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Dictionary:
New York
A state of the northeast United States. It was admitted as one of the original Thirteen Colonies in 1788. First explored by Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson, the region was claimed by the Dutch in 1624 but fell to the English in 1664–1667. The building of the Erie Canal and railroad lines in the 1820s and 1830s led to development of the western part of the state and great economic prosperity, establishing New York City as the financial center of the nation. Albany is the capital and New York City the largest city. Population: 19,300,000.
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
New York
For more information on New York, visit Britannica.com.
US History Encyclopedia:
New York State
New York StateLocation, Geography, and Climate
New York State is located in the northeast region of the United States. New York City and Long Island border on the Atlantic Ocean, and the state stretches westward to the Great Lakes of Ontario and Erie. These lakes, along with the St. Lawrence River, form the northern border of the state with Canada. To the east, New York borders Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; to the south, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; to the west, a short stretch of the state borders Ohio. The topography of the state is made up primarily of mountains, hills, woodlands, valleys, and fertile meadows. Ancient glacier formations and movements created rivers, gorges, and waterfalls that are among the most spectacular in the world. Niagara Falls, for example, which straddles the border with Canada in the northwest section of the state, is one of the most notable of the state's outstanding geographical features and is considered one of the natural wonders of the world.
Mountain ranges include the Adirondack and the Catskill Mountains, running north to south in the eastern portion of the state, and the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains in the southwestern area of the state. In addition to the Great Lakes, which border Canada to the north, notable lakes include the Finger Lakes in the center of the state, which is also the location of many gorges, and Lake Champlain, which forms part of the border with Vermont to the east. Noteworthy rivers in New York State include the Hudson River, which travels along the southeastern border to New York City, the St. Lawrence River, which separates the state from Canada on the eastern portion of the northern border, and the Mohawk River, which cuts through the center of the state on the eastern side.
New York has four distinct seasons every year. Winter lasts from approximately November through February and can see temperatures ranging from several degrees below zero Fahrenheit to averages in the forties and with several inches of snowfall. Spring can arrive in March or as late as May, with temperatures ranging from forty to sixty-five degrees. June, July, and August are the summer months, with temperatures ranging from an average of sixty to ninety degrees. Autumn is particularly spectacular in New York, with colorful foliage that begins turning in late September through mid-October, and sunny days and moderate temperatures in the sixties and seventies.
Peoples, Pre-1664
The area of North America that would come to be known as New York State was first populated by a Paleolithic culture from as far back as 5000 B.C., followed by Archaic cultures lasting until around 1000 B.C. Woodland native peoples arrived about the time of the fall of the Roman empire and lasted until about the time of the First Crusades, or about A.D. 1100. The Algonquin and Iroquoian cultures that flourished in the region when the first European settlers arrived had been there since about the twelfth century.
The Algonquin peoples, including the Raritans and the Delawares, lived near the coastal plains and shallow river valleys of the eastern regions. Algonquins usually lived near water, either the coastlines or rivers and streams, and ate fish and mollusks, with some plants in their diet. They collected shells, which they made into beads and sewed into ceremonial and historical keepsakes such as belts, known as wampum. Later, Europeans confused wampum with currency because it was valuable to the natives.
The Iroquoians lived along hills, in woodlands, along lakes, and in meadows in the interior of the state. They grew crops such as beans, squash, and corn, and hunted and fished in the forests and lakes. The Iroquois had an organized system of government made up of six member nations: Senecas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Mohawks, Oneidas, and later Tuscaroras. Each nation took its name from some physical aspect of its homeland or its place within the Iroquois League. The Senecas, for example, were "Keepers of the Western Door" because of their homeland at the western end of Iroquois territory, which would become western New York State years later. The Cayugas were called the "People of the Mucky Land" because of the marshy land around Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. The Onondagas were the "People of the Hills" and the "Keepers of the Council Fire" because they ran council meetings and were located near the center of Iroquois lands. The Oneidas were the "People of the Standing Stone" and the Mohawks were the "People of the Flint." Within each nation, a system of self-government involved clans of families, which were headed up by the elder women of each clan and appointed leaders, or chiefs, called sachems. Clans, such as the Bear Clan, the Beaver Clan, etc., derived their names from the natural creatures or habitat where the nation of clans lived. When war broke out among nations threatening the way of life of all in the fourteenth century, a peace agreement was drawn up among them, forming what would come to be called the Iroquois League. This league would later become a model for the establishment of the U.S. Constitution.
