History of Georgia Land Borders

The arrival of Europeans on this continent followed the patterns of conquest of new lands, with the explorers moving inland and displacing the native populations as they progressed. The French, Spanish and British invaders laid claim to the southeast region of this continent, establishing missionary and military systems followed by settlements by citizens of the countries making their claims. An agrarian culture had covered most of the region before the colonization began and the rich lands continued to support new patterns of agriculture.
 
The Spanish claims in the southeastern regions of the United States were extinguished after decades of conflict, with the destruction of the Spanish missions by a collaboration of the native Indians and the English forces. A huge swath of land on the North American continent was created by royal charter of the English king and named the Carolina Colony in the mid 1600s. The boundaries east and west were the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans and the north-south orientation crossing the later designated areas of eight different southern states and part of present day Mexico.
   
The French and Indian War in the mid 1700s resulted in England claiming dominance and dismantling France’s possession in North America. The British King George II created the Georgia Colony from land extending west from the Savannah River to the Mississippi River in 1732, deeding the land to General James Oglethorpe, intending settlement to accommodate the British “worthy poor” to get them out of England and to extend British protection from Spanish and French intrusions from the south.
   
The British philanthropists, who were granted the royal charter, laid out the design of the town of Savannah. However, the experiment was not successful and soon the region became a Crown Colony, with an entirely different purpose of creating British reign over vast territories governed directly by the British Crown. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 changed the entire picture in confirming that there would be no future presence of the government of France in North America.
   
As the last of the 13 British colonies, Georgia was designated to be comprised of the land west of the Savannah River, which remains the eastern boundary of the state, with the Atlantic Ocean providing the coastal access so essential to the welfare of the inhabitants. The northern boundary follows the same line as drawn in the British Charter, along the 35th parallel, but the process of settling that line was long and contentious.
   
The original description of the colony stated that the line drawn from the headwaters of the Savannah River directly west to the Pacific Ocean would separate Georgia from the Carolina Colony. At the time, France claimed all the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, and Spain held the rest of the land which became North America.

In a settlement with the Cherokee Indian tribe, the Cahtooga River was established as the northernmost tributary of the Savannah River and this river confluence determined the northeast corner. Following the American Revolution in 1776, Georgia joined with other states claiming land to the west and contributed vast acreage to the United States government. The western boundary was then set along the Chattahoochee River, except that the rich coal fields in the northwest resulted in a straight line rather that the river being set as that border.
   
The southern border of Georgia was first defined as following the Altamaha River, 45 miles north of the line laid down in the 1663 charter of the Carolina Colony. King George II, while expanding British interests, was wary of the Spanish encroachment in Florida and he was also aware of Spain’s distrust of British designs. An actual war between the nations was fought over the boundary question and the result was the agreement that the border between Florida and Georgia would follow the St, Mary’s River from the mouth at the ocean to the source in the Okefenokee Swamp, thence west in a straight line to the mouth of the Chattahoochee.
   
Georgia’s borders reflect the intent of Congress that the new states be equal in size, but the reality is expressed in the final borders when wealth represented in the geography and the natural assets become the province of one state or another, depending on political influence and the position in the hierarchy of the elected officials.