History of Arkansas

The Spanish Explorer Hernando de Soto was the first European to reach Arkansas in the middle of the 16th century.

Native Americans inhabited the region which is today known as Arkansas. Hernando de Soto, a Spanish explorer, was the first European to reach Arkansas in the middle of the sixteenth century. During the territorial period, the Five Civilized Tribes lived in the region.

Arkansas is among the American states formed by purchasing territory from Napoleon Bonaparte in the Louisiana Purchase. It was organized as a territory on July 4, 1819 and became the 25th state of the Union on June 15,1836. It was the 13th slave state where planters were settled to cultivate cotton. The state developed a cotton culture in lands of the Mississippi Delta. This area had the maximum number of enslaved African Americans.

During the American Civil war, many small-scale battles were fought in the state. The state refused to join the Confederate States of America and was unwilling to fight its neighbors, and seceded from the Union on May 6,1861. The state played an important role in aiding Texas for its independence from Mexico. When fighting began, many volunteers from the state marched to the Texas battle fields.

Under the Military Reconstruction Act, Arkansas was readmitted in June 1868. From 1869 to 1893, 45 African American were elected to seats in the state legislature. Brooks-Baxter War was fought in Little Rock in 1874. It was fought between factions of the Republican Party over the disputed 1872 election for the post of governor.