History of Arkansas Totally Explained

Everything about History Of Arkansas totally explained

Arkansas was the 25th state admitted to the United States.

Exploration and early inhabitation

The first European to reach Arkansas was the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto at the end of the 16th century. Arkansas is one of several U.S. states formed from the territory purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte in the Louisiana Purchase. The early Spanish or French explorers of the state gave it its name, which is probably a phonetic spelling for the Illinois word for the Quapaw people, who lived downriver from them .
Other Native American nations that lived in Arkansas prior to westward movement were the Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage nations. While moving westward, the Five Civilized Tribes inhabited Arkansas during its territorial period.

Early 19th Century territory and statehood

The region was organized as the Territory of Arkansas on July 4, 1819, but the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Arkansas on June 15, 1836, as the 25th state and the 13th slave state.
Arkansas played a key role in aiding Texas in its war for independence with Mexico, sending troops and materials to Texas to help fight the war. The proximity of the city of Washington to the Texas border involved the town in the Texas Revolution of 1835-36. Some evidence suggests Sam Houston and his compatriots planned the revolt in a tavern at Washington in 1834. When the fighting began a stream of volunteers from Arkansas and the eastern states flowed through the town toward the Texas battle fields. When the Mexican-American War began in 1846, Washington became a rendezvous for volunteer troops. Governor Thomas S. Drew issued a proclamation calling on the state to furnish one regiment of cavalry and one battalion of infantry to join the United States Army. Ten companies of men assembled here where they were formed into the first Regiment of Arkansas Cavalry.

Civil War

ť See the main article Arkansas in the American Civil War.

Arkansas refused to join the Confederate States of America until after United States President Abraham Lincoln called for troops to respond to the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, by Confederate forces. The State of Arkansas seceded from the Union on May 6, 1861. While not often cited in history, the state was the scene of numerous small-scale battles during the American Civil War.
Arkansas of note during the Civil War include Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne. Considered by many to be one of the most brilliant Confederate division commanders of the war, Cleburne is often referred to as "The Stonewall of the West." Also of note is Major General Thomas C. Hindman. A former United States Representative, Hindman commanded Confederate forces at the Battle of Cane Hill and Battle of Prairie Grove.

Late 19th Century and Disfranchisement

Under the Military Reconstruction Act, Congress readmitted Arkansas in June 1868. With the right to suffrage, freedmen began to participate vigorously in the political life of the state. From 1869 to 1893, more than 45 African American men were elected to seats in the state legislature. As in other states, they were already leaders in their communities: often ministers or teachers, or literate men who had returned from the North. Some had white as well as African American ancestors.
   In 1874, the Brooks-Baxter War shook Little Rock and the state governorship which was finally settled when Grant ordered that Joseph Brooks disperse his militant supporters.
   In 1881, the Arkansas state legislature enacted a bill that adopted an official pronunciation, to combat a controversy then raging around the proper pronunciation of the state's name.
   During the late 1880s and 1890s, the Democrats worked to consolidate their power and prevent alliances among African Americans and poor whites in the years of agricultural depression. They were facing competition from the Populist and other third parties. In 1891, state legislators passed a statute requiring a literacy test for voter registration, when more than 25% of the population couldn't read or write. In 1892 the state passed a constitutional amendment that imposed a poll tax and associated residency requirements for voting, whose combined barriers sharply reduced the numbers of blacks and poor whites on the voter rolls, and of course their ability to vote dropped.
   Having consolidated power among its supporters, by 1900 the state Democratic Party began relying on all-white primaries at the county and state level. This meant that blacks couldn't participate in the only competitive political contests - the Republican Party was so weak that the Democratic Party primary winner was always elected. In 1900 African Americans numbered 366,984 in the state and made up 28% of the population - nearly one-third of the citizens disfranchised. Since they couldn't vote, they couldn't serve on juries, which were limited to voters. They were shut out of the political process.

20th Century: the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement

After the case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954), the Little Rock Nine incident brought Arkansas to national attention when the Federal government was forced to intervene in the Arkansan capital in 1957 to protect students. Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to aid segregationists in preventing nine African-American students from enrolling at Little Rock's Central High School. President Dwight Eisenhower sent 1,000 paratroops to Little Rock to ensure the students were protected. Governor Faubus and the city responded by closing Little Rock schools for the remainder of the year.
By the fall of 1959, all the schools in Little Rock were integrated. Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was born in Hope, Arkansas. Before his presidency, Clinton served nearly twelve years as the 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas.

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