Ten thousand years ago, mound building Native Americans cultivated food crops and tobacco in the fertile soil of upstate New York. Mohegan (Mohican) and Munsee tribes of the Algonquian family dwelled near the state's coasts for centuries, and in the late 1500's, the five tribes of the Iroquois ( Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga Cayuga, and Seneca) conquered the inland portion of the state, forming the Iroquois Confederacy in 1570. This confederacy, which would reach its height around 1700, had advanced social and political systems. The Indians of the Confederacy were peaceful with each other, but warlike to all other tribes.
The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle the region. In 1609 English navigator Henry Hudson, who was in the service of The Netherlands, discovered New York Bay and sailed up the river which now bears his name. In that same year Samuel Champlain explored upstate New York and discovered the lake which he named Lake Champlain. In 1624, the Dutch established Fort Orange at present-day Albany, which was the first permanent European settlement in the region. In 1625 Dutch Governor Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island (from the Indian word manahatin, meaning "hill island") by paying the Indians 60 Dutch guilders (about $24) in the form of merchandise. Originally, the Dutch were most interested in fur trading and did not bother much with establishing permanent settlements. This was mainly because New York's climate proved surprisingly harsh. Manhattan is Mediterranean in latitude, and the Dutch settlers were bewildered to find that it became extremely cold in the winter.
Skirmishes with the British over New Netherlands' border with the Connecticut colony eventually forced the Dutch to relinquish their claims to the land, and in 1664 the English government officially took over the region, renaming it New York, after England's Duke of York who later became King James II. Although confrontations with the Dutch ensued for several years (there was even a brief resurgence of Dutch rule), New York remained an English colony until the American Revolution.
During the French and Indian Wars, the French made forays from their colonies in Canada into northern and central New York, and Indians took advantage of the Europeans' distractions by attacking and burning the town of Schenectady in 1690. After the end of the wars in 1763 the French were cleared out of North America east of the Mississippi, leaving the relatively strong Iroquois League of Five Nations aligned with the English in New York. Shortly after the wars however, British-American settlers from New England began to migrate into New York, and the Iroquois, who had been weakened by decades of war, were forced west out of the territory.
By the late eighteenth century, the harsh British laws such as the Sugar and Stamp Acts had New York merchants strongly calling for independence. New York had long been a leader among the American colonies, and it played a major part in the Revolutionary War. New York City was occupied by the British during the entire war, and almost one-third of all the battles of the Revolution were fought in the colony. The Battles at Saratoga and Fort Ticonderoga were among the most important of the war, and General Washington was headquartered for some time at West Point, where he was betrayed by General Benedict Arnold.
New Yorkers also played an important role at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. New York delegate Alexander Hamilton pressed for a stronger central government, and after the convention, he help write The Federalist Papers which were published in New York newspapers in an effort to convince the state's residents to vote for ratification. Despite the roles of Hamilton and other New York delegates in shaping the new government, the politics within the state legislature were complex and bitter, and New York trailed as the eleventh of the thirteen colonies to endorse the final Constitution. In April of 1789, George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States in New York City, and the city served as the nation's capital until 1791.
Commerce began to thrive in New York with the beginning of the 1800's, especially after the demonstration of the first steamship by Robert Fulton on the Hudson River in 1802. Several minor battles of the War of 1812 were fought in New York, and afterwards earnest expansion began into the state's west. Turnpikes west from Albany and along the Hudson River were constructed, as was the Erie Canal, in 1825, which linked the Hudson River with Lake Erie forming a western water route through the Great Lakes. Alexander Hamilton's founding of the Bank of New York only added to the state's tremendous economic surge. Railroads followed in quick order, establishing trade routes of a similar pattern to those of the turnpikes and canal. By 1815, New York was already AmericaΓÇÖs leading state in population, growth, manufacturing, trade, and transportation.
New York stood firmly with the Union in the Civil War, and the state's industries provided much of the needed war materials while its vast population provided many of the northern soldiers. At this same time New York's political fortunes came under the grip of William "Boss" Tweed's Democratic political machine, known as ΓÇ£Tammany Hall,ΓÇ¥ which he used to control party nominations and government funds. Eventually the corruption of Tammany Hall was publicized by the so-called "muckraking" journalists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What followed was a wave of political reform, and progressive politicians from New York such as Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland,, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, and Thomas E. Dewey became some of the most powerful of the twentieth century.
