Connecticut (English
pronunciation: /kəˈnɛtɪkət/) is one of the fifty states that,
together with Washington, D.C., make up the United States of
America. Its capital is Hartford and its most populated city,
Bridgeport. It is located in the Northeast region of the
country, New England division, and is bordered to the north by Massachusetts,
to the east by
Rhode Island, to the south by the
Atlantic Ocean and to the west by the state of New York.
With 14,357 km², it is the third smallest state - ahead of
Delaware and Rhode Island, the smallest - and with 249
inhabitants/km², the third most densely populated, behind New
Jersey and Rhode Island. It was admitted to the Union on January
9, 1788, as the 5th state.
Its main source of income is
the provision of economic-financial and real estate services.
The state capital, Hartford, is known nationally as Insurance
City, due to the large number of insurance companies that are
located in the city.
It was one of the Thirteen Colonies
originally established by the United Kingdom. The colony of
Connecticut was the first subdivision located in what is now the
United States of America to have a written Constitution, called
Fundamental Orders, or First Orders, adopted on January 14,
1639. This Constitution colonial would serve as the basis for
the formation of the American Constitution. Connecticut
officials played an essential role in passing the "Great
Compromise" made at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which
gave the United States Congress its current form. Because of
these events, the state is nicknamed The Constitution State, and
the Great Compromise of 1787 became known nationally as the
Connecticut Compromise. On January 9, 1788, it became the fifth
American state.
The origin of the name "Connecticut"
comes from the Mohegan word Quinnehtujqut, meaning "Place of the
Long River." The first Europeans to settle permanently in the
region were English Puritans, coming from Massachusetts, in
1633. The Nutmeg State is another popular nickname and the
inhabitants of this state are known nationally as a "nutmegger."
Fairfield County
Southwest Connecticut, near New York City.
This area has many beaches and lighthouses and many of the
state's largest cities such as Bridgeport, Stamford and Norwalk.
Litchfield Hills
Northwest Connecticut. This is where
you'll find the less dense areas of variegated foliage in the
fall. There are some smaller towns like Torrington, Danbury and
New Milford.
Connecticut River Valley
From North
Central Connecticut to the coast. The Knowledge Corridor is home
to New England's second largest region, the Connecticut state
capital of Hartford, and many historical landmarks.
Greater New Haven
South Central Connecticut. Yale University
is located here, as well as numerous museums and theaters. It
includes cities like New Haven and Milford.
Mystic
Eastern
New London, Tolland, and Windham counties in eastern
Connecticut. A good place to get a view of the Long Island Sound
with its beaches and the famous Mystic Seaport/Aquarium. Has two
of the largest casinos in the world. Includes cities like New
London, Mystic, Uncasville and Ledyard.
Bridgeport - most populous city in Connecticut
Bristol
Hartford
- the capital of Connecticut
New Haven - the most interesting tourist
city in the state, home of Yale University
Waterbury
Norwich
New-London
Bara-Hack Ghost Town Bara- Hack is an abandoned ghost town near Pomfret, Connecticut. It was found by Welsh immigrants in 1780's.
Dudleytown. Ruins of Dudleytown draws ghost hunters in hopes to find evidence of paranormal activity that allegedly manifests here.
Leatherman. Leatherman background is one of the most tragic love stories full of hopelessness and redemption of one unfortunate man.
Sleeping Giant State Park: Looking from the north and south, the hills
look like a sleeping giant. Well-marked hiking trails criss-cross the
park. The paths are mostly easy and only occasionally steep. We chose a
circular route and hiked for about two and a half hours. There was also
some easy climbing. What I didn't know beforehand: From the main parking
lot, a path suitable for prams leads up to the observation tower on the
left hip of the giant.
Dinosaur State Park:
Mystic Seaport,
Mystic, Connecticut
By Airplane
Within the state
Bradley International Airport (BDL
IATA) in Windsor Locks, Connecticut is the largest airport in the state.
Its proximity to Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts, is rapidly
increasing its ridership. Its location north of Hartford makes it
inaccessible to northeastern and northwestern interstate residents, but
convenient for inland residents. For residents outside the center,
flights to New York State, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island may be more
convenient. Still, it is the third largest and second busiest airport in
New England, making it a suitable alternative destination when all other
airports have failed. The airport is named for Eugene M. Bradley, who
was killed in action during a training exercise in 1941.
Waterbury-Oxford Airport (Waterbury-Oxford Airport).
Sikorsky-Memmle
Airport (BDR IATA) in Stratford serves private aircraft charter flights.
Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR IATA) in Danbury is used primarily for
general aviation.
Danielson Airport, located in Danielson, is
primarily used for general aviation.
Tweed New Haven Regional Airport
(HVN IATA) is a smaller airport with flights to Philadelphia.
Meriden
Airport in Meriden (Meriden Airport) offers private air charters.
Out of State
New York's LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark airports are
common for travelers in the western part of the state. These are all
larger airports than in-state airports and offer more flight
opportunities. However, for travelers to the eastern part of the state,
these airports are too far away to be very convenient.
Boston's Logan
International Airport is one of two airports suitable for travelers with
eastern state destinations, but it is far from major Connecticut cities
such as Hartford and New Haven. Still, it is about a 60-90 minute drive
along the I-395 corridor, making this airport a solid choice for
visitors to northeastern Connecticut, especially with the number of
flights it offers.
T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick, Rhode
Island, is a great alternative to Boston if you are traveling to the
eastern half of Connecticut. The airport covers many domestic flights
and quite a few international flights, often only an hour's drive from
your destination.
Westchester County Airport is the closest civilian
airport to the Fairfield County subregion. However, this is for U.S.
domestic flights only.
By Ferry.
The Bridgeport-Port Jefferson
Ferry runs daily across Long Island Sound between Port Jefferson, Long
Island and Bridgeport, Connecticut. It carries vehicles and passengers.
The Cross Sound Ferry connects New London, Connecticut, with Orient
Point, New York, the easternmost point of the Long Island North Fork.
By Train.
Amtrak trains connect Penn Station, New York, and South
Station, Boston, with frequent service to destinations in Connecticut.
MetroNorth provides frequent service between Grand Central Station in
Manhattan and several cities and towns in Fairfield and New Haven
Counties in southwestern Connecticut. MetroNorth provides frequent
weekday commuter service from several cities and towns in
Bus
Similar to rail, intercity buses provide frequent service between South
Station in Boston and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, with
stops throughout Connecticut. Major bus companies serving Connecticut
include Peter Pan and Greyhound.
By Car.
If you are driving
into Connecticut from the west, there are three main routes to choose
from. Interstate 84 enters Danbury, Connecticut from Pennsylvania and
the lower Hudson Valley of New York State and continues to Waterbury,
Hartford, and Worcester. The Merritt Parkway, which is closed to truck
and bus traffic, enters Connecticut from Westchester County, New York,
and is considered one of the most scenic highways in the United States
because its design matches the pastoral greenery of the surrounding
suburbs. The Parkway extension tunnels under the hills north of New
Haven and continues to Meriden, where it joins Interstate 91 and heads
north toward Hartford. Interstate 95 crosses the U.S. East Coast from
Maine to Florida and runs east to west along the Connecticut coast.
According to federal highway signs, I-95 North actually travels eastward
through Connecticut, while I-95 South travels westward through
Connecticut. Between New York and New Haven, I-95 passes through densely
populated suburbs and is heavily congested. East of New Haven (north
according to directional signs on the road) I-95 passes through more
rural coastal towns and is less congested.
To enter Connecticut
from Boston, one would take the Massachusetts Turnpike (also known as
Interstate 90) west to I-84 (two-lane road) or Route 6 (two-lane road),
or take Interstate 95 from Rhode Island.
Fuel in Connecticut is
more expensive than in New York State or Massachusetts.
By Car.
A car is the easiest way to get around the state and is
best if you plan on sightseeing. Major highways such as I-95, I-84,
I-91, and I-395 run through the state.
By Bus
Connecticut
Transit, 100 Leibert Road, ☏ +1 860 522-8101, fax: +1 860 247-1810.
Hartford.
Bridgeport has its own service.
Hartford County is also
served by the express bus transportation CT Fastrak.
By Train.
There are eight commuter rail lines connecting most major cities and
towns. New Haven is a major hub connecting all of these commuter rail
lines and the Amtrak line.
Metro-North New Haven Line - runs
daily between New York's Grand Central Terminal and New Haven's State
Street Station, with stops in Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport,
Milford, and New Haven.
Metro North New Canaan Branch - Daily service
between Stamford's Stamford Station in Stamford and New Canaan's New
Canaan Station in New Canaan. Stops include Glenbrook and Sprigdale in
Stamford, Talmadge Hill in New Canaan, and downtown New Canaan.