Native legends described the formation of the league when a mythic figure and prophet, Deganawidah, sent Hiawatha to walk among the Five Nations and spread a message of peace, proposing an alliance. Fifty representatives from the nations were sent to a meeting called the grand council. Matters of interest and concern to all nations were discussed at the council meetings, and votes were taken to make decisions that would be binding on all parties. Sachems could only be removed from their responsibilities if they were provedto be incompetent by the elder clan women.
The Iroquois League is still in existence among the Native peoples who occupy reservations in New York State and Canada. Until the American Revolution, the League was a formidable force of military, political, and social resistance against European incursion.
First Europeans and Africans
In 1524, the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano, under commission of the king of France, sailed his ship the Dauphine near the coastline of what is now New York. He was the first European to see its shores. Although he dropped anchor off what is now Staten Island, he did not stay or claim the land for any colonizing power. A year later, the Portuguese explorer Esteban Gomes also sailed near, but did not make any claims. By 1540, fur traders were making their way up the Hudson to trade with the Native peoples in beaver fur; however, it was not until 1609, when the explorer Henry Hudson came to the area, sailed up the Narrows, and continued up the river to what is now Albany, that it was claimed for the Dutch. Later, the area was named New Netherland.
In 1624, the Nieu Nederlandt anchored in the East River, bringing the first European colonial settlers to New York State. Settlement, trade, and war with the Indians continued for some time. The Dutch brought new animals and diseases to the New York environment and fought many violent battles, particularly against the Algonquins and the Mohawks, for control of land. By 1650, under the leadership of Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland had established itself as a growing and prosperous colony, which attracted more European settlers to New York's shores. Settlers from Portugal and many other countries left Europe for New Amsterdam, later called New York City, creating an early society of mixed cultures and backgrounds. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Dutch had also brought African Americans to the area as slaves.
Events, 1664 to 1825
King Charles II of England authorized his brother, James, duke of York, to sponsor an expedition to seize New
Netherland as a prize for England against the Dutch as well as for the promise of the colony's potential prosperity through trade. This was accomplished fairly easily, given the military superiority of the British, but for long into the eighteenth century, New York remained the least British in composition of all of the British American colonies. New Amsterdam became New York City and very quickly grew in prosperity as a port, even as early as the mid-1700s. At the arrival of the British, expansion moved westward, venturing into more of the Iroquoian territory. By 1775, clashes with the Mohawks were tempered by occasional treaties that aligned the British and the Mohawks against the revolutionaries.
New York experienced the Revolutionary War with perhaps the most violent and active engagements on many fronts and for a longer period of time than any other colony. The war in New York began 10 May 1775, when Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and the Green Mountain Boys took Fort Ticonderoga; the war was also marked by important battles at Saratoga and General John Sullivan's invasion of Iroquois territory from the south. New York State ratified the United States Constitution on 26 July 1788 at the Dutchess County courthouse. The war brought to the attention of the British, New Englanders, and other Europeans the fertile wilderness of western New York, which changed quickly in character and settlement in the decades following the Revolutionary War. In 1825, Governor George Clinton's idea for a canal that would join the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and the sea and would move westward expansion even beyond the lands of New York State was realized when the Erie Canal was opened for trade.
Nineteenth Century: Abolition, Women's Movement, Civil War, and Immigration
While trade boomed with the opening of the Erie Canal, and New York City continued to increase in population, wealth, and power as a metropolitan and cultural center, New York State was also a focal point for social change including abolitionism, the women's movement, and the effects of the first massive influx of immigrants.
As the final stop for many runaway slaves before reaching Canada, Underground Railroad routes flourished throughout the state, particularly in the central and western regions, such as the Finger Lakes area. After escaping slavery, Frederick Douglass founded his newspaper The North Star in Rochester, and that city and other New York cities and smaller towns became hubs of discourse and activism against slavery. Harriet Tubman also settled in Rochester.
Not too far south of Rochester, in Seneca Falls, in July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott organized the first convention dedicated to women's rights. Adopting the Declaration of Sentiments they had written, modeled after the Declaration of Independence, the men and women who gathered at Seneca Falls advocated equal legal rights, property ownership, educational and employment opportunities, and voting rights for women. Meetings and speeches continued throughout the state, involving and elevating many women to national prominence in relation to the issue. Included among these were Susan B. Anthony and Amelia Bloomer, the editor of The Lily, a monthly temperance paper that also dealt with issues of importance to women. Bloomer also popularized a style of more healthy and convenient women's clothing comprising baggy pantaloons and overblouse, hence the later term "bloomers."
New Yorkers fought for the Union in the Civil War, most notably at the Battle of Gettysburg, some 200 miles south of the state line in Pennsylvania. Although most New Yorkers favored keeping the Union intact and supported President Lincoln, New York City became a hotbed of protests and speeches both supporting and opposing the war. Perhaps one of the most notable contributions New York made to the Civil War was the formation of the only entirely black Union regiment.
