Alabama Map | AL State Map

Alabama is one of the southern states of the United States of America and it is enclosed by Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Alabama is the twenty-second state that was admitted in the United States On December 14, 1819 and made Montgomery its capital and Birmingham its largest town. State economy is mostly manufacturing driven together with aerospace, agriculture and education and the state is historically characterized by its participation in the Civil War and Civil rights Movement. College football holds a specific role in the greater culture, the athletic event was popular and had an effect throughout the state.

History

Before the arrival of Europeans the area of present Alabama was inhabited by native tribes such as the Creek (Muscogee), the Cherokee, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw. They had built their advanced forms of social systems, trade networks and unique cultural practices.

As early as in the sixteenth century, Spanish adventurers (led by Hernando de Soto in particular) crossed the area. Mobile was founded by French colonists by the early 18th century before it was turned into the first permanent European settlement in Alabama. The reign of the British and later the Spanish followed after which the area in question joined America through the American Revolution.

Alabama was the twenty second state of the Union in 1819. The immigrants from Europe, quickly developed cotton plantations using slave labor of Africans. In a few decades, the plantation economy of Alabama based on slavery and the cotton market in general outlined its position in the Cotton Kingdom.

The state of Alabama seceded in 1861 because of controversy on state rights and the institution of slavery and was a part of the Confederate States of America with Montgomery as an interim capital of the Confederacy. The state suffered a big loss in the Civil War. With the loss of the South, Reconstruction arose where the freed African Americans had political power before being disenfranchised under Jim Crow policies, segregation, and legal machinations.

In the twentieth century, the USA had fierce industrial growth and ascension that led to economic boom. Birmingham has become an industrial hub focusing on manufacturing steel. Racial tensions amongst people in the state created a lot of tensions and conflicts. Alabama thus turned out to be the hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement. The Montgomery bus boycott (1955-1956) was a petition organized by Rosa Parks and national interest in the voting rights campaign was drawn by the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965). During this phase, other giant icons of the land like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a network of thousands of grass roots activists were unshakable in fighting the existing system of racism.

Culture

The culture of Alabama can be characterized first of all by the high hospitality and sociability of the Southern people who are displaying their courtesy and communal orientation and giving great significance to social support and local bonds. The aspect of family relations is based on one of the pillars of daily existence, and community functions, congregational meetings, and local celebrations have a thorough place in the social structure of Alabama.

The culture is further guided by religion especially the Christianity which is mostly Protestant and strictly grounded in Baptist or Methodist religion. Churches are both places of worship and the field where social and cultural matters are negotiated. Political, educational, and mass perceptions of the collective self in the state are held under the sway of deep religious influence and Christian morality.

The Alabama culture has another set of foundations in terms of food, where the southern food, which is characterized by fried chicken, cornbread, blue collard, grits, catfish, and barbeque, is the widely consumed and culturally salient repertoire. Certainly, banana pudding and pecan pie can be presented as two iconic desserts.

The musical tradition in Alabama is quite diverse because it has integrated African American and European American. State has had a heavy impact in many forms of music, such as blues, gospel, country as well as soul. Muscle Shoals recording studios were most popular in the 60s and 70s where many popular artists recorded including Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Modern rural venues also propagate strong folk song and bluegrass performances.

Alabama has developed icons in the visual and literary arts realms. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee dwells upon racial relations, justice, and dilemmas of morality in the Deep South. In the meantime, the visual arts are gathering strength, with local galleries, community art festivals and university programs.

Language

Alabama is an English-speaking state governed mainly by English. The English spoken there is also a dialect of what is called Southern American English. Southern American English simply has different vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammatical features than other forms of English and reflects a tremendous cultural heritage of the South. Southern American English varies a little by geographical areas.

The variation of pronunciation, intonation and the use of words in the English language show some particular spatial distribution in the United States. Northern and central areas have a relatively relaxed way of articulation whereas the southern area is associated with a lot of exposure to the coastal speech and the Creole vernaculars have a more speedy and compact way of speech. As a result, more emphasis on the dialectal diversity is increased through vocalisations, vowel production as well as in larger speech production patterns.

The above is a heterogeneous landscape where there are quite a number of linguistic communities who use languages other than English as the primary vehicle. The most common among these is Spanish as it rose in prominence together with the aggressive growth of Hispanic and Latino population especially in metropolitan areas and farmland. Large residential households in this region often go through their daily relations in pure Spanish. The latest efforts by some school authorities and government organizations have thus provided the bilingual education programmes and other supplementary bilingual services.

Although English is dominated by western countries, one can identify the existence of other languages among immigrant communities in Alabama. These linguistic subsets include Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, and Arabic, with the presence of these groups of people in the areas of Birmingham, Montgomery, and Huntsville hence making the state linguistically diverse as well as culturally rich among other states.

Additionally, it has connections to the historic mother of many Native American languages. The region had tribally-based languages spoken in current-day Alabama before European resettling, through tribes like the Creek (Muscogee), Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chickasaw; today, the number of native speakers has dramatically decreased, but is still being pursued through cultural centers and language programs that are being initiated among tribal communities.

Geography

The Alabama state is found in southeastern part of the US and is located on the borders of Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, and has a small coastline in the gulf of Mexico. The existence of the Gulf influences a large percentage of the geography of the states as well as variation in climate. Alabama is the 30 th largest state in the United States with an area size of about 52,420 square miles.

Its northernmost division is taken up by the Appalachian Mountains, which happen to be the extremer point of the range and comprised of the Tennessee Valley and Cumberland Plateau. Here, the terrain is hilly, with precipitous hills and valleys; highest point of the state is Cheaha Mountain here in the Talladega National Forest at 2,413ft. above sea level.

Southern still, the land breaks into the Piedmont region-smooth hills with fertile soils that are suitable to more dense agricultural production, but also have an urban element. The Black Belt is the traditional territory of the central region; today this area is known by its dark and fertile soil. The name is based on the color of the soil in the area and also based on the history of the area being a plantation cotton growing region.

About 60 percent of Alabama region comprises the Coastal plain which has a flat land, shrub lands, pine forests as well as wetlands. The terrain gets swampier and flatter towards the gulf of mexico. The second largest river delta in the United States, Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, runs over this area and generates a vast complex of wetland habitat areas that other plants and animals inhabited.

River systems present a central part of the state geography. The Tennessee, Alabama, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Tombigbee and Black Warrior Rivers are some of the largest rivers which in the past serviced the transfer of raw material and finished products used in agriculture and industry processes. Hydropower development The Tennessee River, passing through the northeast organizationally, has played its part also, in developing the water power of the system, and in the navigation of the inland rivers.

Another geographic feature that is particular to the region is the Gulf Coast and its typical feature of white-sand beaches, barrier islands and estuarine bays. The only great natural harbor in the state is located at Mobile Bay, which was previously a major point of trade and a natural hub of trading. Its warm environment and the proximity to the sea make this region a hotspot in regard to tourism, leisure and fisheries. Geomorphologically, the humid subtropical climate has been described by hot-humid summers and cool-mild winters; elevations northward carry a more pronounced seasonal climate in the state. One of the frequent dangers is a rocking storm, tornadoes, and at times hurricanes in the coastal plains.

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