Metro
North Waterbury Branch - Daily service between Bridgeport (Bridgeport)
and Waterbury (Waterbury) with stops in Shelton, Ansonia, Beacon Falls,
and Waterbury.
CT Rail Hartford Line - Daily service from New Haven
Union Station (New Haven) to Springfield Union Station (Springfield),
with stops in Shelton, Ansonia, Beacon Falls, and Waterbury.
Metro
North Danbury Branch - Daily service between South Norwalk Station
(Norwalk) and Danbury Station (Danbury).
Amtrak Hartford Line - daily
service between New Haven Union Station (New Haven) and Greenfield
Station (Greenfield), New Haven, Wallingford, Berlin, Hart Ford,
Windsor, Springfield, Holyoke, and Greenfield.
CT Rail Shoreline East
- Daily service between New Haven Union Station (New Haven) and New
London Union Station (New London) with stops in New Haven, Wallingford,
Berlin, Hartford, Windsor, Springfield, Holyoke, and Greenfield.
Amtrak Northeast Corridor - Daily service from Union Station in
Washington, D.C. to South Station in Boston, with stops in Stamford,
Bridgeport, New Haven, and New London.
Due to its proximity to immigrant gateways such as historic Ellis
Island, many of Connecticut's towns and cities have a strong minority
culture.
Historically, Connecticut was settled by English, Scots,
Irish, and Germans, but most of Connecticut's large cities today,
including Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, and Waterbury, are populated
by Latinos. Some areas, including New Britain, are known for their large
Polish communities, New Haven's Chinatown is crowded with Mandarin
speakers, and Wooster Street serves as the city's "Little Italy."
Indeed, the southwestern part of the state in particular has a large
population of residents of Italian heritage, while the northeastern part
of Connecticut has a large population of French-Canadian heritage. The
northeastern part of Connecticut is also home to a large population of
people of French-Canadian heritage.
Because of their location,
there are several variations of American English in the regions of
Connecticut. For example, many people in Fairfield County speak English
that resembles a New York accent (probably due to the county's proximity
to New York), while some people in northern and northeastern Connecticut
speak English that resembles a Boston accent. On the other hand, some
people in northern and northeastern Connecticut have accents that
resemble Boston accents. In some places, other languages have merged
with American English to create entirely new accents. If anything, the
speaking style in Connecticut is not uniform.
Spanish is the most
widely spoken second language due to the large urban Latino population,
and a significant portion of the rest of the population understands it,
at least to some extent, as it is the most common foreign language
choice in schools. French is also taught in schools to some extent, but
is not widely known, except among older French-Canadians. Other
languages are rarely understood, except by certain ethnic minorities.
Connecticut is crammed with restaurants everywhere. Downtown New
Haven has more top-notch Zagat-rated restaurants than any other
Connecticut city. Interesting ethnic restaurants including Eritrean,
Malaysian, Turkish, Spanish, French, Mexican, Cuban, Jamaican,
Ethiopian, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Thai, South and North Indian, Nepalese,
Cantonese and Italian restaurants can be found throughout the city. The
state's major casinos also have many restaurants.
Connecticut,
especially New Haven, is known for its old-fashioned thin-crust pizza,
locally referred to as "apizza".
Southington, Connecticut,
between Hartford and Waterbury, is famous for its many apple orchards.
This small town of forty thousand people has an incredible variety and
supply of apples and celebrates its staple with the annual harvest
festival in October. Those traveling through this beautiful state in the
fall must stop in Southington for a bag of apple fritters and other
staples made from the city's famous apples.
Alcohol may only be sold Monday-Saturday 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. and
Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Bars and other establishments can sell
inside from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Friday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Sunday.
Discover Connecticut's craft beer culture, which boasts great
microbreweries, quality brewpubs and beer bars, homebrew supply stores,
and beer festivals. Many breweries offer tours of their facilities and
free tastings.
Crime
Connecticut is known for its affluence and is the third
wealthiest state in the U.S., but some of the state's larger cities
(especially Bridgeport, New Haven, and Waterbury) can be dangerous,
especially at night. However, Connecticut is widely considered one of
the safest states in the nation, so common sense will keep you away from
any signs of trouble.
Dani.
Connecticut is the birthplace of
the infamous Lyme disease. Take precautions to avoid tick bites and seek
medical attention as soon as possible if you see a bull's-eye shaped
rash around the bite site or develop flu-like symptoms after walking in
areas where ticks may be present (such as forests). The tick season
typically runs from spring to fall.
Weather.
Connecticut is
known for its rapidly changing weather. Be prepared for freezing
temperatures and blizzards in the winter and thunderstorms in the spring
and summer.
Connecticut is bordered to the north by Massachusetts, to the east by
Rhode Island, to the south by Long Island Sound, and to the west by New
York. Most of its coastline does not have direct contact with the waters
of the Atlantic Ocean, but with the waters of Long Island Sound, an
estuary of numerous rivers.
The main river that crosses the state
is the Connecticut River, and it has about a thousand lakes, although
all of them are small in size; the vast majority of these lakes were
formed through ancient glaciers melting thousands of years ago. Forests
cover more than 60% of the state.
Connecticut can be divided into
five distinct geographic regions:
The Coastal Plains form a
narrow strip of land, between 6 and 16 kilometers thick, that extends
along the coastline with Long Island Sound. They have the lowest
altitudes in the state, in addition to having flatter and less rugged
terrain than the other four regions.
The Western New England Plateau
occupies most of the western region. It is between 300 and 427 meters
high, and the highest altitude regions are located to the northwest,
decreasing as you travel south or east.
The Eastern New England
Plateau is the largest of Connecticut's five geographic regions,
occupying the eastern region of the state. The Plateau is crossed by
several narrow rivers, and is mostly covered by forests. It has lower
altitudes than the Western Plateau, with few peaks exceeding 370 meters
in altitude.
The Lower Valleys of Connecticut are a strip of land
that runs along the north-central coast, approximately 30 kilometers
wide. These valleys form the Connecticut River watershed. This region
has lower altitudes than the surrounding Plateaus, with peaks between 90
and 180 meters high being the highest points in the region.
The
Northwest Section is a small piece of land located in the far northwest.
It is characterized by its rocky and rugged terrain, and its altitude.
The highest point in the state, which is 725 meters high, is located in
this region.
It has a temperate climate, and relatively homogeneous throughout the
state, due to its small territorial area. In general, the mountainous
regions in the northwest and northeast record the lowest average
temperatures while, on the coast, average temperatures are higher.
Connectitut's climate is softened by the presence of large bodies of
water in the south of the state.
In the winter, Connectitut has
an average temperature of -3°C. The average of the minimum is -7 °C, and
the average of the maximum is 3 °C. The lowest temperature recorded in
Connecticut was -36°C, in Falls Village, on February 16, 1943.
In
the summer, it has an average temperature of 22 °C. The average of the
minimum is 15 °C, and the average of the maximum is 28 °C. The highest
temperature recorded was 41°C, in Danbury, on July 15, 1995.
The
average annual rainfall rate is 119 centimeters. The average annual
snowfall rate varies between 90 centimeters in the northwest to 64
centimeters along the southwestern coast of the state.
The written history of Connecticut begins in the early 17th century,
when three initial settlements were founded, later united by royal
charter in 1663. From the very beginning, the colony was distinguished
by religious, political and social conservatism, a mono-ethnic
population and a rapidly developing economy. Connecticut actively
participated in the events of the American Revolution, and after the war
became known as a bastion of conservatism and federalism. Pastors Thomas
Hooker and Samuel Stone brought the first colonists here in 1636 and
founded the settlement of Hartford, named for the birthplace of Hooker,
who himself became known as the "Father of Connecticut." Two more
settlements were founded later, which in 1639 drew up the Fundamental
Rules of Connecticut, a document sometimes called the first Constitution
in history. The new colony had to wage long territorial disputes with
the Province of New York and the Province of Pennsylvania. In 1701, Yale
University was founded.
Connecticut was a staunch opponent of
British colonial policy, there were almost no Loyalists here, and when
clashes with the British army began in 1775, the inhabitants of the
colony immediately joined the fighting in the Revolutionary War. In
1788, Connecticut was one of the first to ratify the US Constitution and
became the 5th state of the Union. This state became an outpost of
federalism, advocated trade with England and opposed the War of 1812.
Since the 1830s, the state began to free slaves and completely got rid
of slavery in 1848. During the Civil War, the state provided the army
with 30 infantry regiments and a lot of military supplies. After the
war, Connecticut became the heart of John Morgan's railroad empire.
