The South

As defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes 16 states and is split into three smaller units, or divisions: 1)The South Atlantic States: Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia (plus the District of Columbia) 2)The East South Central States: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee 3)The West South Central States: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. The South is a vast, diverse region, having numerous climatic zones, including alpine, temperate, sub-tropical, tropical. Many crops grow easily in its soils. The history of this regoin began in the 17-th century with the British colonists. After 1700, large groups of African slaves were brought in to work on the large plantations that dominated export agriculture of tobacco, rice. Cotton became dominant after 1800. All this production still remains the core of the southern agriculture. "South" is more informal and is generally associated with those states that during the Civil War formed the Confederate States of America (1860). Those states share commonalities of history and culture that carry on to the present day. Southern culture has been and remains generally more socially conservative than that of the north. The southern lifestyle is viewed as slower paced. The South has a high concentration of Christian adherents, thus it’s often called the "Bible Belt". The South has the highest concentration of afro-americans (about 50%-Black Belt of the country). Gospel music, spirituals, country music, rhythm and blues, soul music, bluegrass, jazz were either born in the South or developed in the region. Rock n' roll began in the South(Elvis Presley). Possibly the most famous southern novel of the 20th century is Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, published in 1937. In the last two generations, the South has changed dramatically. After two centuries in which the region's main economic engine was agriculture, the South has in recent decades seen a boom in its service economy, manufacturing base, high technology industries, and the financial sector. The creation of computer programming and communications companies helped to develop the “New South” economy. The South is also the centre of banking institutions (the Bank of America). This economic expansion has enabled parts of the South to boast some of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States. The major cities are: Dallas, Houston (Texas-oil belt of the country), Miami(Florida), Atlanta(Georgia).

West

The western United States includes 13 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. It is the largest region, covering more than half the land area of the United States. It is also the most geographically diverse, including geographic regions such as the Pacific Coast, the temperate rain forests, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, prairies, plateaus, the southern forests, and all of the desert areas located in the United States. As the largest region in the United States there is variation to such an extent in the west that it is often broken down into regions. Arizona, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah or regions of those states are sometimes considered part of the Southwest, while all or part of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming can be considered part of the Northwest. The West has several long rivers: The Mississippi River, The Missouri River, The Colorado River snakes through the Mountain states, at one point forming the Grand Canyon and The Columbia River. Agriculture varies: The wheat belt produces most of the wheat and soybeans in the U.S. Irrigation in the Southwest allows the growing of great quantities of fruits, nuts, and vegetables as well as grain, hay, and flowers. Texas is a major cattle and sheep raising area. Washington is famous for its apples, and Idaho for its potatoes. The largest city in the region is Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. Big port cities which have evolved into world centers for the media and technology industries. The second largest city in the nation, Los Angeles is best known as the home of the Hollywood film industry; Silicon Valley in California, Oregon and Washington have seen rapid growth with the rise of Boeing and Microsoft along with agriculture and resource based industries. The desert and mountain states have relatively low population densities, and developed as ranching and mining areas. History: Major settlement of the western territories by migrants developed rapidly in the 1840s, largely through the California Gold Rush of 1849. The image of the West is mostly assossiated with such phenomena as cowboy, country music and american movies. As foe demographics of the South – it has the highest concentration of Hispanics (25% of the population) in the south, and about 20% of the population of Alaska are American Indians.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1169