| Almost two hundred years later, James Edward Oglethorpe arrived with a group of British settlers. They founded the city of Savannah in 1733. The colony was named after the British King George II. Oglethorpe was a member of a charity that wanted to give poor people a fresh start by giving them small farms and the tools they needed to grow crops. The king wanted Georgia to protect the other colonies from the Spanish who lived in Florida. The settlers ended the threat of the Spanish in the area by defeating the Spanish soldiers. In 1752, the Trustees gave the colony back to the British government. Under the royal government, Georgia began to grow. Two decades later Georgia became one of the 13 colonies to fight for independence from the British government. In Georgia, some citizens were for the revolution and some were loyal to the king. Much of the fighting in Georgia was between these two groups. In December of 1778, the British army took over Savannah. They were able to keep it in 1779, when the Americans and their French allies tried to take Savannah back. But the British were not able to control other parts of Georgia. The Americans won the war, and Georgia and the other colonies formed the new nation—the United States of America. |
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