During the last glaciation, the territory of Connecticut was under a
glacier, so the first people (Paleo-Indians) were able to penetrate here
only 13,000 years before the present. The sea level was lower then, so
the territories that are now below sea level could have been populated.
The first signs of human presence were discovered at the Templeton
archaeological site near the town of Washington. They date back to 10490
years before the present. Connecticut was then still tundra, inhabited
by mastodons, mammoths and giant beavers. People then lived by hunting
and gathering (mostly the latter), constantly moving around the area. At
present, the Paleo-Indian period is not well studied, since its
artifacts are located at a fairly great depth.
7000 years BC. The
Archaic period began, the climate became warmer and drier. People
learned to make an ax, adze and chisel. Canoes appeared. During the Late
Archaic Period, the climate became even drier, and the Chelochek now
settled along large rivers and used temporary settlements (base camps),
one of which is now known as the Kirby Brook Site. At that time, the
territory of Connecticut was inhabited by two ethnic groups: the Narrow
Point and the Laurentians (later Broad Spear). At the Dibble Creek 1
site, evidence of trade between these two groups was found. The former
knew how to fish and make fishing gear, and the latter knew how to make
soapstone pottery, which they traded.
750 BC. The Archaic Period
ended and the Woodland Period began. At this time, soapstone pottery was
replaced by ceramic pottery. The Broad Spear group disappears, and their
territory is inhabited by the Narrow Point group. Few sites from this
period have been found, which may indicate a decrease in the population
at this time. During this period, the first wampum and the first smoking
pipes appeared. Tobacco was used for medicinal and ritual purposes at
that time, but not for entertainment. In the middle and late Woodland
period (300-1524), corn appeared, which forced people to switch to a
more sedentary lifestyle. Pottery became more complex, thinner, with
narrower necks, and ceramic decoration techniques developed. Large
settlements such as Haycock-Benson-Palmer-Site or Morgan-Site are known
from that period.
With the arrival of Europeans, the so-called
"Late Woodland Period" (1524-1633) began, when new forms of trade were
formed, but at the same time new diseases appeared. Some ancient trade
routes have survived and have survived to the present day. For example,
modern Route 7 replaced the Old Berkshire Road, which previously
connected several large Indian settlements and led from them to Canada.
In the early 17th century, explorer Henry Hudson discovered the
Hudson River, and impressed by his achievements, a group of Amsterdam
merchants decided to hire a ship to continue their exploration. In 1611,
Adrien Block and Hendrik Christiansen set off for America on this ship.
They returned with many valuable goods, and two more ships were equipped
for a repeat expedition: the Tiger, commanded by Block, and the Fortune,
commanded by Christiansen. In late 1613, Block's ship burned on the
Hudson, but the crew built a new one, the Onrust, and sailed east of the
Hudson, where they discovered the Housatonic River and the Connecticut
River. Block explored and mapped the coast as far as the coast of what
would become Massachusetts, met the Fortune there, and returned to
Holland on it, commissioning the Onrust to continue his exploration.
Block returned to Holland in July 1614. Having studied the information
received, the States General issued a grant to the United Company of New
Netherland to develop the coast of New Netherland - the territory
between the British colony of Virginia and French Canada. The grant was
valid until 1618. During this time, no settlements were founded, but the
fur trade was quite active. In 1618, the monopoly on trade for the
company was abolished. In the spring of 1624, several Dutch ships with
colonists arrived in New Netherland, and several settlements were
founded. One of them was founded at the mouth of the Connecticut River
and was called Saybrook Point. But two years later, its inhabitants
moved to New Amsterdam. In 1632, the governor of New Netherland, Wouter
van Twiller, declared the mouth of the Connecticut River to be the
property of Holland and nailed the Dutch coat of arms to a tree. In
1633, Jacob van Courtlandt purchased a plot of land on the site of
modern Hartford and built a small fort there. Shortly before this, in
1631, a group of Connecticut Indians, suffering from attacks by the
Pequots, came to the English in Plymouth and began to persuade them to
settle on the Connecticut River. In the summer of 1632, Edward Winslow,
the future governor of the Plymouth Colony, explored the Connecticut
River and bought a plot of land from the Indians near modern Windsor.
The following year, Fort Windsor and the settlement appeared. In the
same year, a detachment of Dutch demanded that the Plymouth colonists
leave Windsor, but they turned up, and the Dutch decided not to bring
things to war and abandoned their plans to colonize the shores of
Connecticut.
In 1633, the Protestant leader Thomas Hooker arrived
in the Massachusetts colony on the ship Griffin with a group of
colonists. They settled near Boston but quickly became disillusioned
with the conditions and methods of governing the colony. Soon the
dissatisfied began to gradually migrate west: in 1634, John Oldham of
Waterton explored the Connecticut River valley and founded the
settlement of Wethersfield there. In 1635, residents of the town of
Dorchester founded the town of Windsor nearby. Thomas Hooker and his
supporters decided to follow their example, but in 1635 it became known
that the land west of the Narrangansset River had been granted by royal
grant to the Earl of Warwick, and in his name, Lord Say and Seal and
Baron Brooke sent Winthrop the Younger there, who built a fort at the
mouth of the Connecticut River, received the title of "Governor of the
Connecticut River" and founded a colony, named "Saybrook" in honor of
his patrons. Hooker began negotiations with Winthrop and received
permission to settle on these lands with the promise of compensation for
losses in the event that the owners of the colony refused to allow them
to live there. In 1636, Hooker left Newtown, traveled overland to
Connecticut and founded a settlement there, which was also named
Newtown, but in 1638 he renamed it Hartford in honor of the English city
of Hartford. In the same year, 1636, the preacher Roger Williams was
accused of heresy by the Massachusetts authorities, fled, and founded
the colony of Rhode Island.
On May 31, 1638, Thomas Hooker gave a speech to a meeting of the colonists declaring that the power of choosing magistrates belonged to the people, and that the people who chose them had the right to limit their powers. The source of power, he said, was the free consent of the people, and the people would more readily obey those whom they themselves had chosen. On January 14, 1639, the representatives of the colony met in Hartford and adopted what is known as the Fundamental Rules, which are sometimes considered the first written constitution. Hooker himself was probably the author of the laws. In April of that year, the colonists elected their first officials to administrative positions. John Haynes became the first governor, and Roger Ludlow became the first lieutenant governor.
In 1637, Puritan preacher John Davenport arrived in Boston, but he, too, was not pleased with the religious controversies in the colony, so his followers began to look for a place for a separate settlement. In 1638, they traveled to the mouth of the Quinnipiac River, where they bought land from the Indians and founded the settlement of New Haven. The colonists maintained good relations with the Indians from the very beginning, and thus avoided conflicts. In June 1639, the colonists formulated the laws of the colony, in which decisions were made only by church members, the government was headed by the "seven pillars of the church," and Theophilus Eaton was elected the first governor. That same year, a group of Puritans founded the settlement of Milford nearby.
As early as 1637, it was understood that the New England colonies
needed some form of union. The Pequot War distracted from these plans,
but in May 1639, Thomas Hooker and John Haynes visited Boston and again
raised the issue of such a union. As a result, a league was formed from
the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth
Colony (Massachusetts refused to accept the colony of Rhode Island into
the union). At the head of the union was a council of 8 deputies, two
from each colony, who elected the president. In order to avoid drawing
each other into conflicts, it was decided that the members of the league
did not have the right to start a war with anyone without the consent of
6 of the 8 deputies. At that time, the danger of Indian attacks was so
great that the English and the Dutch agreed not to sell weapons to the
Indians, but at the same time suspected each other of violating this
agreement. In 1650, the governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant,
visited Hartford, where the first international negotiations in American
history took place. On September 17, Stuyvesant signed the Treaty of
Hartford, which specified the border on Long Island and the border
between Connecticut and the Dutch possessions.
In 1651, the First
Anglo-Dutch War began. The Confederacy spent a long time deciding
whether there were grounds for participating in the war, but in 1654, a
British fleet arrived in the colony, and the Confederacy put up a
militia: 300 people from Massachusetts, 200 from Connecticut, and 133
from New Haven. But the war ended before this army could act against the
Dutch.
