New York
About New York
New York is a state in the northeastern United States. It is sometimes called New York State when there is need to distinguish it from New York City, the most populous city in both the state and the nation. Due to the preponderance of the population concentrated in the southern portion around New York City, the state is often regionalized into Upstate and Downstate. New York’s postal abbreviation is NY.
Early settlement
The first settlers in the area now known as the U.S. State of New York were Dutch settlers in the colony known as New Amsterdam, beginning in 1613. These settlers were claiming this land theirs, marginalizing the aboriginal inhabitants who had been living there since the Pleistocene epoch. The English seized the colony in 1664, renaming the it New York, after the Duke of York, the future King James II. On November 1, 1683, the government was reorganized. The colony, then called the Province of New York was divided into twelve counties, each of which was subdivided into towns. The territory of New York extended much farther than present-day New York State, having no official western boundary other than the Pacific Ocean. Two of New York’s eastern coastal counties, Cornwall and Dukes, later became parts of Massachusetts and Maine. Counties were also ceded to Vermont before Vermont entered the Union in 1791.
Statehood
New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. It was the 11th state to ratify the United States Constitution, on July 26, 1788.
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Origin
The Dutch, who began to establish trading-posts on the Hudson River in 1613, claimed jurisdiction over the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware Rivers, which they called New Netherlands. The government was vested in “The United New Netherland Company,” chartered in 1616, and then in “The Dutch West India Company,” chartered in 1621.
In 1649 a convention of the settlers petitioned the “Lords States-General of the United Netherlands” to grant them “suitable burgher government,” such as their High Mightinesses shall consider adapted to this province, and resembling somewhat the government of our Fatherland,” with certain permanent privileges and exemptions, that they might pursue “the trade of our country, as well along the coast from Terra Nova to Cape Florida as to the West Indies and Europe, whenever our Lord God shall be pleased to permit.”
The directors of the West India Company resented this attempt to shake off their rule, and wrote their director and council at New Amsterdam: “We have already connived as much as possible at the many impertinences of some restless spirits, in the hope that they might be shamed by our discreetness and benevolence, but, perceiving that all kindnesses do not avail, we must, therefore, have recourse to God to Nature and the Law. We accordingly hereby charge and command your Honors whenever you shall certainly discover any Clandestine Meetings, Conventicles or machinations against our States government or that of our country that you proceed against such malignants in proportion to their crimes.”
These grants embraced all the lands between the west bank of the Connecticut River and the east bank of (the) Delaware (say) sic.
The Duke of York had previously purchased in 1663 the grant of Long Island and other islands on the New England coast made in 1635 to the Marl of Stirling, and in 1664 he equipped an armed expedition which took possession of New Amsterdam which was thenceforth called New York. This conquest was confirmed by the treaty of Credo, in July 1667. In July 1673 a Dutch fleet recaptured New York and held it until it was restored to the English by the treaty of Westminster in February, 1674. The second grant was obtained by the Duke of York in July, 1674 to perfect his title. The original grants are in the New York state Library.
New York
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