Georgia was founded last among the original Thirteen Colonies.
The Province of Georgia was established in 1732 under a charter granted to James Oglethorpe and other trustees. The first settlers arrived in 1733 and founded Savannah near the Atlantic coast. Georgia was named for King George II of Great Britain.
The colony’s location gave Britain a buffer against Spanish Florida. Early trustees promoted settlement by small farmers and initially restricted slavery, though those policies later changed after Georgia became a royal colony in 1752.
Georgia’s position as the last-founded colony is sometimes confused with the order in which the colonies declared independence or became states. The original 13 were not created all at once: Virginia was established at Jamestown in 1607, while Georgia followed more than a century later. Together, the colonies broke from Britain during the American Revolution and formed the foundation of the United States.