In 1660, the Stuarts returned to power in England, which
caused concern in the colonies, especially Connecticut and New Haven,
which did not have royal land grants. In March 1661, the General Council
of Connecticut declared to the king that the inhabitants of the colony
had always been loyal subjects, and asked for confirmation of all
existing rights and privileges. The New Haven colony joined this
request. Winthrop the Younger personally went to England, where on April
23, 1662, he secured approval of his petition. The Royal Charter of 1662
established that Connecticut would be governed as before, by a governor
and elected assistants. The colony itself maintained internal order and
defense measures, controlled commerce and immigration, baptized Indians,
and formed its own Assembly. The inhabitants of the colony received
legal status and all the rights of Englishmen. The laws of the colony
were not to contradict the laws of England, and all decrees were issued
in the name of the king. The charter specified the boundaries of the
colony, which stretched west to the "South Sea" (the Pacific Ocean). The
lands of the New Haven colony ended up within the borders of
Connecticut, so the Connecticut authorities offered them to formally
join their colony. Many New Haven settlers, dissatisfied with the harsh
laws of their colony, agreed to this offer. The residents of New Haven
were given equal rights with Connecticut residents and were promised not
to create problems for their churches. Many New Haven colonists did not
make such a union and even planned to move to New Netherland, but in
1664 the Dutch colony was conquered by England and the resettlement
plans did not come to fruition. On December 13, 1664, the colonists
voted to join Connecticut.
Connecticut had to accept the conquest
of the Dutch colony of New Netherland by England, even though the
territory was considered part of Connecticut and its renunciation
effectively cut Connecticut off from its formally owned lands to the
west, on the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers.
Despite the
charter, Connecticut's borders remained disputed. The border with the
Massachusetts colony was poorly defined (land surveyors drew the border
inaccurately); to the east, Rhode Island claimed part of Connecticut's
lands, and to the west, Connecticut had not finally renounced its
rights. A special commission in 1665 ruled that the border between
Connecticut and Rhode Island would be determined by the king, but
Charles II did nothing, and the dispute dragged on for decades.
Since the time of the Pequot War, relations between the colonists and
the Indians remained peaceful, but in 1675, a Christian Indian was
killed by the Indians, and his murderers were caught and hanged by the
authorities of the colony. This was the beginning of a conflict between
the Plymouth Colony and a leader named King Philip, and escalated into a
war known as King Philip's War. At the beginning of the war, the Indians
did not touch the Connecticut colonists, probably remembering the
consequences of the Pequot War, but all the colonies fielded militias to
help Plymouth: Connecticut sent 300 militia and 150 allied Indians
(Pequots and Mohegans). By the summer of 1675, the fighting had already
affected the Connecticut River Valley. On December 19, the colonists
defeated the Indians in a battle on the Great Swamp, after which peace
negotiations began, but they led to nothing and in the spring of 1676,
hostilities resumed. It was not until the summer that the Indians were
defeated, and King Philip was captured. This war was harder than the
previous Pequot War: now the Indians had firearms and knew the enemy
well. More than 1,000 colonists died in the fighting, and hundreds of
homes were destroyed.
At the same time, a conflict with the
province of New York began. In 1674, the king granted his brother James
a charter for the territory, which included the western lands of
Connecticut. Edmund Andros became governor of New York, and on July 8,
1675, he appeared at Fort Saybrook and demanded that the garrison
surrender the fort. The garrison refused, and Andros decided not to
bring the matter to war. An agreement was soon reached under which
Connecticut relinquished its claims to part of Rhode Island, and New
York relinquished its claims to western Connecticut. In 1685, King
Charles II died, and James II ascended the throne, revoking the charters
of the New England colonies and forming the Dominion of New England, of
which Andros became governor. He demanded that Connecticut grant the
royal charter of 1662 and join the dominion. On October 31, 1687, he
personally appeared in Hartford for the charter. The negotiations
dragged on until dark and were held by candlelight. At some point, a
member of the government, Andrew Leath, knocked over the candles, they
went out, and when they were lit, the charter was not in place. She was
abducted, taken out of the building, and hidden in the hollow of an oak
tree, which has since become known as the Charter Oak.
Andros
dissolved the government of the colony and began to rule it himself. He
increased taxes and introduced fees, for example, for marriage. In 1688,
a Glorious Revolution took place in England, the king was overthrown,
and Governor Andros was arrested and imprisoned. The Charter was
returned to its place, and Robert Treat became governor again.
By
the end of the 17th century, the demographic situation in the colony
began to change. By 1690, there were only 30 towns in Connecticut, but
by 1720 there were 20 more. The influx of migrants from Massachusetts
and the intensive settlement of the western outskirts of the colony
began. From 1670 to 1700, the colony's population grew from 12,000 to
30,000, and by 1730 it had doubled. In 1701, the residents petitioned to
create their own college in the colony, because it was expensive for
them to send their children to study at Harvard. As a result, a
Collegiate school was founded, which since 1716 was permanently located
in New Haven and was named the Yale School in honor of one of the
patrons, Eliyahu Yale. In the 18th century, she trained mostly priests.
From 1700 to 1750, many roads were built in the colony that
connected Providence, Boston, and Hartford. Coastal cities expanded
their harbors and port facilities. Since 1700, the number of black
slaves began to grow. The average slave owner in Connecticut had 1-2
slaves who lived and worked with their masters. Slaves had the right to
life and property, and could file complaints about mistreatment by their
masters.
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, several wars
between Britain and France took place in North America. In 1689, the War
of King William began: the fighting took place mainly near Albany. An
invasion of Canada was planned, but when Fitz-John Winthrop led a
detachment to Lake Champlain, the plague epidemic prevented the
campaign, and peace was signed in 1697. In 1702, the War of Queen Anne
began; in February 1704, the French attacked the Massachusetts
settlements in the upper reaches of the Connecticut River, and
Connecticut itself was expecting similar attacks. In 1709, an invasion
of Canada was planned again, and the New England militia gathered in
Albany, but this time the campaign was canceled. In 1710, Connecticut
militia participated in the conquest of Acadia. In that war, Connecticut
fielded only 700 people, and the costs were so high that the colony had
to issue paper money.
In 1744, a third conflict began: King
George's War. Connecticut troops participated in attacks on Spanish
colonies and suffered heavy losses due to disease. Then France entered
the war, and Shirley, the governor of Massachusetts, attacked Louisbourg
with colonial troops. The army was commanded by William Pepperell, with
Connecticut's Roger Wolcott serving as his deputy. On May 1, 1745, the
army landed at Louisbourg, and on June 17, the siege of Louisbourg ended
with the city's capitulation. It was a major victory, won without the
help of the regular British army, but as a result of peace negotiations,
the British government returned Louisbourg to France, to the displeasure
of Connecticut, which had gained nothing from the war except losses and
expenses.
In 1754, the French began to develop the Ohio River Valley, which led
to a conflict with the Virginia Colony, which laid claim to these lands,
and escalated into the French and Indian War. The Braddock Expedition,
sent by the British government to the Ohio Valley, was defeated at the
site of modern-day Pittsburgh. After the death of General Braddock,
William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, became commander in the
region. He decided to launch an attack on Fort Niagara and Crown Point
(then Fort St. Frederick), with himself leading the attack on Fort
Niagara, and the attack on Crown Point being led by William Johnson and
Connecticut lawyer Phineas Lyman. Johnson's force, recruited mainly in
New England, managed to defeat the French at the Battle of Lake George,
during which Johnson was wounded and Lyman took command of the army. He
did not continue the offensive and limited himself to building Fort
William Henry. In the following years, the French counterattacked and
captured Forts Oswego and William Henry. Only in 1758 did the British
manage to go on the offensive, recapture the forts, and capture all of
Canada. In 1760, the war on the North American continent ended.
The war required great expenditures from Connecticut and resulted in
serious human losses, although the colony's economy flourished:
Connecticut farmers supplied the British army with meat, flour, grain,
and many military goods.
When the war with France began to end, the Connecticut trading
campaigns decided to resume land development attempts in the west, on
the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers, which caused objections from the
Indians, Pennsylvania and the British government. Despite this, in 1760,
the Connecticut people founded a settlement on the Delaware River, and
in 1762 in the Wyoming Valley. But in 1763, the war ended, Britain tried
not to annoy the Indians, and Governor Fitch was ordered to stop
advancing west. In the summer of 1763, the Pontiac Uprising began. On
October 15, Indians entered the Wyoming Valley and destroyed a
Connecticut settlement there. By 1764, the uprising had been suppressed,
but the British government decided to move to stricter management of the
colonies and impose taxes on military needs there.
The news of
the impending taxes sent first Boston and then Connecticut into a panic.
Before the protest movement was formed, the British parliament passed
the Sugar Act (1764), and then began to prepare a Law on stamp Duty.
Connecticut sent its representative, Jared Ingersoll, to England, who
began campaigning in parliament against this law. He failed to prevent
the passage of the law, but he negotiated for himself the position of
distributor of stamp stamps in Connecticut. Governor Fitch also accepted
this decision. But there were protests among the people, and Jonathan
Trumbull called on the governor to convene an extraordinary session of
the Assembly.
