The Dutch first settled along the Hudson River in 1624; two years later they established the colony of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. In 1664, the English took control of the area and renamed it New York. One of the original 13 colonies, New York played a crucial political and strategic role during the American Revolution. Between 1892 and 1954, millions of immigrants arrived in New York Harbor and passed through Ellis Island on their journey to becoming U.S citizens. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of Americans can trace at least one ancestor to that port of entry. New York City, the largest city in the state, is home to the New York Stock Exchange and is a major international economic center.
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Contents
Introduction
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 53,097 square miles (137,521 square km).
Pop. (2000) 18,976,457; (2007 est.) 19,297,729.
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