The O'odham lived in small settlements as seasonal farmers who took advantage of the rains, rather than the large-scale irrigation of the Akimel. The Tohono O'odham also lived in the region, but largely to the south and all the way to the Mexican border. The Maricopa are part of the larger Yuma people however, they migrated east from the lower Colorado and Gila Rivers in the early 1800s, when they began to be enemies with other Yuma tribes, settling among the existing communities of the Akimel O'odham. They banded with the Maricopa for protection against incursions by the Yuma and Apache tribes. Their crops included corn, beans, and squash for food as well as cotton and tobacco. They lived in small villages with well-defined irrigation systems that spread over the Gila River Valley, from Florence in the east to the Estrellas in the west.

The Akimel O'odham were the major group in the area. The O'odham were offshoots of the Sobaipuri tribe, who in turn were thought to be the descendants of the Hohokam. Īfter the departure of the Hohokam, groups of Akimel O'odham (commonly known as Pima), Tohono O'odham, and Maricopa tribes began to use the area, as well as segments of the Yavapai and Apache. It is believed periods of drought and severe floods between 13 led to the Hohokam civilization's abandonment of the area. They also carried out extensive trade with the nearby Ancient Puebloans, Mogollon, and Sinagua, as well as with the more distant Mesoamerican civilizations. They created roughly 135 miles (217 kilometers) of irrigation canals, making the desert land arable, and paths of these canals were used for the Arizona Canal, Central Arizona Project Canal, and the Hayden-Rhodes Aqueduct. The Hohokam people occupied the Phoenix area for 2,000 years. Water insecurity and drought in conjunction with climate change have become a significant concern for the metropolitan area's future growth prospects. Phoenix is the cultural center of the state of Arizona. This growth rate slowed during the Great Recession of 2007–09, and has rebounded slowly. The city averaged a four percent annual population growth rate over a 40-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s. These remained the driving forces of the city until after World War II, when high-tech companies began to move into the valley and air conditioning made Phoenix's hot summers more bearable. Cotton, cattle, citrus, climate, and copper were known locally as the 'Five C's' anchoring Phoenix's economy.

Despite this, its canal system led to a thriving farming community with the original settlers' crops remaining important parts of the Phoenix economy for decades, such as alfalfa, cotton, citrus, and hay. It is in the northeastern reaches of the Sonoran Desert and has a hot desert climate. It became the capital of Arizona Territory in 1889. Phoenix was settled in 1867 as an agricultural community near the confluence of the Salt and Gila Rivers and was incorporated as a city in 1881. It is the largest metropolitan area, both by population and size, of the Arizona Sun Corridor megaregion. Phoenix, the seat of Maricopa County, has the largest area of all cities in Arizona, with an area of 517.9 square miles (1,341 km 2), and is also the 11th largest city by area in the United States. The metropolitan area is the 10th-largest by population in the United States, with approximately 4.85 million people as of 2020, making it the largest in the Southwestern United States. Phoenix is the anchor of the Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, which in turn is part of the Salt River Valley. state capital with a population of more than one million residents. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, the most populous state capital in the country, and the only U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. Phoenix ( / ˈ f iː n ɪ k s/ FEE-niks Navajo: Hoozdo O'odham: S-ki:kigk Spanish: Fénix Walapai: Banyà:nyuwá ) is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S.

Camp thunderbird 2022