Ingersoll went to the session, but was intercepted
by a group of protesters, who forced him to resign from his position as
a stamp distributor. When the Assembly met, it decided to send a
delegation to the Stamp Act Congress, but told it not to assume any
obligations and not to let Connecticut get involved in any conflict. At
the regular session, the Assembly implemented all the decisions of the
Congress. The governor tried to resist the protest, but it only worsened
his situation. The position required him to take an oath to comply with
the stamp duty act, and he delayed this moment for a long time, but in
the end he took this oath, which further compromised himself. The
official government of the colony has almost completely lost power,
which has passed into the hands of the protesters. But in 1766, the
Stamp Act was repealed and this somewhat reduced the conflict between
the Assembly and the population of the colony.
In 1767,
Parliament introduced new taxes known as the "Townsend Laws." There were
fears that these taxes would be used to pay for officials, and this
would make them dependent on the royal authority. In 1768, the colonies
of New York and Massachusetts declared a boycott of British goods, and
Connecticut joined the boycott in 1769. In 1760, New York abandoned the
boycott, but Connecticut decided to continue it. When the Townsend laws
were repealed, Connecticut's relations with Britain improved briefly,
but in 1773 Britain allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly
to America, which lowered the price of tea and prevented a boycott of
this product. Protesters in Boston threw a cargo of tea into the sea
(which became known as the "Boston Tea Party"), but tea did not arrive
in Connecticut, and the people of Connecticut watched the events from
the sidelines.
When Britain introduced the so-called "Intolerable
Laws" against Boston, the Connecticut Assembly condemned them, but acted
cautiously; when it was decided to convene delegates to the Continental
Congress, the Connecticut delegates were chosen by the Correspondence
Committee, not the Assembly. The delegation consisted mainly of
politicians who were radically anti-British: Roger Sherman, Joseph
Trumbull, Eliphalet Dier and Silas Dee. At the same time, militia
training began in the colony and funds were raised for possible military
expenses. In April 1775, news came of a clash between the Massachusetts
militia and the British army at Lexington and Concord. It is believed
that Israel Putnam, upon learning about this, threw his plow directly
into the field and went to Boston, from where he returned to Connecticut
and told the details of what happened. The Assembly decided to assemble
a 20,000-strong militia. The number of regiments was increased to 8, of
which five were sent to help the Massachusetts troops besieging Boston.
On June 16, near Boston, Putnam's Connecticut regiment occupied the
height of Breed's Hill; The British army attacked the heights and the
Battle of Bunker Hill took place.
In May of that year, the
Connecticut merchant Benedict Arnold convinced the colonial government
of the need to capture Fort Ticonderoga, assembled a militia unit, and
on May 10, together with Ethan Allen's militia, captured the fort in a
surprise attack. After that, the Crown Point fortification was captured,
which made it possible to attack British Canada. This offensive was
launched in the fall by two armies, recruited mainly from Connecticut.
On December 31, 1775, these armies were defeated near Quebec and began
to retreat. Meanwhile, in March, the British left Boston, and George
Washington decided to transfer the army to New York. Temporarily, until
his arrival in the city, the army was commanded by Israel Putnam. Five
Connecticut regiments under the command of Samuel Parsons participated
in the defense of New York.
On June 14, 1776, the Connecticut
Assembly ordered its congressional delegation to vote for independence.
In July, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. It was signed
by Roger Sherman, William Williams, Samuel Huntingdon and Oliver Wolcott
from Connecticut. In October, the Connecticut Assembly approved the
declaration and released the inhabitants of the colony from the oath of
allegiance to the King of England. But Connecticut did not adopt its
constitution and its government continued to operate according to the
principles of the Charter of 1662. All the laws of the colony remained
unchanged and all the officials remained in their places. Governor
Jonathan Trumbull was the only colonial governor who remained in office
during the revolution.
In the fall of 1776, the British captured New York City, and in the
spring of 1777, they learned that the Americans were storing large
stockpiles of weapons and food in the city of Danbury in western
Connecticut. On April 25, a British detachment under the command of
William Tryon landed on the coast of Connecticut. They managed to occupy
and destroy Danbury, but during their retreat, they were attacked by
local militia. This skirmish became known as the Battle of Ridgefield.
These events increased anti-British sentiment in the state. In 1778,
Indians allied with the British attacked the Wyoming Valley, inhabited
by settlers from Connecticut, where they killed almost 300 Americans
during the Battle of Wyoming. Washington had to organize a special
campaign against the Iroquois: the Sullivan Expedition began in the
summer of 1778. On February 29, 1779, the British army raided the town
of Greenwich, and in July they sacked New Haven. In 1780, Connecticut
General Benedict Arnold defected to the British, and in 1781, his
command instructed him to organize a raid on the city of New London. On
September 6, Arnold landed in Connecticut, sacked New London and
attacked Fort Griswold. During the battle, known as the Battle of Groton
Heights, the fort was taken, the garrison surrendered, but was killed by
the British.
In July 1780, General George Washington arrived in
Connecticut to negotiate with Count Rochambeau, commander of the French
contingent in America. Their meeting took place in Hartford. In May
1781, Washington again came to Connecticut to meet with Rochambeau and
Governor Trumbull. This meeting took place in Wethersfield, at the home
of Joseph Webb.
During the war, Connecticut had a population of
20,000, but the state was able to put 40,000 men under arms, albeit for
short terms of service. Connecticut learned of the end of the war on
April 24, 1783, celebrated it with ceremonies, and the Assembly
immediately repealed all martial laws.
The war increased abolitionist sentiments in the state, so in 1784 a
law was passed that any black or mulatto born in Connecticut after March
1, 1784, was considered free. At that time, slave labor was no longer
profitable in Connecticut, and the number of slaves had been gradually
decreasing since 1774. The 1790 census showed that there were 2,759
black slaves and 2,801 free blacks living in the state.
Even in
colonial times, a charter issued by the king gave Connecticut rights to
lands west to the Pacific Ocean. On this basis, it laid claim to lands
up to the Mississippi River. On June 15, 1777, Maryland delegates
proposed to Congress that they take control of the western lands and
subsequently form separate states from them, but no one accepted this
proposal at that time. In February 1779, Maryland repeated this
proposal. It was debated until February 1780, and eventually New York
was the first to renounce its claims to the western territories.
Connecticut followed suit, offering to renounce all but the area south
of Lake Erie. Washington did not accept the offer, but it was approved
by Congress and finalized in 1786, and became known as the Connecticut
Western Reserve. Some of the land was given to Connecticut citizens who
had suffered from British raids, and the rest was sold to private
individuals, with the money used to fund schools and colleges.
After the war, Connecticut faced overpopulation, with the population
increasing by nearly 30,000 between 1782 and 1790. This led to migration
to western Massachusetts and Vermont, and then to New York,
Pennsylvania, and Ohio, where they founded several towns with
Congregational churches and other institutions familiar to them. Another
problem in the state was the numerous debts of farmers and
dissatisfaction with the work of the Confederate government. To resolve
these issues, a Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia
in 1787. Connecticut delegates were Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth, and
William Samuel Johnson. When the convention began arguing about the
principles of electing representatives to Congress, Sherman proposed the
so-called "Connecticut Compromise": the House of Representatives would
be formed proportionally to the population of the states, and the Senate
would include two senators from each state. On October 1, 1787, the text
of the Constitution was published in Connecticut newspapers, and
Ellsworth began publishing articles explaining its essence.
That
same October, it was decided to convene a ratification convention,
elections were held in November, and on January 4, 1788, the convention
met in Hartford. The Constitution was read, and each of its points was
discussed in detail. On January 9, 128 delegates voted in favor and 40
voted against. Connecticut became the 5th state of the United States.
The first senators in the United States Congress from Connecticut
were Johnson and Ellsworth. In October 1788, the Assembly resolved to
hold elections to the U.S. House of Representatives, the elections took
place in December, and in January 1789, the Assembly announced the
winners, who were Roger Sherman, Jonathan Sturgis, Benjamin Huntingdon,
Jonathan Trumbull (the Younger), and Jeremiah Wadsworth.
New England was the stronghold of the Federalist Party.
Because of the power of the Federalists, the Republicans worked harder
to win. In 1806, state leadership sent municipal leaders instructions
for the impending election, which would help coordinate the first modern
"get out the vote" campaign.
Connecticut was prospering during
this time; its ports were busy, and the first textile mills were built.
