Georgia, state, United States: Early Exploration and Conflicting Claims

The Creek and Cherokee inhabited the Georgia area when Hernando De Soto and his expedition passed through the region c.1540. The Spanish later established missions and garrisons on the Sea Islands. In 1663, Charles II of England made a grant of land that included Georgia to the eight proprietors of Carolina. However, Spain claimed the whole eastern half of the present United States and protested the grant. The English ignored the protest, and the English-Spanish contest for the territory between Charleston (S.C.) and St. Augustine (Fla.) continued intermittently for almost a century. England became interested in settling Georgia as a buffer colony to protect South Carolina from Spanish invasion from the south.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Struggle for Racial Equality
• The Long Aftermath of the Civil War
• Cotton and the Confederacy
• Statehood
• Oglethorpe's Colony
• Early Exploration and Conflicting Claims
• Government, Politics, and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures

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