George Washington Birthplace National Monument
National monument, eastern Virginia, U.S. Established in 1930, it con¬ sists of 538 acres (218 hectares) located along the Potomac River. Wake¬ field, the house where George Washington (b. Feb. 22, 1732) spent the first three years of his life, burned in 1779. The present Memorial House was reconstructed in 1931-32 and represents a typical 18th-century Vir¬ ginia plantation dwelling with a period garden.
Georges Bank Submerged sandbank in the Atlantic Ocean east of Massachusetts, U.S. It has long been an important fishing ground, with scallops harvested in its northeastern portion. Navigation is made dan¬ gerous by crosscurrents and fog. In 1994 it was closed to commercial fishing in order to replenish depleted stock.
George's War, King See King George's War
Georgetown formerly (1784-1812) Stabroek \'sta-,bruk\ City (pop., 1999 est.: 275,000), capital of Guyana. The country’s chief port, it lies on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Demerara River. It was founded by the British in 1781 and named after George III; it was largely rebuilt by the French by 1784. Known during the Dutch occupation as Stabroek, it was established as the seat of government of the combined colonies of Essequibo and Demerara in 1784. When the British regained control in 1812, the name was changed back to Georgetown. The mod¬ ern city is the chief commercial and manufacturing centre of Guyana.
Georgetown University Private university in Washington, D.C., U.S. Founded in 1789, it was the first Roman Catholic (Jesuit) college in the U.S. It has always been open to people of all faiths. It includes a col¬ lege of arts and sciences, a graduate school, and schools of foreign ser¬ vice, law, medicine, nursing, business, and languages and linguistics. Important facilities include a seismological observatory, the Woodstock Theological Center, and various medical research centres.
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Georgia Country, Transcaucasia, western Asia. Located within the Cau¬ casus Mountains, on the southeastern shores of the Black Sea, it includes the autonomous republics of Abkhazia and Ajaria (Adjara). Area: 27,086 sq
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mi (70,152 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 4,490,000. Capitaclass="underline" Tbilisi. Two-thirds of the people are Georgian (Kartveli); minorities include Armenians, Russians, and Azer¬ baijanians. Language: Georgian (official). Religions: Christianity (Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic); also Islam. Currency: lari. Most of Georgia is mountainous, and many peaks rise above 15,000 ft (4,600 m). The Caucasus protect it against cold air from the north, and the climate is mainly subtropical. Fertile lowlands lie near the shores of the Black Sea. Georgia has a well-developed industrial base noted for its hydroelectric power, coal mining and steel making, machinery production, and textiles. Agricultural land is in short supply, and farming is difficult; crops include tea, citrus fruits, grapes (for wine), sugar beets, and tobacco. Georgia is a republic with one legislative body; the head of state and government is the president, assisted by the prime minister. Ancient Georgia was the site of the kingdoms of Iberia and Colchis, whose fabled wealth was known to the ancient Greeks. The area was part of the Roman Republic by 65 bc and became Christian in ad 337. For the next three centuries, it was involved in the conflicts between the Byzantine and Persian empires; after 654 it was controlled by Arab caliphs, who estab¬ lished an emirate in Tbilisi. It was ruled by the Armenian Bagratids from the 8th to the 12th century, and the zenith of Georgia’s power was reached in the reign of Queen Tamara, whose realm stretched from Azerbaijan to Circassia, forming a pan-Caucasian empire. Invasions by Mongols and Turks in the 13th-14th century disintegrated the kingdom, and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 isolated it from Western Christendom. There were repeated invasions over the next three centuries by the Armenians, Ottomans, and Persians. Georgia sought Russian pro¬ tection in 1783 and in 1801 was annexed by the Russian Empire. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the area was briefly independent; in 1921 a Soviet regime was installed, and in 1936 Georgia became the Georgian S.S.R., a full member of the Soviet Union. In 1990 a noncommunist coa¬ lition came to power in the first free elections ever held in Soviet Georgia, and in 1991 Georgia declared independence. In the 1990s, while President Eduard Shevardnadze tried to steer a middle course, internal dissension sparked conflicts in Abkhazia.
Georgia State (pop., 2000: 8,186,453), southeastern U.S. It is bordered by Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama; the Atlantic Ocean lies to the southeast. The last of the original 13 English colonies, Georgia covers 58,930 sq mi (152,629 sq km) and is the largest state east of the Mississippi River; its capital is Atlanta. The area was
inhabited by the Creek and Cherokee Indians when Spanish missionaries arrived in the 16th century. English settlement began in 1733 at Savan¬ nah when James Oglethorpe established a refuge for debtors. European settlement accelerated after the American Revolution, and the last of the Indians were forcibly removed in the 1830s. Georgia seceded from the Union in 1861, and the American Civil War was particularly hard on the state. It was the last former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union in 1870. Its landscape sweeps from the Blue Ridge in the north to the Okefenokee Swamp (which it shares with Florida) in the south. For most of the 19th century it was the capital of the cotton empire of the South; in the 20th century industry predominated. The state’s population grew throughout the 20th century, with Atlanta especially attracting national corporations.
Georgia, Strait of Channel in the Pacific Ocean, southwestern Canada and northwestern U.S. Located between Vancouver Island, the southwest¬ ern mainland of British Columbia, and northwestern Washington state, it is 150 mi (241 km) long and 30 mi (28 km) at its widest. To the north the strait ends in a jumble of islands separating it from Johnstone and Queen Charlotte straits. The southern end is marked by the San Juan Islands of Washington and joins Haro Strait, forming a link in the Inside Passage sea route between Seattle, Wash., and Skagway, Alaska.
Georgia Institute of Technology known as Georgia Tech Pub¬ lic institution of higher learning in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., founded in 1885. It consists of colleges of architecture, computing, engineering, sci¬ ences, and public policy and administration. Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered. Georgia Tech is home to a nuclear research centre and several other research and development centres.
Georgian Bay Inlet, Lake Huron, southeastern Ontario, Canada. Shel¬ tered from the rest of the lake by Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Pen¬ insula, it is 120 mi (190 km) long and 50 mi (80 km) wide; its maximum depth is 540 ft (165 m). The Georgian Bay Islands National Park, estab¬ lished in 1929, comprises some 40 islands in the southeastern and west¬ ern parts of the bay. The Thirty Thousand Islands along the bay’s eastern shore constitute a popular summer resort area.