The American embargo and British blockade during the War of 1812 hurt
the export business, and strengthened the Federalists, who opposed the
war and the embargo. The scarcity of imports from Britain spurred the
rapid development of factories to replace textiles and machinery. Eli
Whitney of New Haven was a leader of the engineers and inventors who
made the state a world leader in machine tools and industrial
technology. The state was noted for its political conservatism,
characterized by the Federalist Party and Yale College headed by Timothy
Dwight. Leading intellectuals were Noah Webster, who compiled his famous
dictionary in New Haven, and Timothy Dwight. Religious tensions
polarized the state, as the Congregational Church, allied with the
Federalists, failed to maintain its hold on the state. The failure of
the Hartford Convention in 1814 hurt the Federalists, who were defeated
by the Republicans in 1817.
Until that time, Connecticut had followed the Charter of 1662, and
with the independence of the colonies 40 years earlier, most of the
Charter's principles were no longer relevant. In 1818, a new
Constitution was adopted that was the first written legislation to
separate church and state in Connecticut, and gave equality to all
religions. The powers of the governor were expanded, and the
independence of the courts was increased by allowing their judges to
serve for life.
Connecticut had the raw materials of running
water and navigable waterways, and with the Yankee work ethic, it became
an industrial leader. From the birth of the patent system in 1790 until
1930, Connecticut was the state with the most patents per capita, at a
rate three times the normal rate. Connecticut's first known invention
was a lapidary machine, invented by Abel Buell of Killingworth in 1765.
Beginning in the 1830s, in a process that accelerated after the
complete abolition of slavery in Connecticut in 1848, African Americans
began moving to urban centers attracted by the jobs and new
opportunities they offered, forming new neighborhoods such as Little
Liberia in Bridgeport.
In 1832, Quaker teacher Prudence Crandall
established the first integrated school in the United States when she
accepted Sarah Harris, an African American, into her Canterbury Boarding
School for Women in Canterbury, Connecticut. Many residents protested
and lobbied for Harris's dismissal, but Crandall refused. Families of
students withdrew their daughters from the school. As a result, Crandall
stopped teaching whites and opened her school to blacks only. In 1995,
the Connecticut General Assembly named Prudence Crandall an official
state hero.
Connecticut producers played a key role in supplying Union forces
with rifles, cannons, ammunition, and military supplies during the Civil
War. The state provided 55,000 men, united in 30 full infantry regiments
with two in the United States Colored Troops. Connecticut also provided
three batteries of light artillery and a cavalry regiment. The Navy
attracted 250 officers and 2,100 sailors. Many Connecticut men became
Union generals; Gideon Welles was a moderate who was Lincoln's Secretary
of the Navy. Connecticut troops suffered heavy casualties; 2,088 died in
action, 2,801 from disease, and 689 in prison camps.
Politics
became contentious during the war. The surge of national unity in 1861
prompted thousands of men to report for service. But as the war became a
crusade against slavery, many Democrats became reluctant. Democrats
began to support peace and embrace the "Copperheads," who were willing
to let the South secede. The gubernatorial election was close, but the
Republicans emerged victorious.
Industrialization, population
density, flat terrain, proximity to urban centers, and the wealth of its
inhabitants made Connecticut a favorable site for railroad construction.
After the Civil War, many small companies merged into the New York, New
Haven and Hartford Railroad, called "the Consolidated." This railroad
attempted to monopolize all modes of transportation, including urban and
interurban streetcars and freighters and steamers on the Long Island
Sound.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad dominated
transportation in Connecticut after 1872. New York's leading banker, J.
P. Morgan, had grown up in Hartford and was very interested in the New
England economy. Beginning in the 1890s, Morgan began financing the
major New England railroads and divided their territories so that they
would not compete with each other. In 1903, he appointed Charles Mellen
president of the railroad. His goal was to buy and consolidate the major
New England railroads, with the support of Morgan's financing, unite
their operations, lower their costs, electrify busy routes, and
modernize the system. With less competition and lower costs, there would
be better revenues. The New Haven Railroad bought 50 minor companies,
including steamship companies, and built a network of electric
streetcars that would provide intercity transportation throughout
southern New England. By 1912, the New Haven Railroad operated 2,000
miles of track and employed more than 120,000 employees. It virtually
monopolized traffic between New York and Boston.
Morgan's quest
for a monopoly angered reformers during the Progressive Era, especially
Boston lawyer Louis Brandeis, who had opposed the New Haven Railroad for
years. Mellen's abrasive tactics alienated him from the general public
and led to high prices for acquisitions and construction. Losses
increased as efforts were made to reduce maintenance costs. Debt rose
from $14 million in 1903 to $242 million in 1913. Also in 1913, the
federal government filed an antitrust suit against the company, and it
was forced to give up its streetcar systems. The advent of automobiles,
trucks, and buses after 1910 cut into revenues. The line went bankrupt
in 1935 and was reorganized and downsized, went bankrupt again in 1961,
and in 1969 merged with the Penn Central system, which also went
bankrupt. The remnants of the system are part of Conrail.
The
automobile revolution came about more quickly than anticipated,
especially the railroads. In 1915, Connecticut had 40,000 automobiles;
five years later it had 120,000. There was a more rapid growth in
trucks, which grew from 7,000 to 24,000. Local government began to
improve roads, and entrepreneurs opened dealerships, gas stations,
repair shops, and motels.
Republicans dominated state politics after 1896, and controlled the
legislature, where the one-representative-per-municipality rule ensured
that small rural municipalities could win the vote against the growing
cities. While Republicans developed factions, they coalesced for
elections. Democrats suffered greater internal dissent over certain
issues, especially the liberalism of William Jennings Bryan, and were
therefore weaker in general elections. Rural Democrats battled urban
Irish for control of the state party. Most industrial workers voted
Republican, except for Irish Catholics who were Democrats, so most
industrial cities voted Republican.
In 1910, Democrats chose
Simeon Baldwin, a prominent professor at Yale Law School, as their
candidate for governor. Republicans were divided between supporters of
President Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt, and Democrats
won the presidential, gubernatorial, and congressional elections in
Connecticut, and managed to control the state Senate. Only the House of
Representatives remained controlled by Republicans because of their
power in rural areas. The state did not participate much in the
Progressive Era, and Democrats passed only one liberal law, which
established a workers' compensation system. In 1914, the Republicans
regrouped and regained control of state politics. J. Henry Roraback was
the Republican boss in the state from 1912 until his death in 1937. His
political machine, Lockard said, was "efficient, conservative,
mean-spirited, and in complete control." Until the New Deal coalition of
the 1930s brought ethnic voters to the Democratic Party, Roraback was
unsurpassed because of his strong rural organization, funding from the
business community, conservative politics, and hierarchical party
organization. Connecticut was the last state to adopt the party primary
system, and it was only used in the case where a loser wanted to
challenge the state convention election.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Connecticut's large machinery
industry received large contracts from Britain, Canada, France, and the
American forces. The largest munitions companies were Remington in
Bridgeport, Winchester in New Haven, and Colt in Hartford, in addition
to the large federal arsenal in Bridgeport.
The state vigorously
supported the United States war effort in 1917 and 1918 with large
purchases of war bonds, an expansion of the war industry, and a focus on
farm-based food production. Thousands of groups were mobilized for the
war effort, and were coordinated by the Connecticut State Defense
Council. Young men were eager to serve voluntarily or through
conscription.
Late in the war, the worldwide epidemic of the "flu
of 1918" reached the state. Death rates were high because the state was
a travel center and very urban, so germs spread faster, and there were
also many recent immigrants in dense areas. Between 8,500 and 9,000
people died, almost one percent of the population, and about a quarter
of the population contracted the disease.
The factories in Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, and Hartford were
magnets for European immigrants. The largest groups were Italians,
Poles, and other Eastern Europeans. They brought unskilled and Catholic
labor to a historically Protestant state, and a sizable number of Jewish
immigrants also arrived. By 1910, nearly 30% of Connecticut's population
was foreign-born.
These ethnic groups supported World War I (the
few German-Americans tried to keep a low profile, because they faced
clear hostility because of their ethnicity). Ethnic organizations
supported an Americanization program for recent immigrants. Because
transatlantic travel became impossible for citizens between 1914 and
1920, the influx of new immigrants ceased. Italians, Poles, and others
had to cancel plans to return to their hometowns. Their standard of
living improved as better-paying jobs in the munitions industry became
available. They settled in the United States, becoming permanent
residents. Rather than identifying with their former peoples, Italians
took on a new pride in being both American and Italian. Their
American-born, bilingual children flourished economically in the
prosperous 1920s. Poles enlisted in large numbers, and generously
supported the war bond effort. They were motivated in part by the
government's commitment to support Polish independence, which occurred
after the war.
In the 1920s, nativists began to oppose the new
immigrants as a threat to the state's traditional values. The Ku Klux
Klan had some followers in the state in the 1920s, reaching about 15,000
members before its national disintegration in 1926.
