Savannah is the oldest settlement in Georgia, founded by James Oglethorpe in 1733. One of the first planned cities in the United States, Savannah was designed so that each family’s plot fronted on one of a series of public squares, which were made into small, semitropical parks. The settlement became an important port after 1744, and served as the capital of Georgia until 1786. Savannah incorporated as a city in 1789.

During the American Revolution it was held by the British, from 1778 to 1782. Eli Whitney completed work on the cotton gin nearby in 1793, and the cultivation of cotton quickly began to replace local rice growing. In 1819 the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, the Savannah, sailed from the city. During the American Civil War, Union forces took Fort Pulaski in 1862, but the city remained in Confederate hands until taken by General William Tecumseh Sherman in December 1864. The city was a shipbuilding center during both world wars. Savannah is probably a corruption of the name of the Shawnee people who lived in the area.