State of the USA (123,514 km 2 with 2,938,618 inhabitants in 2008); capital Jackson. It borders with Louisiana and Arkansas at O, Tennessee to north, Alabama to east and with the Gulf of Mexico to south. The territory, formed by low hills to the N, gradually becomes flat towards south. The alluvial plain of the Mississippi River extends from the NW corner of the state to Vicksburg, and has a width of one hundred kilometers in the center. The climate is temperate-warm.
According to abbreviationfinder, Mississippi has a traditional agricultural structure: main products are cotton, soy, tung oil seeds; plus cereals, rice and sweet potatoes. The proceeds from farming and fishing are noteworthy. The industrial structure is divided into the chemical, metallurgical, electronic, shipbuilding, food sectors, in addition to traditional textile and wood processing. The exploitation of oil and natural gas resources is important. Navigation on the river of the same name is of considerable importance in the organization of the communications network that affects the State.
The region was explored, going up the Mississippi, by the Spaniard Hernando de Soto in 1540-41. The French Jesuits J. Marquette and L. Joliet went down the river (1673) to the confluence of Arkansas, and R. deLa Salleup to the mouth (1682) taking possession of it in the name of Louis XIV . Between 1699 and 1763 the French colonized the region. Passed to England (1763), the region was then occupied by the Spaniards (1781-98) and then, enlarged by transfers of neighboring regions, ceded to the United States. Divided into two states, M. and Alabama, it entered the Union (1817). Contrary to the Constitution of 1832, M. continued to import slaves; in 1861 the secession was voted there. Readmitted into the Union in 1870, M. had a new Constitution in 1890.
Economy
Mississippi is a predominantly agricultural state. In 1930, just over two-thirds of the population (60% Whites and 75% Negroes) lived on farms that occupied 58.4% of the state area. Of the farmers, about 41.5% were whites and 58% were blacks. On average, each white farmer owned a 35-hectare farm with land and buildings worth $ 2,460; and each Negro 13.4 ha. for a value of 1365 dollars.
The main crops, in order of area occupied, are: cotton (more than half of the cultivated land), hay, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, sorghum, oats and Irish potatoes. Many plant species are grown for the northern markets, especially in the southern part of the state. In some areas, the cultivation of pecan nut, a variety of nutmeg, is important. The breeding of cattle for meat and milk is currently being cared for much more than in the past. In recent years, many cheese and condensed milk factories have sprung up.
The state of Mississippi has approximately 7,250 km. of railways running through every county. The highways have been greatly improved after the spread of the automobile, and in the vicinity of major cities many kilometers of such roads have been paved.
Factories absorb less than 10% of the state’s workers. Those who process timber, turpentine and other forest products still constitute by far the most important category (around 6,800 people employed in forests and 27,000 in sawmills). For strong industrial development, the state lacks coal and water energy.
Mississippi River
River of North America, one of the major rivers in the world (5970 km, also measuring its largest tributary, the Missouri); at the mouth it has an average flow rate of about 20,000 m 3 / s. Its basin (3,328,000 km 2) occupies a large part of the great North American depression between the mountains Appalachian and the Rocky Mountains. The springs are in one region, west of the Lake Superior, which due to the abundance of lake basins is called the district of a thousand lakes; one of these lakes gives a first toll of waters that pour into another called pond Itasca, located at 445 m asl. The M. develops its upper course in a region scattered with moraine bands, hollowed out by hollows, sprinkled with cobblestones, which bears evident traces of glacial modeling. The course is interrupted several times by rapids and waterfalls, the last of which, those of S. Antonio, are intensely used. It receives large tributaries: a Minneapolis, from right, the Minnesota; a little further downstream, from the left, the Saint Croix, which a little raised threshold separates it from the Superior Lake. These thresholds, locally known as portages, are frequent throughout the ice-planed region. The river Wisconsin, the first of the large left tributaries of Mississippi River, in the locality called Portage, is no more than 50 km from the lake Winnebago, and the Fox River, a spring branch of Illinois, is born just 30 km from the lake Michigan; in this way the father came to Mississippi in 1673 J. Marquette. In Saint Louis, where the river is now a current of calm waters, the great navigation begins; about thirty kilometers upstream of the city, Mississippi River receives the Missouri.
In contrast to Missouri, which crosses regions far less benefited by rain, Ohio, the largest left tributary, is rich in water and navigable for most of its course. At the confluence with Ohio, a Cairo, properly begins the plain created by Mississippi River himself with its floods. Here the bed, partly suspended, widens up to 2-2.5 km and the river runs through it, wandering in an infinite series of meanders. The river fills ancient crescent-shaped arms or cuts its meanders with recent arms, but more often it creates lateral ramifications (bayous) that sometimes rejoin the main river, but often, after hundreds of kilometers of travel, they join in part to the tributaries and in part tend to reach, as independent arms, the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mississippi River flows into the south of New Orleans with a delta system characterized by the presence of numerous distribution channels, generally straight and recessed, which move abruptly following avulsion or diversion processes. The delta as a whole is also subject to these movements, so much so that in the last thousands of years the Mississippi has built several delta systems, then abandoned, along the coast of the Louisiana.
According to countryaah, Mississippi has the following main cities:
Jackson
Capital of the state of Mississippi (United States), in Hinds County, on the Pearl River; it was founded around 1830. Occupied in 1863 during the civil war by General Grant, in 1864 it was partially destroyed by General Sherman. The population has increased from 3191 inhab. in 1860 to 7816 in 1900, to 22,817 in 1920, to 48,282 in 1930: the strong increase of the last decade is partly due to the annexation of neighboring towns. The black element is very numerous (in 1900, 56.9%; in 1920, 43.5%).
The center is located in an area of intense agriculture (above all cotton plantations) and has significant industries connected with the agricultural economy. Many educational institutions are located in Jackson, such as Belhaveri College, organized in 1893, Millsaps College, founded in 1890, with over 500 students, etc. The city is an important railway hub.