Rising unemployment in urban and rural areas produced distrust of
Connecticut leaders, and so Connecticut Democrats saw an opportunity to
return to power. A major leader of the movement was Governor Wilbur
Lucius Cross (1931–1939), a Yale English professor, who emulated much of
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies by creating new public
services, contributing to infrastructure projects, and instituting the
minimum wage. The Merritt Parkway was built in this period as part of
the infrastructure investment.
In 1938, the Democratic Party in
Connecticut faced controversy, and the Republicans elected Governor
Raymond E. Baldwin. Connecticut became a very competitive state between
the two parties.
On September 21, 1938, the most destructive
storm in New England history struck eastern Connecticut, killing
hundreds of people. The eye of the Long Island Express passed west of
New Haven and devastated the Connecticut coastline between Old Saybrook
and Stonington, which lacked the protection of Long Island. The
hurricane caused extensive damage to infrastructure, homes, and
businesses in the region. In New London, a 500-foot sailboat collided
with a warehouse complex, causing a large fire. Heavy rains caused the
Connecticut River to flood downtown Hartford and East Hartford. About
50,000 trees fell across roads.
The Great Depression quickly gave
way to an economic boom as the United States invested in its defense
industry before and during World War II. Roosevelt's call for the United
States to be the Arsenal of Democracy caused a rapid expansion in
industries related to munitions production, such as aircraft engines,
radios, radar, proximity fuses, rifles, and many other products.
Aircraft engines were built, parachutes were sewn, and submarines were
constructed. In addition, traditional munitions industries continued to
manufacture guns, ships, uniforms, ammunition, and artillery.
Connecticut manufactured 4.1 percent of all U.S. military armaments
produced during the war. Although most munitions production ended in
1945, new industries had emerged because of the war, and production of
advanced electronics and aircraft components continued.
Connecticut's suburbs prospered as many moved into new housing via
subsidized highways, but its town populations peaked in the 1950s and
began to decline thereafter. Connecticut built the first nuclear
submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), and other essential weapons for
the Pentagon. By the early 1960s, the thriving labor market gave the
state the highest per capita income in the country. The high standard of
living could be seen in the suburban neighborhoods that developed
outside the major cities. The construction of major highways like the
Connecticut Turnpike, subsidized by federal investment, turned small
towns into sites for residential and commercial development, a trend
that continues to this day.
Fairfield County, Connecticut's Gold
Coast, was a favorite residence for many executives who worked in New
York. Connecticut attracted many corporate headquarters from New York,
especially in the 1970s when Connecticut had no state income tax.
Connecticut offered abundant office space, a high standard of living for
those who did not want to live in New York, and excellent public
schools. The state did not offer tax incentives for corporations to
relocate their headquarters.
Connecticut's industrial workers
were well paid, and many were employed in defense industries, building
nuclear submarines in shipyards at Electric Boat, helicopters at
Sikorsky, and jet engines at Pratt & Whitney. Unions were very powerful
after the war, reaching their peak in the early 1970s. Since then,
unions have experienced a sharp decline in size and influence, as
factories closed, and the state lost jobs. Public sector unions,
including teachers, police, and municipal and state employees, have
become more powerful.
Deindustrialization left many industrial
centers with empty factories and high unemployment. As wealthier whites
moved to the suburbs, African Americans and Latinos began to make up a
larger percentage of the urban population. African Americans and Latinos
inherited deteriorating inner cities that were not priorities for the
state or its companies. By the 1980s, urban obsolescence and crime were
major issues. These poor conditions became catalysts for militant
movements to gentrify poor neighborhoods and desegregate school systems
in cities surrounded by mostly white suburbs. In 1987, Hartford became
the first American city to elect a black woman mayor, Carrie Saxon
Perry.
Connecticut had very strong state parties. Party bosses controlled
its legislative delegations and ran conventions to choose nominees. The
old "WASP" population still held power in rural areas, but Catholics
were 44 percent of the state's population and dominated all industrial
towns. With many minority groups loyal to the Democrats and unions at
their peak, the Democratic Party strongly supported the coalition of the
New Deal and liberalism. The Republican Party was slightly liberal,
characterized by Senator Prescott Bush, a potentate whose son and
grandson were elected president. Connecticut had difficulty projecting
its identity with no major league teams and its media market dominated
by out-of-state broadcasters. The Democratic Party boss had Ella Grasso
as a contact with the liberal faction of the party. He promoted her from
the legislature to the Secretary of State to Congress to the
governorship.
Bailey's success in controlling statewide
candidates suffered a setback in 1970, when Republican gubernatorial
candidate Thomas Meskill defeated a mediocre Democrat. More complex was
the situation for Senator Thomas Dodd, a Democrat censured by the Senate
for his abuse of campaign funds. Dodd lost the Democratic primary, but
ran as an independent and split the vote. The result was that liberal
Republican Lowell Weicker won the Senate seat. Bailey was more
successful in securing the reelection of Senator Abe Ribicoff to the
governorship in 1974. In 1950, Ribicoff was elected as Connecticut's
first Jewish, non-"WASP" governor. He was reelected until defeated in
1988, and was reelected in 1990 as an independent.
In 1974,
Democrats elected Ella T. Grasso, the daughter of Italian immigrants and
the first woman elected governor. She was re-elected in 1978. She faced
a severe crisis in 1978 when the "Blizzard of '78" dumped more than 30
inches of snow on the state, paralyzing highways and roads. Grasso "shut
down the state" by proclamation, and banned all use of public roads by
businesses and citizens, thereby shutting down all businesses. In
practice, the decision confined Connecticuters to their homes. This
relieved emergency services of having to help the many stuck cars, and
allowed services to proceed for those trapped. The crisis ended on the
third day, and Grasso won praise for her leadership and courage.
Dependence on the defense industry was an economic problem at the end
of the Cold War. The resulting budget crisis helped elect Lowell Weicker
as governor as a third party in 1990. Despite campaigning against the
state income tax, Weicker's solution to the crisis was exactly that, and
it was effective in balancing the budget, but it was not at all popular.
Weicker retired after a single term.
With their lands
"reconquered," the Pequots began plans to build a large casino complex
on their reservations. Foxwoods Casino was completed in 1992, and its
huge revenues made the Pequot reservation in Mashantucket one of the
wealthiest in the country. With their new money, new educational and
cultural initiatives were established, including the construction of the
Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. The Mohegan reservation
gained political recognition and soon afterward, in 1994, opened another
successful casino (Mohegan Sun) near Uncasville City Hall. The economic
downturn that began in 2007 severely hurt revenues, and by 2012 both
casinos were deeply in debt.
Casinos are an example of the shift
in the economy's direction from manufacturing to entertainment,
financial services and the pharmaceutical industry.
The September 11, 2001, attacks killed 65 Connecticutans, most of
whom were Fairfield County residents and worked at the World Trade
Center. A state memorial was later established in Westport.
Many
political scandals rocked Connecticut in the early 21st century. These
included the impeachment of Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim on 16
counts of corruption and Waterbury Mayor Philip A. Giordano on 18 counts
of sexually abusing two sisters.
In 2004 Governor John G. Rowland
resigned during a corruption investigation. Rowland subsequently pleaded
guilty to federal charges, and his successor M. Jodi Rell focused her
administration on reforms.
In April 2005, Connecticut passed a
law to allow same-sex marriage. However, the law required that such
unions be called "civil unions," and that only unions between people of
different sexes could be called marriages. In October 2008, the
Connecticut Supreme Court ordered that same-sex marriage be allowed.
In July 2009, the Connecticut legislature overrode a veto by
Governor M. Jodi Rell and passed SustiNet, the first significant
public-option health care reform in the United States.
The
criminal justice system also faced the first execution in the state
since 1960, that of serial killer Michael Ross in 2005, and was also
rocked by the Cheshire home invasion murders in July 2007. Because the
alleged perpetrators of the murders were out on parole, M. Jodi Rell
promised a full investigation of the state's criminal justice policies.
On April 11, 2012, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted to
eliminate capital punishment in the state.
In 2011 and 2012,
Connecticut experienced three major storms in just 14 months, all of
which caused serious property damage and power outages. Hurricane Irene
struck Connecticut on August 28, 2011, killing three residents. Damage
totaled $235 million, and 20 homes were destroyed in East Haven. Two
months later, the "Halloween Nor'easter" unleashed extensive snow on the
state. Hurricane Sandy had high winds when it hit Connecticut on October
29, 2012, and killed four men. Sandy's winds pushed storm surge onto
coastal streets, toppled trees, and caused power outages for 98 percent
of homes and businesses in its path. Hurricane Sandy caused more than
$360 million in damage.
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot and
killed 26 people, 20 children and 6 adults, at Sandy Hook Elementary
School in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Connecticut, and then
committed suicide.