The great potato famine of the 1840s in Ireland resulted in a massive increase in Irish emigrants coming to the United States through the port of New York City. The influx grew and continued through the beginning of the next century, when millions of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and the countries of Eastern Europe poured into the United States through Ellis Island. From the late 1800s through the early twentieth century, Ellis Island processed millions of immigrants into the country. Ellis Island was allowed to decline after limits were placed on immigration, but in the late twentieth century it was restored and opened to the public.
Twentieth Century
The rise of the stock market caused unprecedented wealth and power to emanate from New York City, resulting in what has been called the Gilded Age in the early twentieth century. Millionaires such as the Vanderbilts and the Roosevelts built mansions along the Hudson River the size and likes of which have rarely been seen since. As the upper class was gaining in wealth and political power, the lower classes were falling further into poverty, and the gap between the classes widened.
Industry thrived in New York State in the early twentieth century. New York City had major markets in finance, clothing, publishing, entertainment, and commerce. Institutions such as Madison Avenue's advertising center, Times Square, and Broadway's theater district took firm hold during this time. Ironically, skyscrapers and landmarks in New York City such as the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge were built in large part by descendants of the Mohawk nation that had been adversely affected by European incursion. The Mohawks had become skilled steelworkers, building bridges across the St. Lawrence River and other locations in the 1800s. Upstate, exploiting the railroad system as an active connection to the "Big Apple, " as New York City was called, factories of glass and machinery grew and thrived. The state continued a significant agricultural business upstate as well, primarily in apples, beef, dairy products, and winemaking. The Great Depression hit New York State hard, as weaknesses in New York City's economy spread across the state. After World War II, the railways decreased in use, and this severed tie between upstate and New York City caused many smaller upstate towns to decline financially in the 1950s and 1960s. Politically, the divide widened even more as New York City became more liberal in its thinking and Democratic in its voting, while upstate dug in as a conservative, Republican stronghold.
By the end of the twentieth century, New York State was losing some of its political clout nationally. The 2000 national census resulted in the demotion of the state from second in electoral votes behind California to third, behind Texas as well. High state taxes drove many companies out of New York and kept many new ones from locating there. Family farms suffered from high costs and lack of federal support and many were forced to close. The suburban sprawl of chain stores and shopping malls drove commerce away from locally owned Main Street shops in upstate small towns. Tourism across the state remained strong, from Niagara Falls to Manhattan. The financial district in Manhattan also remained strong at the end of the century, enjoying an economic boom due to record-breaking stock market highs driven by hopes and prospects of the computer age.
In the final senatorial election of the twentieth century, New York State once again made women's history by electing Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady of the United States, to Congress as its junior senator. This was the first time in the nation's history that a former first lady had been elected to public office.
Early Twenty-First Century
Nostalgia for the golden days of New York City and what the city has meant to the history and development of the United States on a national scale increased after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. Two commercial jet airliners full of passengers on their way from Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, California, were hijacked and piloted by members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network into the sides of both Trade Center towers. (The Pentagon was also attacked, and a plane bound for the White House was downed by passengers in a field in Pennsylvania.) With nearly 3,000 dead in New York City alone, the attacks caused the most casualties of American civilians due to foreign action on American soil in the history of the United States. The terrorists clearly felt that the World Trade Center was a visible symbol of American financial strength and power throughout the world.
Visitors poured into the city to help first with the recovery and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center area in particular, then the economy of the city in general. The state economy continued to suffer as resources had to be diverted to rebuild the affected areas and support the affected families. Thus the cuts for education, libraries, and other social services throughout the state that had started in the 1990s continued into the start of the new century.
Bibliography
Klein, Milton M., ed. The Empire State: A History of New York. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2001.
Snow, Dean R. The Iroquois. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1994.
Spotlight:
New York
From our Archives: Today's Highlights, April 25, 2005
New York became the first state in the US to require automobile license plates on this date in 1901. Automobile owners were charged a fee of $1. The color and decorative design of license plates vary state by state, and some states have even begun to put the address of the official state website on the plate. People may pay an extra fee for a vanity plate, customized for the owner of the car.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
New York,
Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Ontario (NW), and the province of Quebec (N).
