Editing Gulf Coast of the United States (section)

==History==
[[File:United States 1803-04-1804-03.png|thumb|Map of the [[Louisiana Purchase]]]]
[[Hurricane Katrina]] and [[Hurricane Rita]] have destroyed a number of museums and archives in the Gulf Coast. In 2008 floods in Iowa destroyed the local ''Flood Museum'' which held materials from the [[Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993]].<ref>{{cite book | author1=Sarah S. Brophy| author2= Elizabeth Wylie |title=The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice |publisher= Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2013 |page=7 |isbn=9780759123229 }}</ref>

Before European settlers arrived in the region, the Gulf Coast was home to several pre-Columbian kingdoms which had extensive trade networks with empires such as the Aztecs and the Mississippi Mound Builders. Shark and alligator teeth and shells from the Gulf have been found as far north as Ohio, in the mounds of the Hopewell culture.<ref>Nash, Gary B. ''Red, White and Black: The Peoples of Early North America'' Los Angeles 2015 p. 6</ref>

The first Europeans to settle the Gulf Coast were primarily the [[French Colonial Empire|French]] and the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]]. The [[Louisiana Purchase]] (1803), [[Adams–Onís Treaty]] (1819) and the [[Texas Revolution]] (1835–1836) made the Gulf Coast a part of the United States during the first half of the 19th century. As the U.S. population continued to expand its frontiers westward, the Gulf Coast was a natural magnet in the [[American South|South]] providing access to shipping lanes and both national and international commerce. The development of [[sugar]] and [[cotton]] production (enabled by [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]]) allowed the South to prosper. By the mid-19th century the city of [[New Orleans]], being situated as a key to commerce on the [[Mississippi River]] and in the Gulf, had become the largest U.S. city not on the [[East Coast of the United States|Atlantic seaboard]] and the fourth largest in the U.S. overall.

Two major events were turning points in the earlier history of the Gulf Coast region. The first was the [[American Civil War]], which caused severe damage to some economic sectors in the [[American South|South]], including the Gulf Coast. The second event was the [[Galveston Hurricane of 1900]]. At the end of the 19th century [[Galveston]] was, with New Orleans, one of the most developed cities in the region. The city had the third busiest port in the U.S.<ref name="Txfacts">{{cite web |url= http://www.1900storm.com/isaaccline/isaacsstorm.lasso |title= The 1900 Storm |access-date= 2006-07-11 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060711063120/http://www.1900storm.com/isaaccline/isaacsstorm.lasso |archive-date= 2006-07-11 }}</ref> and its financial district was known as the "Wall Street of the South".<ref name="GALVESTON.COM">{{cite web |url=http://www.galveston.com/history |title=Galveston, Texas History |access-date=2007-10-15 |publisher=Galveston.com}}</ref>

[[File:Katrina 2005-08-28 1700Z.jpg|thumb|[[Hurricane Katrina]]]]
Since then the Gulf Coast has been hit with numerous other hurricanes. On August 29, 2005, [[Hurricane Katrina]] struck the Gulf Coast as a [[Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale#Category 3|Category 3]] hurricane.  It was the [[List of costliest Atlantic hurricanes|most damaging storm]] in the history of the United States, causing upwards of $80 billion in damages, and leaving over 1,800 dead. Again in 2008, the Gulf Coast was struck by a catastrophic hurricane. Due to its immense size, [[Hurricane Ike]] caused devastation from the [[Louisiana]] coastline all the way to the [[Kenedy County, Texas]], region near [[Corpus Christi, Texas|Corpus Christi]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/one_year_after_hurricane_ike.html |title=Evacuation and Devastation in Southern Texas |newspaper=The Boston Globe |access-date=2014-03-28}}</ref> In addition, Ike caused flooding and significant damage along the [[Mississippi]] coastline and the [[Florida panhandle]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/hurricanes/2008-09-11-ike-mississippi-coast_N.htm |title=Flooding in Miss. and FL |newspaper=USA Today |date=2008-09-11 |access-date=2014-03-28}}</ref> Ike killed 112 people and left upwards of 300 people missing, never to be found.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/02/ike.missing/|title=Ike missing|website=www.cnn.com|access-date=2020-01-14}}</ref> Hurricane Ike was the [[List of costliest Atlantic hurricanes|third most damaging storm]] in the history of the United States, causing more than $25 billion<ref name="IkeTCR">{{cite web|author=Robbie Berg | publisher=NHC | date=2009-01-23 | access-date=2009-09-12 | title=Hurricane Ike Tropical Cyclone Report | url=https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092008_Ike.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141112090405/https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092008_Ike.pdf | archive-date=2014-11-12 | url-status=dead }}</ref> in damage along the coast, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless, and sparking the largest search-and-rescue operation in U.S. history.<ref>[http://www.houstonhurricanerecovery.org/node/163 Ike Evacuation and Rescue Operation] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202223902/http://www.houstonhurricanerecovery.org/node/163 |date=2013-12-02 }}</ref>

Other than the hurricanes, the Gulf Coast has redeveloped dramatically over the course of the 20th century. The gulf coast is highly populated. The petrochemical industry, launched with the major discoveries of oil in Texas and spurred on by further discoveries in the Gulf waters, has been a vehicle for development in the central and western Gulf which has spawned development on a variety of fronts in these regions. [[Texas]] in particular has benefited tremendously from this industry over the course of the 20th century and economic diversification has made the state a magnet for population and home to more [[Fortune 500|''Fortune'' 500]] companies than any other U.S. state. [[Florida]] has grown as well, driven to a great extent by its long established tourism industry but also by its position as a gateway to the [[Caribbean]] and [[Latin America]]. As of 2024, Texas and Florida are the second and third [[List of U.S. states and territories by population|most populous states]] in the nation, respectively. Other areas of the Gulf Coast have benefited less, though economic development fueled by tourism has greatly increased property values along the coast, and is now a severe danger to the valuable but fragile [[ecosystem]]s of the Gulf Coast.

Within the United States, a process was started on January 20, 2025 to rename the waters enclosed by the Gulf States, extending southward to the maritime borders with Mexico and Cuba, the [[Gulf of Mexico#Name|"Gulf of America"]] for federal use.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heinz • • |first=Frank |date=2025-01-24 |title='Efforts already underway' to implement renaming of Denali, Gulf of Mexico |url=https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/efforts-underway-rename-mckinley-gulf-of-america/3750065/ |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth |language=en-US}}</ref> On February 10, 2025, the [[United States Board on Geographic Names|U.S. Board on Geographic Names]] and the [[Federal Aviation Administration]] officially recognized the change.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Geographic Names Information System--Feature ID 558730 "Gulf of America" |url=https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/gaz-record/558730 |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=nationalmap.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-10 |title=25-01 AIS Charting Notice |url=https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/safety_alerts/ |archive-url=https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/safety_alerts/media/AIS_25-01_CN_Geographic_Name_Changes.pdf |archive-date=2025-02-10 |access-date=2025-02-10 |website=faa.gov}}</ref>