1801 was annexed by the Russian Empire. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 , the area was briefly independent; in 1921 a Soviet regime was installed, and in 1936 Georgia became the Georgian S.S.R., a full member of the Soviet Union. In 1990 a noncommunist coalition came to power in the first free elections ever held in Soviet Georgia, and in 1991 Georgia declared independence. In the 1990s, while President Eduard Shevardnadze tried to steer a middle course, internal dissension sparked conflicts in Abkhazia.
III
[c mediumvioletred] (as used in expressions)
Republic of Georgia
Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Tech
Georgia Strait of
O'Keeffe Georgia
{{link=South Georgia">South Georgia