Facts and Figures
Area, 49,576 sq mi (128,402 sq km). Pop. (2000) 18,976,457, a 5.5% increase since the 1990 census. Capital, Albany. Largest city, New York City. Statehood, July 26, 1788 (11th of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution). Highest pt., Mt. Marcy, 5,344 ft (1,630 m); lowest pt., sea level. Nickname, Empire State. Motto, Excelsior [Ever Upward]. State bird, bluebird. State flower, rose. State tree, sugar maple. Abbr., N.Y.; NY
Geography
Eastern New York is dominated by the Great Appalachian Valley. Lake Champlain is the chief northern feature of the valley, which also includes the Hudson River. The Hudson is noted for its beauty, as are Champlain and neighboring Lake George. West of the lakes are the rugged Adirondack Mts., another major vacationland, with extensive wildernesses and sports centers like Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. Mt. Marcy (5,344 ft/1,629 m), the highest point in the state, is near Lake Placid. The rest of NE New York is hilly, sloping gradually to the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, both of which separate it from Ontario. The Mohawk River, which flows from Rome into the Hudson north of
Most of the southern part of the state is on the Allegheny plateau, which rises in the SE to the Catskill Mts., an area that attracts many vacationers from New York City and its environs. New York City, in turn, attracts tourists from all over the world. On the extreme SE, the state extends into the Atlantic Ocean to form Long Island, which is separated from Connecticut on the N by Long Island Sound.
The western extension of the state to Lakes Ontario and Erie contains many bodies of water, notably Oneida Lake and the celebrated Finger Lakes. In the northwest the Niagara River, with scenic Niagara Falls, forms the border with Ontario between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The western region has resorts as well as large, traditionally industrial cities such as Buffalo on Lake Erie,
In addition to the great forest preserves of the Adirondacks and Catskills, New York has many state parks, among them Jones Beach State Park and Allegany State Park. Part of Fire Island, which lies off Long Island, is a national seashore. The racetrack at Saratoga Springs, a pleasure and health resort, and the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River are popular with summer vacationers. Among the places of historic interest in the state under federal administration (see National Parks and Monuments, table) are those at Hyde Park, with the burial place of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Vanderbilt Mansion. Albany is the capital; New York City is the largest city, followed by Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse.
Economy
Schenectady, Albany, and New York City, once the major industrial cities of the lower Mohawk and the Hudson, continue their long-time manufacturing decline. Except in the mountain regions, the areas between cities are rich agriculturally. The Finger Lakes region has orchards producing apples, one of New York's leading crops; vineyards here and on Long Island make the state famous for its wines. The state produces other, diverse crops, especially grapes, strawberries, cherries, pears, onions, and potatoes (grown especially on E Long Island); maple syrup is extracted, and New York is the third leading U.S. producer of dairy goods. New York's mineral resources include crushed stone, cement, salt, and zinc.
The state has a complex system of railroads, air routes, and modern highways, notably the New York State Thruway. The New York State Canal System, an improvement of the old Erie Canal, is now mainly used for recreational travel; the Hudson and some other rivers still carry freight. Ocean shipping is handled by the port of New York City and, to a much lesser extent, by Buffalo. Hydroelectricity for N New York is produced by the St. Lawrence power project and by the Niagara power project, which began producing in 1961.
In spite of significant decline, New York has retained some important manufacturing industries, and, by virtue of New York City, it has strengthened is position as a commercial and financial leader. Although the largest percentage of the state's jobs lie in the service sector, its manufactures are extremely diverse and include printed materials, apparel, food products, machinery, chemicals, paper, electrical equipment (notably at Schenectady), computer equipment (Poughkeepsie), optical instruments and cameras (Rochester), sporting goods, and transportation equipment.
Printing and publishing, mass communications, advertising, and entertainment are among New York City's notable industries. Long Island has aircraft plants (although these have declined sharply since the 1970s) and Brookhaven National Laboratory, a research center. Many corporate headquarters and research facilities have relocated in Westchester co., N of New York City. Some commercial fishing is pursued in Lakes Erie and Ontario and in the waters around Long Island. The state has c.18,775,000 acres (7,294,000 hectares) of forest, but forestry is no longer a major industry.
Government, Politics, and Higher Education
Under its present constitution (adopted 1894), New York is run by a governor, who is elected to a four-year term and may be reelected, and by a bicameral legislature made up of a 61-member senate and a 150-member assembly. Republican George Pataki was elected governor in 1994, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Mario Cuomo, and was reelected in 1998 and 2002. He did not run in 2006, when Democrat Eliot Spitzer won the office. Members of both branches of the legislature are elected to two-year terms. The state has 2 U.S. senators and 31 representatives and has 33 electoral votes in national presidential elections (a drop from its 41 votes in 1970).
