New York

Established in 1664

The Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and later royal colony on the northeast coast of North America. As one of the Middle Colonies, New York achieved independence and worked with the others to found the United States.

In 1664, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch Province of New Netherland in America was awarded by Charles II of England to his brother James, Duke of York. James raised a fleet to take it from the Dutch and the Governor surrendered to the English fleet without recognition from the Dutch West Indies Company that had authority over it. The province was renamed for the Duke of York, as its proprietor. England seized de facto control of the colony from the Dutch in 1664, and was given de jure sovereign control in 1667 in the Treaty of Breda and again in the Treaty of Westminster (1674). It was not until 1674 that English common law was applied in the colony. The colony was one of the Middle Colonies, and ruled at first directly from England. When the Duke of York ascended to the throne of England as James II, the province became a royal colony.

The revolutionary New York Provincial Congress of local representatives assumed the government on May 22, 1775, declared the province the "State of New York" in 1776, and ratified the first New York Constitution in 1777. During the ensuing American Revolutionary War the British regained and occupied the strategic port and harbor of New York Town in September 1776, using it as its military and political base of operations in British North America; though a British governor was technically in office, much of the remainder of the upper part of the colony was held by the rebel Patriots. British claims in New York were ended by the Treaty of Paris of 1783, with New York establishing its independence from the crown. The final evacuation of all of New York by the British Army was followed by the return of General George Washington's Continental Army on November 25, 1783, in a grand parade and celebration.

New York, constituent state of the United States of America, one of the 13 original colonies and states. New York is bounded to the west and north by Lake Erie, the Canadian province of Ontario, Lake Ontario, and the Canadian province of Quebec; to the east by the New England states of Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean and New Jersey; and to the south by Pennsylvania. The capital is Albany.

Until the 1960s New York was the country’s leading state in nearly all population, cultural, and economic indexes. Its displacement by California beginning in the middle of that decade was caused by the enormous growth rate that has persisted on the West Coast rather than by a large decline in New York itself. Texas overtook New York as the second most populous state in 2000. Still, New York remains one of the most populous states in the country, and its gross economic product exceeds those of all but a handful of countries throughout the world.

New York is situated across a region of contrast—from the Atlantic shores of Long Island and the skyscrapers of Manhattan through the rivers, mountains, and lakes of upstate New York to the plains of the Great Lakes region. With canals, railroads, and highways, New York is a principal gateway to the west from the Middle Atlantic and New England states and a hub for travel to and from much of the country. The cities of the state—from New York City through Albany, Utica, and Syracuse to Rochester and Buffalo on the Great Lakes—and their suburbs are home to more than four-fifths of all New Yorkers.

Both the New England and the Southern colonies had a great deal more to do with the movement toward revolution and with stabilizing the new country during its early decades than did New York, but, once the state’s growth got under way, it attained a breakneck pace. The state—and New York City in particular—remains the centre of much of the country’s economy and finance, as well as of many formative impulses in American art and culture, and the influence and image of both are major elements in national political life. However, the overwhelming presence of New York City has tended to divide the state socially and politically, causing long-standing problems for both the city and the state. Area 54,555 square miles (141,297 square km). Population (2020) 20,201,249.

Colonial period

New York was originally settled as a colony of the Netherlands following Henry Hudson’s exploration in 1609 of the river later named for him. In 1624 at what is today Albany, the Dutch established Fort Orange as the first permanent European settlement in New York. One year later New Amsterdam was established at the southern end of Manhattan Island. To legalize that settlement, Peter Minuit, the Dutch governor, paid the Indians merchandise worth about 60 Dutch guilders at the time—converted to the legendary $24. Although the Dutch established several settlements along the Hudson, their interest was more in trade than in permanent agricultural development. Thus, while its trading posts prospered and aided the general expansion of its empire, the Netherlands planted no deep roots of permanent colonization in New York. The most likely explanation for this lies in the economic prosperity and social stability of the homeland. The Dutch citizens had no strong economic motivations to move overseas, nor were there sufficient religious or political quarrels to promote any such movement. An English fleet sailed into New York harbour in 1664; Gov. Peter Stuyvesant was obliged to surrender, the citizens and the Dutch government having no will to fight. Although controversy ensued for several years, the colony was firmly in English hands by 1669. Under the English it was renamed New York, for James, duke of York (later James II).

Source:

Wikipedia

Britannica