Alabama was named after the Alabama River. "Alabama" is a combination of two Choctaw words; "Alba" means 'vegetation' and "Amo" means 'gatherer'. "Vegetation gatherers" best describes the Alabama Indians who cleared lands for agriculture.

The French established the first European settlement in 1702, in Mobile. Spanish and English pioneers followed. However, it is the memory of the Native American presence that is best remembered - Alabama is called the land of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians.

Alabama is regarded as the cradle of the Confederacy during the Civil War. The Constitution of the Confederacy was drawn up in Montgomery. In this light, the motto, "Audemus jua nostra defendere" - meaning "We dare defend our rights" was adopted.

Alabama is commonly referred to as the "Cotton State" but modern Alabama has a more distinctive nickname in "The Heart of Dixie."

Most noticeable of the land area are the vast gentle plains with a general incline towards the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The Alabama landscape also features historic plantations, pine-ringed lakes and swamps and bayous, especially in Mobile River Delta.

Interestingly, Alabama has a fascination for transporting mankind – first and anywhere! – when it built the Tuscumbia Railroad, the first railroad west of the Allegheny Mountains; Saturn rocket, the first rocket to put man on the moon was built in Huntsville; the first electric streetcar in the world ran down Dexter Avenue in Montgomery; The Hunley, the first submarine in the world was built in Mobile.

• al.com: Everything Alabama