Apart from New York City (see separate articles for educational and cultural institutions in New York City and its boroughs), institutions of higher education in the state include Alfred Univ., Bard College, Colgate Univ., Cornell Univ., Hobart College, Iona Univ., Long Island Univ., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, Skidmore College, Syracuse Univ., the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Military Academy, Univ. of Rochester, Vassar College, and Wells College. The State Univ. of New York has major campuses at Stony Brook, Albany, Binghamton, and Buffalo.
History
The Algonquians and the Iroquois
Before Europeans began to arrive in the 16th cent., New York was inhabited mainly by Algonquian- and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans. The Algonquians, including the Mohegan, Lenni Lenape, and Wappinger tribes, lived chiefly in the Hudson valley and on Long Island. The Iroquois, living in the central and western parts of the state, included the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca tribes, who joined c.1570 to form the Iroquois Confederacy.
French and Dutch Claims
Europeans first approached New York from both the sea and from Canada. Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine in the service of France, visited (1524) the excellent harbor of New York Bay but did little exploring. In 1609, Samuel de Champlain, a Frenchman, traveled S on Lake Champlain from Canada, and Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch, sailed the Hudson nearly to Albany. The French, who had allied themselves with the Hurons of Ontario, continued to push into N and W New York from Canada, but met with resistance from the Iroquois Confederacy, which dominated W New York.
The Dutch early claimed the Hudson region, and the Dutch West India Company (chartered in 1621, organized in 1623) planted (1624) their colony of New Netherland, with its chief settlements at New Amsterdam on the lower tip of present-day Manhattan island (purchased in 1626 from the Canarsie tribe for goods worth about 60 Dutch guilders) and at Fort Nassau, later called Fort Orange (present-day Albany). To increase the slow pace of colonization the Dutch set up the patroon system in 1629, thus establishing the landholding aristocracy that became the hallmark of colonial New York. The last and most able of the Dutch administrators, Peter Stuyvesant (in office 1647–64), captured New Sweden for the Dutch in 1655.
An English Colony
The English, claiming the whole region on the basis of the explorations of John Cabot, made good their claim in the Second Dutch War (1664–67). In 1664 an English fleet sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam, and Stuyvesant surrendered without a struggle. New Netherland then became the colonies of New York and New Jersey, granted by King Charles II to his brother, the duke of York (later James II). Except for brief recapture (1673–74) by the Dutch, New York remained English until the American Revolution.
After the early days of the colony, the popular governor Thomas Dongan (1683–88) put New York on a firm basis and began to establish the alliance of the English with the Iroquois, which later played an important part in New York history. The attempt in 1688 to combine New York and New Jersey with New England under the rule of Sir Edmund Andros was a failure, turning almost all the colonists against him. The threat of the French was continuous, and New York was involved in a number of the French and Indian Wars (1689–1763). The friendship of Sir William Johnson with some of the Iroquois aided the British in the warfare and also opened part of central New York to settlers, mainly from the British Isles. Frequent warfare hindered growth, however, and much of W New York remained unsettled by colonists throughout the 18th cent.
Slowly, however, the colony, with its busy shipping and fishing fleets, its expanding farms, and its first college (King's College, founded in 1754, now Columbia Univ.), was beginning to establish its own identity, separate from that of England. Colonial self-assertiveness grew after the warfare with the French ended; there was considerable objection to the restrictive commercial laws, and the Navigation Acts were flouted by smuggling. When the Stamp Act was passed, New York was a leader of the opposition, and the Stamp Act Congress met (1765) in New York City. The policies of Lt. Gov. Cadwallader Colden, who did not oppose the Stamp Act, occasioned considerable complaint, and unrest grew.
Revolution and a New Constitution
As troubles flared and escalated into the American Revolution, New Yorkers were divided in their loyalties. About one third of all the military engagements of the American Revolution took place in New York state. The first major military action in the state was the capture (May, 1775) of Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys and Benedict Arnold. Crown Point was also taken. In Aug., 1776, however, George Washington was unable to hold lower New York against the British under Gen. William Howe and lost the battle of Long Island, as he did the succeeding actions at Harlem Heights (Sept. 16) and White Plains (Oct. 28).
The British invested New York City and held it to the war's end. The state had, however, declared independence and functioned with
The British alliance with the Iroquois resulted in widespread violence in the frontier portion of the state. After the devastation of two Iroquois villages, the Iroquois and British responded with the massacre at Cherry Hill (1778). For the rest of the war there was more or less a stalemate, with the British occupying New York City, the patriots holding most of the rest of the state, and Westchester co. disputed ground. In 1780 Benedict Arnold failed in his attempt to betray West Point.
