164 



GEORGIA 



metropolis. Augusta, Macon, Columbus, and 

 Athens may be mentioned among the thriving cities 

 and towns of this commonwealth. The population 

 has steadily increased from 82,548 in 1790 to (1860) 

 1,057/286; (1870) 1,184,109; (1880) 1,542,180; (1890) 

 1,837,353 (over one-half being whites); (1900)2,216,- 

 331, being an average of 37.5 persons per sq. mile. 



Georgia Fias a thorough system of free common 

 schools, numbering (1896) 7419 with 8125 teachers 

 and an enrollment of 389,057 pupils. Opportuni- 

 ties for higher education are afforded by the Uni ; 

 versity of Georgia, at Athens, by its dependent 

 colleges at Dahlonega, Milledgeville, Thomasville, 

 Cuthbert, and Atlanta, and by sundry denomina- 

 tional colleges. At the University of Georgia and 

 its dependent colleges tuition for Georgians is free. 

 Georgia has also a school for the blind at Macon, 

 for the education of the deaf and dumb at Cave 

 Spring, and an asylum for lunatics near Milledge- 

 ville. 



History. The colony of Georgia was founded by 

 James Oglethorpe (q.v. ) in 1733, as a refuge for 

 poor debtors and for the persecuted Protestants of 

 Germany, and received its name in honour of 

 George II. In 1752 Oglethorpe surrendered his 

 charter to the British government. Georgia was 

 thereafter classed as an English province, until, with 

 her sister colonies, she succeeded in casting off her 

 allegiance to the crown. Save during the few 

 years of the civil war, she has since continued a 

 component member of the confederation of the 

 United States of America, and has long been 

 regarded as the Empire State of the South. 

 Despite the liberation of her slave population, 

 which in 1860 numbered 450,033, and was valued 

 at $302,694,855, and in the face of grievous losses 

 occasioned by the war, the state has during the 

 last quarter of a century manifested recuperative 

 powers of a marvellous sort. 



Georgia, the name formerly applied to the 

 central portion of what is now Russian Trans- 

 caucasia (q.v.), bounded by the Caucasian moun- 

 tains on the north and by the Armenian mountains 

 on the south. The Russian name is Gruzia ; the 

 Persian Gurjestan, from which form the name 

 Georgia probably arose, it being perhaps a corrup- 

 tion of Guria, the name of one of the western 

 provinces. The early history of the Georgians, 

 who pretend to trace their origin to Thargamos, 

 a great-grandson of Japhet, is wrapped in fable. 

 Mtskhethos, who is said to have built Mtsketha, 

 the ancient capital of the country, situated near 

 Tiflis, but now reduced to a mere village, plays a 

 prominent part in it. We have also to deal with 

 legend in the story of the Argonauts and Medea, 

 who is said to have been born at Kutais. The 

 Georgians first appear in authentic history in the 

 time of Alexander the Great, to whom they sub- 

 mitted. After the death of Alexander in 323 B.C. 

 they gained their independence under Pharnavas 

 (302-237 B.C.). With Pharnavas begins the series 

 of the kings ( a title rendered in Georgian by the 

 word mephe), who, under various dynasties, ruled 

 the country almost uninterruptedly for more than 

 2000 years. In 265 A.D. the Sassanian dynasty 

 ascended the throne in the person of King Marian, 

 and ended with Bakour III. in 570. Towards the 

 close of the 4th century Christianity was intro- 

 duced by the preaching of St Nina, and in 469 

 Vakhtang built the city of Tiflis (Tbilisi), so 

 called from the hot-springs found there. Soon 

 after the death of Mohammed his followers entered 

 the country and forced many of the inhabitants to 

 embrace Islam. The Sassanides were succeeded 

 by the powerful dynasty of the Bagratides, one 

 of whom, Bagrat III. (980-1008), extended his 

 dominions from the Black Sea to the Caspian ; but 

 during the eleventh century the Georgians twice 



suffered from an invasion of the Seljuks, who 

 committed great devastations. 



The country reached the height of its glory in 

 the reign of Queen Tharnar or Tamara (1184-1212), 

 the daughter of George III. With her marriage 

 to the son of the Russian mince, Andrew Bogo- 

 liubski, may be said to begin the connection be- 

 tween Russia and Georgia. The dominions of 

 Tamara were more extensive than those of any 

 other native sovereign, and her court was graced 

 by the presence of many men of letters. But evil 

 days were in store for Georgia. In 1220 and 1222 we 

 hear of Mongolian invasions, and Tiflis was harried 

 with fire and sword. Towards the end of the 14th 

 century the country fell into the hands of Timour, 

 who, however, was driven from it in 1403 by 

 George VII. One of George's successors, Alexander 

 (1413-42), committed the fatal error of dividing 

 the kingdom between his three sons. The general 

 histoiy of Georgia now separates into two parts : 

 that of the eastern states, Karthli and Kakheth, 

 and that of the western states, including Imereth, 

 Mingrelia, and Guria. From the 16th to the 18th 

 century the Georgians suffered grievously from the 

 Persians. In 1618 Shah Abbas invaded the 

 country, and Teimuraz I. applied for help to the 

 Czar Michael ; in 1638 Levan, king of Mingrelia, 

 took the oath of allegiance to Alexis ; it was only 

 from their co-religionists that the Georgians could 

 hope for succour in their hour of need. They also 

 suffered from the encroachments of the Turks. 

 In 1795 the savage Aga Mohammed Shah invaded 

 Georgia, and levelled Tiflis to the ground, carrying 

 away a great number of captives. The aged king 

 Heraclius II., an able sovereign, seeing that all 

 resistance was in vain, fled to the mountains, 

 where he soon afterwards died. His son, George 

 XIII., resigned the crown in favour of Paul, 

 emperor of Russia, in 1799 ; but his brother 

 Alexander did not acquiesce in this arrangement, 

 and held out for some time, but was defeated in a 

 battle on the banks of the lor. George died in 

 1800, and in the following year Alexander of 

 Russia formally annexed the country. In 1810 

 the prince of Imereth attempted a revolt, which 

 was quickly suppressed. Guria was finally united 

 with Russia in 1829. 



The former kingdom of Georgia is mainly in- 

 cluded in the governments of Kutais, Tiflis, and 

 Elizabethpol. The district is very fertile, being 

 abundantly productive of cereals, wine especially 

 the Kakhetian honey, and silk, of cattle and 

 horses, while the mountains teem with mineral 

 wealth, as yet little utilised. The Georgians belong 

 to the Kartveli stock, forming the southern group 

 of Caucasian peoples. Their numbers have been 

 variously estimated. Some fix them at about 

 911,000, but Von Erckert (Der Kaukasus und seine 

 Volker, Leip. 1887) gives the following calcula- 

 tion, as based in the main on the last census of 

 1881 : 



Georgians (in the restricted sense of the term) 350,000 



Imeretians and Gurians 480,000 



Adcharians and Lazes 20,000 



Pshaves, living in the mountains 9,000 



Thushes n 6,000 



Khevsurs u 7,000 



Mingrelians 215,000 



Suanetians 13,000 



1,100,000 



To this work is appended an excellent ethnological 

 map. The Georgians and their congeners are of 

 the Caucasian or Fair race (as opposed to the 

 Mongolian or Yellow race). They are celebrated 

 for their beauty, and under the Mohammedan rule 

 the white slaves of western Asia and of Egypt 

 were mostly drawn from among them and the 

 Circassians. To the great credit of Russia this 



