New York1 (in English, New York), also called the state of New York to differentiate it from the city of New York, is one of the fifty states that, together with Washington D.C., form the United States of America. Its capital is Albany and its most populous city, New York.
It is located in the Northeast region of the country, in the Middle Atlantic division, bordering to the north with Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River that separate it from Canada, to the east with Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, to the southeast with the Atlantic Ocean, to the south with New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and to the west with Lake Erie and the Niagara River, which separate it again from Canada. With 19,795,791 inhabitants in 2015, it is the fourth most populous state —behind California, Texas and Florida— and with 137.14 inhabitants/km² it is the seventh most densely populated —behind Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey—. It was admitted to the Union on July 26, 1788, as the 11th state.
It is the largest financial and commercial center of the United States, as well as its largest industrial center.
It should not be confused with the city of the same name, New York City (official name: City of New York, or, informally, New York City), located in the southern tip of the state. For this reason, the state is often called «New York State.» New York City is not only the largest city in the state, with its 8.5 million inhabitants, nearly half of the state’s population, but also the largest city in the United States.
New York’s nickname is the «Empire State.» Historians believe this nickname comes from a comment made by George Washington who once remarked that New York was the center of the American Empire. The state motto is «Excelsior,» a Latin word meaning «always above,» «always at the summit,» or «higher still.»
New York was originally settled by the Dutch, who called the region New Netherlands (Nieuw-Nederland). They also founded a settlement on the island of Manhattan called New Amsterdam. When England captured the state from the Dutch, the English renamed both the region and the city located on Manhattan «New York.» New York was one of thirteen British colonies that rebelled in the American Revolutionary War. One-third of all battles in the war took place in the state.
After the war, New York became the 11th state to enter the Union, on July 26, 1788. It became the nation’s most populous state around 1810, although it was surpassed by California in the 1960s, Texas in the 1990s, and Florida in the 2010s.
HISTORY
European Exploration and Colonization
The region where New York State is located today was inhabited by two groups of Native Americans long before the first Europeans arrived in the region. These groups were the Iroquois and the Algonquin, who were rivals to each other. The Iroquois were more socially organized than the Algonquin, and had a notable political and social hierarchy, in addition to being more advanced militarily.
The first European to explore the region where New York State is located today was the Italian explorer and navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, who explored on behalf of the French court, and named the region New Angouleme (Nouvelle Angoulême, in French), after King Francis I of France. He reached the Hudson River around 1524.
In 1609, the Englishman Henry Hudson, exploring on behalf of the Netherlands, sailed up the Hudson River, and officially annexed the region to the Dutch. That region would become known as New Netherland. The Dutch established several trading posts in the region, and established trade relations with the indigenous Iroquois. In 1621, a group of Dutch merchants formed a company, the Dutch West India Company. In 1624, the Dutch government gave the Dutch West India Company full rights to trade with New Netherland for 24 years. That same year, a first batch of settlers, about 30 families, were sent to the region, where they would found Fort Orange—which is the current capital of New York, Albany.
In 1625, the Dutch founded a town, and began construction of a fort, both on Manhattan Island. Both were called New Amsterdam, with the town being the capital of the colony. The town of New Amsterdam would develop into what is now New York City. In 1626, the governor of New Netherland at the time, Peter Minuit, purchased the entire island of Manhattan from the indigenous people living in the region in exchange for goods worth a total of about $24. Over the next few years, the Dutch would establish various settlements and villages in the region of present-day New York State.
In 1629, the Dutch West India Company accelerated the process of colonizing New Netherland. It implemented a system of latifundia, offering large tracts of land to members of the Company, who would only continue to own their land if they managed to colonize their plots with a certain number of settlers. Most failed to accomplish this goal, but one settler, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, achieved great success, settling the areas that are now Albany, Columbia, and Rensselaer counties. 2 Thanks to Rensselaer’s success, this system, in which a few large landowners controlled large estates and rented smaller plots of land to farmers, who were required to cede a given percentage of their crops to the owners, persisted until the 1840s, when a series of revolts brought it to an end.
1664-1790
During the 1640s and 1650s, numerous English settlers from the English colony of Connecticut settled on Long Island, part of present-day New York State. At first, relations between the English and Dutch settlers were friendly. However, relations deteriorated rapidly in the late 1650s. King Charles II of England decided to conquer New Netherland, sending a naval fleet in 1664, which dropped anchor at the Dutch colony’s capital, New Amsterdam. The then governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, decided to surrender without resistance.
«New Netherland» was renamed «New York» by the English, in honor of the Duke of York. The name of the town of «New Amsterdam» was also changed to «New York.» The French in New France, which now comprises eastern Canada, began to take an interest in the northern part of the English colony of New York around 1680. French explorer René Robert Cavelier de La Salle would explore northern New York in 1669. In 1731, the French built a fort at Crown Point on Lake Champlain and claimed northern New York. In 1689, war broke out between England and France, and New York immediately became the scene of numerous clashes between the English and the French. These battles, which became known globally as the French and Indian Wars, took place between 1689 and 1763. The English, with clear numerical superiority and the support of the Algonquin natives, finally defeated the French, and captured New France in 1763.
British control of the North American colonies was a source of discontent among the population of New York State. In the 1730s, journalist John Peter Zenger was a harsh critic of the British government and was imprisoned for it. However, a jury in 1735 acquitted Zenger on the grounds of freedom of the press, which was a major victory for the American press.
The state’s inhabitants also disliked the taxes levied on products manufactured in the colonies and the authority of English judges, and New York was one of the Thirteen British Colonies that rebelled against Britain in the American War of Independence. During that war, nearly 30,000 people loyal to England left the colony. New York was the site of several important battles, such as the Battle of Saratoga, although the city of the same name was captured immediately at the beginning of the war by the British, who abandoned the city only after the war ended. On July 9, 1776, the New York Provincial Congress met in White Plains, finally approving the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, adopted by the Continental Congress five days earlier on July 4. New York ratified the Articles of Confederation on February 6, 1778.
The end of the Revolutionary War made it possible to develop the lands that now form western New York State, which until then had not been part of any of the former Thirteen Colonies. New York and Massachusetts claimed the region. By the Treaty of Hartford of 1786, New York would be entitled to sovereignty over the lands, while Massachusetts would be entitled to acquire the lands in the region from Native Americans. Various groups tried to bypass the treaty, without success. A 999-year lease, signed in 1787, was quickly repealed by the legislatures of New York and Massachusetts.
On April 1, 1788, the area was sold to Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps of Massachusetts for one million dollars, to be paid in three annual installments. Gorham and Phelps, however, only acquired ownership rights after purchasing these lands from the Native Americans who inhabited the area, and immediately opened negotiations with the Native Americans of the area, having thus acquired the lands east of the Genessee River from the natives through the Treaty of Buffalo Creek on July 8 of that same year. Gorham and Phelps, however, quickly ran into financial difficulties, and agreed to cede the lands west of the Genessee River to Massachusetts in 1790. On March 12, 1791, Massachusetts sold all of these lands to Robert Morris, who, in turn, immediately sold them to the Holland Land Company. By the Treaty of Big Tree, signed in September 1797, Morris purchased the lands west of the Genessee from the Native Americans. In 1802, the Holland Land Company opened a sales office in Batavia, and began selling off the region’s land to third parties. The office still exists today, converted into a museum.