The influence of Alexander Hamilton was paramount in bringing New York to accept (1788) the Constitution of the United States at a convention in Poughkeepsie. Other leaders, however, mostly from the landed aristocracy (such as John Jay and Gouverneur Morris), were also powerful. Hamilton, Jay, and James Madison wrote The Federalist, a series of essays, to promote ratification. New York City was briefly (1789–90) the capital of the new nation and was also the state capital until 1797, when Albany succeeded it. Political dissension between the Federalists and the Jeffersonians was particularly keen in New York state, and Aaron Burr had much to do with swinging the state to Jefferson.
Land Speculation and Commercial Development
By the end of the war many Loyalists had left New York; the emigrants included former large landowners whose holdings had been seized by the legislature. After the war speculation in W New York land (some newly acquired by quieting Massachusetts claims) rose to dizzying heights. The eastern boundary of the state was established after long wrangles and violence when Vermont was admitted as a state in 1791.
From the 1780s increased commerce (somewhat slowed by the Embargo Act of 1807) and industry, especially textile milling, marked the turn away from the old, primarily agricultural, order. It was on the Hudson that Robert Fulton demonstrated (1807) his steamboat. In the War of 1812 New York saw action in 1813–14, with the British capture of Fort Niagara and particularly with the brilliant naval victory of Thomas Macdonough over the British on Lake Champlain at Plattsburgh.
The state continued its development, which was quickened and broadened by the building of the Erie Canal. The canal, completed in 1825, and railroad lines constructed (from 1831) parallel to it made New York the major East-West commercial route in the 19th cent. and helped to account for the growth and prosperity of the port of New York. Cities along the canal (Buffalo, Syracuse, Rome, Utica, and Schenectady) prospered. Albany grew, and New York City, whose first bank had been established by Hamilton in 1784, became the financial capital of the nation.
Political, Reform, and Cultural Movements
New constitutions broadened the suffrage in 1821 and again in 1846; slavery was abolished in 1827. Politics was largely controlled from the 1820s to the 40s by the Albany Regency, which favored farmers, artisans, and small businessmen. Martin Van Buren was the regency's chief figure. The regency's control was challenged by the business-oriented Whigs, led by Thurlow Weed and William H. Seward, and by the Anti-Masonic party. The rise of tension between the reform-minded Locofocos and the Tammany organization in New York City weakened the Democratic party in the 1830s. After the panic of 1837, Seward was governor (1839–52), and his Whig program included internal improvements, educational reform, and opposition to slavery.
New York was a leader in numerous 19th-century reform groups. Antislavery groups made their headquarters in New York. In 1848 the first women's rights convention in the United States met in Seneca Falls.
Early in its history New York state emerged as one of the cultural leaders of the nation. In the early 19th cent. Washington Irving and William Cullen Bryant, leaders of the famed Knickerbocker School of writers, and James Fenimore Cooper were among the country's foremost literary figures. The natural beauty of New York inspired the noted Hudson River school of American landscape painters. With New England's decline as a literary center, many writers came to New York City from other parts of the nation, helping to make it a literary and publishing center and the cultural heart of the country.
Immigration and Civil War
Migrants from New England had been settling on the western frontier, and in the 1840s famine and revolution in Europe resulted in a great wave of Irish and German immigrants, whose first stop in America was usually New York City. In 1850, Millard Fillmore became the second New Yorker to be President of the United States; the first was Martin Van Buren (1837–41). The split of the Democrats over the slavery issue into antislavery Barnburners and the Hunkers, who were not opposed to the extension of slavery, helped pave the way for New York's swing to the Republicans and Abraham Lincoln in the fateful election of 1860.
Despite the draft riots (1863) in New York City and the activities of the Peace Democrats, New York state strongly favored the Union and contributed much to its cause in the Civil War. Industrial development was stimulated by the needs of the military, and railroads increased their capacity. New York City's newspapers, notably the Tribune under the guidance of Horace Greeley, had considerable national influence, and after the war the publication of periodicals and books centered more and more in the city, whose libraries expanded. From 1867 to 1869, Cornelius Vanderbilt consolidated the New York Central RR system.
Political Corruption and the Labor Movement
As economic growth accelerated, political corruption became rampant. Samuel J. Tilden won a national reputation in 1871 for prosecuting the Tweed Ring of New York City, headed by William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, but Tammany soon recovered much of its prestige and influence as the Democratic city organization. The Republican party also had bosses, notably Roscoe Conkling and Thomas Collier Platt, and the split between Democratic New York City and Republican upstate widened. New Yorkers Chester A. Arthur (1881–85) and Grover Cleveland (1885–89, 1893–97) served as Presidents of the United States in the late 19th cent.
