The history of Arizona as recorded by Europeans began in 1539 with the first documented exploration of the area by Marcos de Niza, early work expanded the following year when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado entered the area as well. Arizona was part of Mexico from 1822, but the settled population was small. In 1848, the United States took possession of most of it after the Mexican-American War. The Gadsden Purchase secured the Tucson area in 1853. In 1863, Arizona was split off from the Territory of New Mexico into its own entity. The remoteness was eased by the arrival of railroads in 1880. Arizona became a state in 1912, but was primarily rural with an economy based on cattle, cotton, citrus and copper. Dramatic growth came after 1945, as retirees especially appreciated the warm weather and low costs. Major issues in recent years include ethnic hostility between Anglos and Hispanics, and the bust that followed the real estate bubble of the 2000s.
Read more about History Of Arizona: Mexican Arizona, American Arizona, After 1945, Recent Events
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or arizona:
“No one is ahead of his time, it is only that the particular variety of creating his time is the one that his contemporaries who are also creating their own time refuse to accept.... For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts. In the history of the refused in the arts and literature the rapidity of the change is always startling.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“Desert rains are usually so definitely demarked that the story of the man who washed his hands in the edge of an Arizona thunder shower without wetting his cuffs seems almost credible.”
—Administration in the State of Ariz, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)