From the later half of the eighteenth century and through the 1960's millions of Immigrants poured into the United states by way of New York Harbor. Most of these newcomers were too poor to make it any farther, and thus New York City soon became the most ethnically diverse city in the world. Huge populations of Irish, Italians, Germans, and Jews played major roles in the development of the city, and provided the work-force necessary for the major construction projects which took place there, such as the Brooklyn and George Washington Bridges and the Empire State Building. Until the 1960's New York had the largest population of any state, and to this day it is home to the nation's most varied population of immigrants and various ethnicities.
The Port of New York City is still the largest port in the United States, handling 15 percent of the nation's imports and carrying one half of the world's passengers to and from the country. The Rochester area is home to the Kodak and Corning glass Corporations and is thus the world's leader in the manufacturing of photographic and optical equipment. The city of Syracuse is a leader in the production of primary metals, machinery, and paper, and the city of Buffalo is also a major industrial center. Even the state's smallest metropolitan area, Binghamton, is home to one of the worlds most important industries. The International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) was founded in the city, and thus it has a strong concentration of employment in the computer fields. On top of all this New York City is also home to Wall Street; the financial capital of the world. The activity which takes place in the business district surrounding this tiny street in lower Manhattan dictates the value of all the currency and other important commodities on the planet each and every day.
Visiting the State
OUTSIDE NEW YORK CITY:
The Adirondack Mountains, a circular mountain group in northeast New York, features many beautiful lakes, waterfalls, peaks, and gorges, as well as popular resorts for camping, hiking, fishing, and water recreation. Some famous locations include Lake Placid, Lake George, and the Adirondack State Park.
Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown.
The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, provides an inland water route from the Hudson River at Albany westward to Lake Erie at Buffalo.
The Finger Lakes, a series of 11 long, narrow, glacial lakes in central New York, offer many tourist attractions and resorts.
The Hamptons, in Long Island.
Dotting the state are historic homes, forts, and battlefields (over one-third of all the battles of the American Revolution were fought in New York, including the decisive Battle of Saratoga). Some popular sites include Washington's Headquarters and Museum, Stony Point Battlefield, Fort Ontario, Walt Whitman House, Mills Mansion, Old Fort Niagara, and Herkimer Home.
Niagara Falls, on the Canadian border in western New York, just Northwest of Buffalo on the Niagara River.
Syracuse University and the Syracuse Canal Museum (the only museum in the U.S. devoted to canal history).
IN NEW YORK CITY:
(Manhattan): The Statue of Liberty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wall Street, Broadway, the Twin Towers, the Chrysler building, Greenwich Village, Soho art district, Chinatown, Little Italy, American Museum of Natural History, the Hayden Planetarium, Fifth Avenue shopping, Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the New York Aquarium, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, the United Nations Building, St. Patrick's Cathedral, South Street Seaport, and Grant's Tomb.
The Bronx features the Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Zoo.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden features over 12,000 different kinds of plants from all over the world.
Coney Island, in Brooklyn.
Ellis Island National Monument
Queens features the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Botanical Garden, Queens Historical Society; and Queens Museum of Art.
Staten Island: the Staten Island Ferry, the Staten Island Zoo, and the Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences.
Famous People
Susan B. Anthony (b. Mass. 1820-1906) Famous woman suffragist and reformer; with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she organized the National Woman Suffrage Association.
Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) Librarian who developed a means of classifying books known as the Dewey Decimal System.
Thomas E. Dewey (b. Mich. 1902-1971) Lawyer and New York governor whose claim to fame was as a big racket buster in New York.
Kareem Abdul-Jabar, all-time leading scorer in the NBA.
Henry James, Jr. (1843-1916) Novelist, short story writer, and critic; author of The Portrait of a Lady and many more.
Billy Joel, popular singer and song writer from Long Island.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) U.S. author, most famous for Moby Dick and Billy Budd
Chris Mullen, famous basketball legend who played for St. Johns University College and the Golden Saint Warriors.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) 32nd president of the United States; only president to be elected three times.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th president of the United States.
Fascinating Fact
The Empire State Building, built in 1931, was the tallest building in the world until 1972. Today it remains the third tallest, at 1,250 feet high, after the Sears Roebuck Tower in Chicago and the World Trade Center in New York City. The force of a penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building would be lethal, and on a windless day, the penny would have attained so much force that it would bore a hole several inches deep in the concrete.
New York adopted its state flag in 1901. With a blue background, the flag features the goddesses of Liberty and Justice on either side of the official seal, upon which an American eagle sits, and below which is the state motto.
