History of Mississippi

The region around Mississippi was first explored by the Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto in 1540. The region was later claimed by France and the first permanent European settlement was established in 1699 near Ocean Springs.

The history of Mississippi goes back 2,000 years. The region was first explored by the Spanish explorers in the early sixteenth century, who were followed by the French in 1699.

By that time there were three large tribes in the state: the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Natchez. In 1729-30, the French destroyed the Natchez in retaliation for the massacre of a French settlement.

The most notable of the Spanish explorers was by Hernando de Soto in 1540-41. He explored the area that is now Mississippi but was disappointed on finding little mineral wealth, and subsequently lost interest in the region. Later in 1682, the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, reached the lower Mississippi Valley from New France (Canada) and explored the mouth of the Mississippi; he named the entire area Louisiana, in honor of the French king, Louis XIV.

The permanent European settlement in the state was established in 1699, when Pierre le Moyne, sieur d'Iberville, established a French colony on Biloxi Bay. By 1718, the colony came under the French Mississippi Company, and the settlement accelerated. The Treaty of Paris (1783) granted all the French territory east of the Mississippi river to England; these territories were earlier part of Spain.

Statehood

After 1783, the United Stats laid claim on the Natchez area but the Spanish forces continued to exercise their influence. It was only with the signing of the Treaty of San Lorenzo on October 27, 1795 that Spain agreed to relinquish its claim on the Natchez district; but it did not evacuate the region until 1798, when the American troops arrived. Thereafter, the Mississippi Territory was created by the Congress and Natchez was made the capital with William C.C. Claiborne as the governor.

In 1802, after Georgia's ceded its western lands to the United States, there was a land boom in Mississippi. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) also accelerated this growth. Settlers from other states were drawn due to the high price of cotton and the cheap, fertile land. Mississippi became a state on December 10, 1817, with its present-day boundaries and a constitution was adopted in 1832. Decades later on January 9, 1861, Mississippi declared its cessation from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America.

Twentieth Century

The early years of the twentieth century in the state saw a period of political, social, and economic turmoil. The maximum chaos occurred during the Reconstruction period when the Republican Party encouraged blacks to vote, while the native white Democrats resisted the full freedom. The conflict lasted until 1875, when the Democrats regained control and began a return to the racial status quo. The Great Depression of the 1930s pushed the agricultural economy of the state to the brink of disaster. The economy revived only during the Second World War, as industrial growth was stimulated. By the early 1980s, Mississippi had become an industrial state.

The end years of the century saw some remarkable changes in the social sphere of the state. The ban on interracial marriage (miscegenation) was repealed in 1987; also the state repealed the segregationist-era poll tax in 1989. In 1995, Mississippi ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which had abolished slavery in 1865.

The economy saw a collapse again in 1986 as there was a decline in oil and gas prices. Unemployment and poverty were rampant. The state continued to remain one of the poorest states for a very long time. Mississippi suffered widespread destruction again in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the state. The disaster killed 248 people and caused US$1.5 billion of damage.

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