After 1880 the inpouring of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe brought workers for the old industries, which were expanding, and for the new ones, including the electrical and chemical industries, which were being established. Labor conditions worsened but were challenged by the growing labor movement, whose targets included sweatshops (particularly notorious in New York City). Muckrakers were particularly vociferous in New York in the late 19th and early 20th cent. Service as New York City's police commissioner and then as a reform-oriented governor of the state helped Theodore Roosevelt establish the national reputation that sent him to the vice presidency and then to the White House (1901–9). A fire in 1911 at the Triangle Waist Company in Manhattan that killed 146 workers resulted in the passage of early health, fire safety, and labor laws including the Widowed Mothers Pension Act.
New York since 1912
The Democrats returned to power in the state in 1912, and subsequently New York seesawed from one party to the other. The reform programs continued to gain ground, however, and Democratic state administrations between World War I and II—those of Alfred E. Smith (1918–20, 1922–28), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1928–32), and Herbert H. Lehman (1932–42)—presided over a wide variety of reform measures. The reform programs emphasized public works, conservation, reorganization of state finances, social welfare, and extensive labor laws. Four years after Smith's defeat in the 1928 presidential election, Roosevelt went to the White House. Lehman followed Roosevelt's national New Deal program by instituting the Little New Deal in New York state. At the same time Fiorello LaGuardia, Republican mayor of New York City (1934–45), enthusiastically supported Roosevelt's social and economic reforms.
The Republican party returned to power in the state in 1942 with the election of Thomas E. Dewey as governor (reelected 1946, 1950). Dewey had the immense task of coordinating state activities with national efforts in World War II, straining New York's resources to the utmost. He also built upon the reforms of his predecessors, extending social and antidiscrimination legislation, and won a reputation for effectiveness that made him twice (1944 and 1948) the Republican presidential nominee.
During the governorship (1959–73) of Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican, state social-welfare programs and the State Univ. of New York were expanded, and a large state office and cultural complex was built in Albany. New York's growth slowed from the 1970s, though, as the state lost its dominant position in U.S. manufacturing, and the older cities lost businesses and residents to suburbs or to other states.
Bibliography
See A. C. Flick, A History of The State of New York (10 vol., 1933–37; repr. 10 vol. in 5, 1962); D. M. Ellis, A History of New York State (1967); E. Wilson, Upstate: Records and Recollections of Northern New York (1971); W. Smith, The History of The Province of New York, ed. by M. Karnmen (1972); J. H. Thompson, ed., The Geography of New York State (rev. ed. 1977); T. Gergel, The Encyclopedia of New York (1983); N. White, New York: A Physical History (1987); Delorme Mapping Company Staff, New York State Atlas and Gazetteer (1988).
Geography:
New York
State in the northeastern United States bordered by Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and Ontario, Canada to the north and west; Vermont, Massachusetts,
- One of the thirteen colonies.
Local Time:
New York
Local Time: Sep 8, 6:23 AM
Wine Lover's Companion:
New York
This state is the United States' third-largest premium wine-producing state after California and Washington. A majority of the state's vineyards are planted with native vitis labrusca or hybrid vines. Because of this, New York wasn't considered a producer of high-quality wines until recently. Acreage devoted to vitis vinifera grapes (like cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, pinot noir and riesling) is slowly increasing, but these varieties account for only about 10 percent of New York's total vineyard land. On the other hand, native american grapes (like catawba, concord, delaware and niagara) comprise over 70 percent of the vineyard acreage. hybrids like aurora, baco noir, chelois, de chaunac and seyval blanc account for the remaining vineyard acreage. New York's most important premium wine-producing region (in which 45 percent of the state's 160 wineries reside) is the finger lakes ava and its subzone cayuga lake ava. Other regions include the hudson river valley region ava, lake erie ava (which extends into pennsylvania andohio) and long island ava, with its viticultural areas of North fork of Long Island and The Hamptons. Much of New York's production goes into generic wines (labeled burgundy, chablis, rhine wine or sauterne) or into sparkling wines. Wines labeled with an AVA designation must contain a minimum of 85 percent of that area's wine. "New York State" on the label tells you that a minimum of 75 percent of the wine came from within the state. Wines labeled with the name of a Vitis labrusca grape must comprise 51 percent of that grape. Other varietal wines must contain 75 percent of a particular grape.
Stats:
New York
 |
- Abbreviation: NY
- Capital City: Albany
- Date of Statehood: Jul. 26, 1788
- State #: 11
- Population: 18,976,457
- Area: 54475 sq.mi. Land 47224 sq. mi. Water 7251 sq.mi.
