States from A – Z : Alabama and Alaska

ALABAMA

Alabama - the 22nd state of the United States - is located in the south of the United States, surrounded by Tennessee in the north, Georgia in the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico in the south and Mississippi in the west. The capital of Alabama is Montgomery, second most populous city in Alabama. The city with the highest population in Alabama is Birmingham with approximately 229.800 inhabitants (in 2007).

There are many ideas of where the name Alabama comes from or what its meaning is. It could be the name of a former Indian tribe or just a combination of the words alba "a thick or mass vegetation", and amo "to clear, to collect, to gather up."

With almost 131.443 square kilometers, Alabama is almost as big as Great Britain. The nickname of Alabama is - unofficially - the Yellowhammer State, which is also the name of the state bird.

Alabama ranks on second place in the size of its inland waterways and on 30th place in the total land area. With almost 4.6 million inhabitants, the state ranks on 23rd place in population.

In the beginning of the 19th century, the cultivation of cotton dominated the agriculture. Until today it has been a very important branch of production, but some former cotton fields are now used for the cultivation of corn, peanuts or soybeans. Within the industrialization in the 20th century, large industries in the field of fertilizer, monition and manufacture of aluminum were developed.

Alabama is the heart of the Dixieland and plays an important role in the history of the South. The capital Montgomery was the first capital of the confederation during the American Civil War. The historic buildings and gardens can be visited today by tourists. In 1861, the same day Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the confederation, he sent the telegram „Fire for Fort Sumter" which was the start of the Civil War in the same year. Only a few months later, the regime of the south states relocated their base to Richmond, Virginia.

Today, Montgomery has the biggest cattle markets of the southern states. Furthermore, it is very famous for their fabrication of furniture in the Victorian style.
But there are also some strange laws until today: For example it is still forbidden to play Domino on a Sunday or to go to church with a fake moustache.

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ALASKA

Alaska - Alyeska" - "Big land" - that is how the aborigines of Alaska call their land. This is due to the wideness and the untouched wilderness. Ice-blue glaciers, wild rivers and imposing water falls, forests, fjords and endless Tundra - that is the landscape of Alaska. The fauna has such a great variety like the country itself. There are 8 national parks in the upcountry, reindeers are running through the Tundra and elks through the Taiga and brown bears are fishing salmon in the rivers.

Alaska is the largest state in the United States and is surrounded by Canada in the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean in the south, Bering Sea, Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea in the west and the Arctic Ocean in the North. As of 2007, Alaska remains the least densely populated state.

On March 30, 1867, the U.S. Senate purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire for approx. 7.2 million $. Alaska became an organized territory on May 11, 1912 and was announced as the 49th state of the U.S. in January 1959.

The first people moved across the Bering Land Bridge into northwestern Alaska more than 20.000 years ago while the first Europeans arrived about 260 years ago. Alaska's history and culture are marked by different branches: fishing, gold, oil booms, timber etc. And with each boom, different people settled down.

In 1964 several villages and more than 100 people were killed by a massive earthquake, which was the second most powerful earthquake in the history of the world. Luckily, the epicenter was in an area which was mostly unpopulated - otherwise many more would have been killed.

Only 15 percent of the state's population are natives (originally from Alaska) and they maintain many of their traditions like whaling, subsistence hunting and fishing. There are many small villages where the people still live in a traditional way and where native heritage history and culture can be found.

Thousands of people move to and from Alaska each year, and the sports which can be done in Alaska are not as hard as many people think. In a lot of ways, Alaska is like the rest of the nation - just farther north and harder to get to.