Virginia+History


 * The History of Virginia**

The recorded History of Virginia began with settlement of the geographic region now known as the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States thousands of years ago by Native Americans. European settlement did not occur until the establishment of Jamestown in 1607, by English colonists. As tobacco emerged as a profitable export crop cultivated by slave labor, the Virginia Colony became one of the wealthiest and most populated British colonies in North America. Virginia was one of the original 13 United States that won their independence from Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. The state produced more national leaders than any other, who included four of the first five presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. During the first half of the 19th century, the Virginia Board of Public Works assisted in engineering and funding transportation improvements such as turnpikes, canals and railroads. Regional disparities because of earlier settlement, power and wealth in the east caused residents of western parts of the state to feel their needs were neglected. Several attempts to improve this factionalism failed. When the issue of slavery divided the young nation, the slave state Virginia was reluctant to secede in 1861. After it did, Virginia became the major battlefield of the American Civil War. The westernmost counties broke away from the eastern part of the state to form West Virginia, which was officially admitted to the Union as a separate state in 1863.

Virginia shared agricultural recession with other Southern states after the war and struggled to rebuild. In the late 19th c., the new popularity of cigarettes boosted its tobacco industry. Like other Confederate states, it passed laws to segregate public facilities and essentially disfranchised African Americans by the turn of the century. A fair share of the state's pre-Civil War debt to be allocated to West Virginia was finally determined by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1915, and paid by 1939. The economic stimulus of WWII brought new prosperity to the state. World War II gave the state a major naval and industrial economic base, and the growth of government jobs in Northern Virginia. Desegregation of schools and the battle of African Americans to achieve civil rights and integration into society were major social issues from the 1950s to the 1970s. Some Virginia leaders supported "massive resistance" but eventually rights were won. In 1989 Douglas Wilder became the first African American elected governor in the nation. By the 1980s Northern Virginia (NoVA)and the Hampton Roads region had achieved the greatest growth and prosperity, in part because of their employment related to Federal government agencies and defense, as well as an increase in technology in NoVA. Politically, the state was a stronghold of conservative Democrats for most of the 20th century. After the Civil Rights movement, many conservatives switched to the Republican Party, first for presidential elections and also for local and state elections, especially in the final decades of the 20th century. In the early 21st century, funding for transportation needs emerged as the most controversial single issue. As of 2007, Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat, interacts with a General Assembly with a Republican majority in both houses. In the U.S. Congress, each party has earned one Senate seat, and the Representatives come from both parties as well. The year 2007 marks the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown. An 18 month-long celebration called Jamestown 2007 began in 2006. Events celebrated the Native American, European and African contributions to the history of Virginia. A state visit from Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and her consort, Prince Phillip, reprised the honor they paid Virginia in 1957 for the 350th anniversary. In 2008 Barack Obama, an African American candidate, decisively won the Democratic presidential primary.