- Economy:
Agriculture: dairy products, cattle and other livestock, vegetables, nursery stock, apples;
Industry: printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric equipment, machinery, chemical products, tourism - Where the name comes from: Named after England's Duke of York
- State Bird: Bluebird
- State Flower: Rose
- About the Flag: Emblazoned on a dark blue field is the state coat of arms. The goddess, Liberty, holds a pole with a Liberty Cap on top. At her feet is a discarded crown, representing freedom from England at the end of the Revolutionary War. On the right is the goddess, Justice, wearing a blindfold and carrying the scales of justice, indicating that everyone receives equal treatment under the law. The state motto, "Excelsior," on a white ribbon expresses the idea of reaching upward to higher goals. On the shield a sun rises over the Hudson highlands and ships sail the Hudson river. Above the shield is an eagle resting on a globe representing the Western Hemisphere.
- State Motto: Excelsior
- State Nickname: Empire State
- State Song: I love New York
Parks:
New York
Wikipedia:
New York
This article is about the state. For the U.S. city, see New York
City. For other uses, see New York (disambiguation).
"NY" redirects here. For other uses, see NY
(disambiguation).
| State of New York | |||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
| Official language(s) | None | ||||||||||
| Capital | Albany | ||||||||||
| Largest city | New York City | ||||||||||
| Largest metro area | New York metropolitan area | ||||||||||
| Area | Ranked 27th | ||||||||||
| - Total | 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²) |
||||||||||
| - Width | 285 miles (455 km) | ||||||||||
| - Length | 330 miles (530 km) | ||||||||||
| - % water | 13.3 | ||||||||||
| - Latitude | 40° 30′ N to 45° 1′ N | ||||||||||
| - Longitude | 71° 51′ W to 79° 46′ W | ||||||||||
| Population | Ranked 3rd | ||||||||||
| - Total (2000) | 18,976,457 | ||||||||||
| - Density | 401.92/sq mi 155.18/km² (6th) |
||||||||||
| Elevation | |||||||||||
| - Highest point | Mount Marcy[1] 5,344 ft (1,629 m) |
||||||||||
| - Mean | 1,000 ft (305 m) | ||||||||||
| - Lowest point | Atlantic Ocean[1] 0 ft (0 m) |
||||||||||
| Admission to Union | July 26 1788 (11th) | ||||||||||
| Governor | Eliot Spitzer (D) | ||||||||||
| U.S. Senators | Charles Schumer (D) Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) |
||||||||||
| Congressional Delegation | List | ||||||||||
| Time zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 | ||||||||||
| Abbreviations | NY US-NY | ||||||||||
| Web site | www.ny.gov | ||||||||||
| New York state insignia | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Excelsior (Ever upward) |
| Slogan | I Love New York |
| Bird | Eastern bluebird |
| Animal | Beaver |
| Fish | Brook trout; salt water - Striped bass |
| Insect | Ladybug |
| Flower | Rose |
| Tree | Sugar maple |
| Song | "I Love New York" |
| Quarter |  2001 |
| Reptile | Snapping turtle |
| Beverage | Milk |
| Colors | Blue & Gold |
| Fossil | Sea scorpion |
| Gemstone | Garnet |
New York (IPA: /ˌnjuːˈjɔrk/) is a
state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the
New York City is known for its history as a gateway for immigration to the United States and its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center.
New York was inhabited by Algonquian, Iroquois, and Lenape indigenous people at the time Dutch and French nationals moved into the region in the very early 17th century. First claimed by Henry Hudson in 1609, the region came to have Dutch forts in Fort Orange, near the site of the present-day capital of Albany in 1614 and was colonized by the Dutch in 1624, at both Albany and Manhattan; it later fell to British annexation in 1664. About one third of all of the battles of the Revolutionary War took place in New York. The state ratified the United States Constitution in 1788, the 11th state to do so; its own constitution was enacted in 1777.
Geography
New York covers 54,475 square miles (141,089 km²). In size, New York ranks 27th out of the 50 states. The Great Appalachian Valley dominates eastern New York, while Lake Champlain is the chief northern feature of the valley, which also includes the Hudson River flowing southward to the Atlantic Ocean. The rugged Adirondack Mountains, with vast tracts of wilderness, lie west of the valley. Most of the southern part of the state is on the Allegheny plateau, which rises from the southeast to the Catskill Mountains. The western section of the state is drained by the Allegheny River and rivers of the Susquehanna and Delaware systems. The Delaware River Basin Compact, signed in 1961 by New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the federal government, regulates the utilization of water of the Delaware system.
New York's borders touch (clockwise from the west) two Great Lakes (Erie and
Ontario, which are connected by the Niagara River);
the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada; Lake Champlain; three New England states (Vermont, Massachusetts, and