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The first inhabitants of New York probably settled there about 10,000 years ago after the glaciers that covered the area melted. When Europeans first arrived in the area that is now New York, there were two major groups of Native Americans living there, the Algongquian-language speaking people who farmed and hunted near the Hudson River and the Iroquois who farmed and hunted further west. The Iroquois tribes in the area formed a confederacy in 1570 with advanced social and governmental institutions.
In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Dutch government sailed up the river that now bears his name. Although he failed in his quest to secure a route from Europe to Asia, he instead claimed the area for the Dutch, who named it New Netherland, and they settled their first colony at Fort Orange (now Albany) in 1624. One year later New Amsterdam was established in what is now lower Manhattan. The Dutch continued to settle the area and were later joined by settlers from the British colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts that did not allow religious freedom.
In 1663, the King Charles II of Britain decided to take over the colony of New Netherland (including New Amsterdam) due to its strategic location. He sent his brother James with four warships into the harbor of New Amsterdam, and the governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, realizing that the colonies could not defeat the British, gave up the claim to New Netherland without a fight. The British settlers renamed the colony New York, after James, the Duke of York.
Throughout the 1700s the British fought with the French for control of the fur trade in the area, called the French and Indian wars. The Iroquois Confederacy aligned themselves with the British against the French and the Algonquian tribes. The Iroquois were a strong and war-loving tribe helping the British to emerge as victors in their struggle with France for control of North America. The wars ended in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris which gave England dominance of the New York region. This opened the rest of New York to settlement, which has been discouraged by the years of warfare.
To help pay for the French and Indian wars, the British government forced new taxes on the colonies which prompted the colonists to boycott British goods and divided the population on whether it should seek independence from Britain. During the ensuing American Revolution, the British captured Long Island and occupied it until the end of the war. The first major colonial victory occurred at the Battle of Saratoga, in northeastern New York in 1777.
After the victory against the British, New York delegates participated vigorously in the Constitutional Convention, among them Alexander Hamilton. In 1778 New York joined the union at the 11th state.
The War of 1812 again brought warfare to the new state, but after again defeating the British, New York was ready and primed for westward expansion and economic growth. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 ensured that New York would dominate trade from the Atlantic Ocean to the rest of the nation.
By the mid-1800s, New York had the largest population in the union, with its population growing through job availability and immigration and its economy growing with increased manufacturing, trade, and transportation. Financial centers opened and prospered in support of commerce and trade.
In the 1860s New York fought with the Union in the Civil War. New York helped the Union to win by sending more men to fight than any other state.
In the late 1800s, immigrants from Ireland, Poland, Italy, and Germany began pouring into New York via Ellis Island. By 1900, one out of every three people living in New York were immigrants. The state continued to grow and prosper until 1929 when the New York City stock exchange crashed leading to the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt was New York's governor at the beginning of the Depression and focused on creating government jobs and providing food and medical care to families. He was later elected president of the United States, the fifth U.S. president to hail from New York. He continued his programs, called the New Deal, to help bring the United States out of the Great Depression. The state began again to expand in all industrial areas until after World War II, when its manufacturing base began to decline. The 1970s brought hard times for the city as well as the state, but in the 1980s and 1990s the economy rebounded as it did around the country.
On September 11, 2001, New York City endured the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. Terrorists hijacked four planes, two of which were flown into each of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The buildings quickly collapsed, killing thousands including rescue workers and bystanders. In the years since the attack, New York has demonstrated its resilience and determination to not be deterred by the attacks. Today New York continues to be a leader in finance, trade, manufacturing, and transportation as well as a prominent symbol of American liberty and capitalism.
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