Arkansas (pronounced Arkan-saw) is a state in the Southern region of the United States. Its name is from the Sioux, referring to the land of the Quapaw Indians.

Arkansas is the 29th largest and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States. It prides itself on its natural landscapes and does not have any very large cities. The capital is Little Rock.

Unlike many southern states, Arkansas has a great variety of landscapes, from the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, through the extensive forests of the Arkansas Timberlands, to the lowlands near the Mississippi River.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, Arkansas was home to the Caddo, Osage, and Quapaw people. In the 17th century, it became a colony of France and developed as a land of European fur trappers and traders. After the Louisiana Purchase, it became part of a territory of the United States. The capital was located in Little Rock in 1821.

When Arkansas applied for statehood, slavery was an issue, but all the same it was admitted in 1836 as the 25th state and the 13th slave state. At that time the new state had a population of just 60,000, with a quarter being slaves. During the period of the Civil War, Arkansas joined the Confederate States of America before returning to the Union in 1868.

Arkansas was traditionally a plantation state, with huge farms growing cotton and rice. There was little industry, and as the north forged ahead in the later part of the 19th century, based on manufacturing, Arkansas, with its income entirely depending on farming, fell further and further behind. This is how it got a reputation as a poor, hillbilly state.

It was only after World War II that the state began to get more prosperous, as a wider range of activities were attracted to the state, although even today, cotton and rice growing remain important.