The total gross domestic product as of 2010 was $237 billion. The per
capita income in 2007 was $64,833, placing the state fourth behind the
District of Columbia, Delaware, and Alaska. There is, however, a large
disparity in income across the state. For example, New Canan has one of
the highest per capita incomes in America, while Hartford is one of the
ten cities with the lowest per capita incomes in America. Like
Bridgeport, New Haven County and other cities in the state, Hartford is
surrounded by affluent suburbs. The unemployment rate as of December
2012 was 8.2%.
New Canan is the wealthiest city in Connecticut,
with a per capita income of $85,459. The cities of Darien, Greenwich,
Weston, Westport, and Wilton also have per capita incomes of over
$65,000. Hartford is the poorest municipality in Connecticut, with per
capita income of $13,428 in 2000. There are other small, low-income
towns located mostly in the eastern part of the state.
Connecticut's first public schools were founded during the 1650s,
when the then-English colony mandated that every settlement with more
than 50 families offer educational services—hiring a person from the
community to teach children to read and write—without Families will need
to pay directly for such services. In addition to that, the construction
of a high school was declared mandatory in every city with more than one
hundred families.
All educational institutions need to follow
rules and regulations set by the Connecticut Department of Education,
made up of nine members appointed by the governor for terms of up to
four years in length. These nine members in turn appoint a tenth member
to serve as the commissioner of education - Chairman of the department -
for terms of up to four years in duration. This department directly
controls the state's public school system, which is divided into
different school districts. Each major city (city), various secondary
cities (towns), and each county is served by a school district. In
cities, the responsibility for managing schools lies with the municipal
school district, while in less densely populated regions, this
responsibility lies with school districts operating throughout the
county as a whole. Connecticut allows the operation of charter schools —
independent public schools, which are not managed by school districts,
but which depend on public budgets to operate. School attendance is
mandatory for all children and adolescents over six years of age, until
the completion of secondary education or until the age of fifteen.
In 1999, the state's public schools served approximately 554,000
students, employing approximately 39,000 teachers. Private schools
served about 70.1 thousand students, employing approximately 6.9
thousand teachers. The state's public school system consumed about $5.08
million, and public school spending was approximately $9.6 thousand per
student. About 87.5% of the state's inhabitants over 25 years of age
have a high school diploma.
The first library in the state was
founded in 1701. It was part of the then Collegiate Institute, now Yale
University. The state's first municipal public library was founded in
1733, in Durham. It currently has 194 public library systems, which
annually move an average of 8.4 books per inhabitant.
Connecticut's first institution of higher education was the Collegiate
Institute—now Yale University—founded in 1701. Yale University is the
third oldest institution of higher education in the country, behind only
Harvard University and William and Mary College.
The Connecticut Board of Education operates the
public school system for children. Members of the board of education are
appointed by the governor of the state. The statistics for each school
are available to the public through an online database system called
CEDAR.
Private schools
Greenwich Country Day School
Fairfield Country Day School
Notre Dame Catholic High School
Hopkins School
Choate Rosemary Hall
Miss Porter's School
Northwest Catholic High School
Colleges and universities
Connecticut had its first law school, Litchfield Law School, operating
from 1773 to 1833 in Litchfield. Hartford Public High School (1638) is
the third oldest high school in the country after Collegiate School
(1628) in Manhattan and Boston Latin School (1635).
Private
Yale University (1701)
Trinity College (1823)
Wesleyan
University (1831)
University of Hartford (1877)
Poston University
(1890)
Connecticut College (1911)
University of New Haven (1920)
Albertus Magnus College (1925)
Bridgeport University (1927)
Quinnipack University (1929)
St. Joseph University (1932)
Mitchell
College (1938)
Fairfield University (1942)
Sacred Heart University
(1963)
Public
University of Central Connecticut (1849)
University of Connecticut (1881)
Eastern Connecticut University
(1889)
University of Southern Connecticut (1893)
Western
Connecticut University (1903)
United States Coast Guard Military
Academy (1915)
Charterock College (1973)
The current Constitution of Connecticut was adopted in 1965. Previous
constitutions were adopted in 1639 and 1818. The Constitution of
1639—officially called the "Fundamental Mandates"—was the first
Constitution adopted in what is now the United States. Amendments to the
Constitution are proposed by the Connecticut Legislature, and to be
approved, they need to receive at least 51% favorable votes from the
state Senate and House of Representatives, and two-thirds of the votes
of the population Connecticut election, in a referendum. The population
of the state can also propose amendments to the Constitution by
collecting a certain number of signatures. When these signatures are
accepted by the government, to be approved, they need to receive the
approval of at least a quarter of the members of both houses of the
Connecticut Legislature, and at least 51% of the votes of the electoral
population. Amendments can also be proposed and introduced by
constitutional conventions, which need to receive at least 51% of the
votes of both chambers of the Legislative Branch and two-thirds of the
votes of the electoral population, in a referendum.
The chief
executive branch official is the governor. He is elected by the state's
voters for terms of up to four years, and can be re-elected as many
times as he can. Voters also elect the Lieutenant Governor, the
Secretary of State and three other state Executive officials.
The
General Assembly, the legislative branch of the state, is made up of the
Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has a total of 36
members, while the House of Representatives has a total of 151 members.
Connecticut is divided into 36 senatorial districts and 151
representative districts. The voters of each district elect a
senator/representative, who will represent each district in the
Senate/House of Representatives. The term of office of senators and
representatives is four years.
The highest court of the state's
judiciary is the Connecticut Supreme Court, composed of seven justices.
Other courts of the state Judicial Branch are the Court of Appeals, the
Superior Court and the Probate Courts, each with 11, 150 and 132 judges,
respectively. Judges of all state courts except Probate Courts are
chosen by the Connecticut Legislature for terms of up to eight years.
The judges of the Probate Courts are elected by the population of the
state for terms of up to four years in length.
It is divided into
eight counties. Unlike other American states, Connecticut counties do
not have a county seat. The main administrative entity, apart from the
state government, are the governments of the 169 municipalities (towns)
of the state. Certain more densely populated regions of these
municipalities form boroughs (districts). Connecticut has 19 cities
(cities).
More than half of the government's budget is generated
by state taxes. The remainder comes from budgets received from the
national government and loans. In 2002, the state government spent
20,117 million dollars, having generated 16,993 million dollars. The
government debt is 20,784 million dollars. The debt per capita is
$6,009, the value of state taxes per capita is $2,611, and the value of
government expenditures per capita is $5,816.
Connecticut has
primarily supported the Republican Party since it was created in 1854,
and politically the state was dominated by Republicans until the 1960s.
Of 20 governors elected between 1856 and 1932, fifteen were Republicans
and five were Democrats. Since the 1930s, however, the Democratic Party
has grown stronger in the state. Thus, since the 1960s, the Democrats,
in the 12 elections held until 2004 in the country's presidential
elections, seven have been mostly dominated by Democrats.
According to the 2000 national census of the United States Census
Bureau, the population of Connecticut was 3,405,565, a growth of 3.6%
relative to the state's 1990 population of 3,287,116. . A forecast made
in 2005 estimates the state's population at 3,510,297 inhabitants, a
growth of 6.7% in relation to the state's population in 1990, 3.1%, in
relation to the state's population in 2000, and of 0.3% in relation to
the estimated population in 2004.
The natural population growth
between 2000 and 2005 was 67,427 inhabitants (222,222 births minus
154,795 deaths), the population growth caused by immigration was 75,991
inhabitants, while interstate migration increased by 41,718 inhabitants.
Between 2000 and 2005, the population grew by 223,181 inhabitants, and
between 2004 and 2005, by 11,331 inhabitants.
In 2004, 11.4% of
the state's population (approximately 400,000 inhabitants) had been born
outside the country, with estimates indicating that 10% of these are
illegal immigrants (1.1% of the state's population).
The gross domestic product was $187 billion. The state's per capita
income, meanwhile, was $75,398, the highest among the 50 US states. The
unemployment rate is 2.9%.
The primary sector accounts for 1% of
Connecticut's GDP. The state has 3,800 farms, which occupy about 10% of
the state. Agriculture and livestock together account for 1% of the
state's GDP, and employ approximately 37 thousand people. Milk and
cherries are the main products produced by the agricultural industry,
which produces more than 25% of all cherries consumed in the country.
The effects of fishing and forestry are not very representative in the
state's economy, together employing nearly two thousand people. The
annual value of fishing in the state is 28 million dollars.
The
secondary sector accounts for 20% of the GDP. The total value of
products manufactured in the state is $28 billion. The main
industrialized products manufactured in the state are transportation
equipment, chemical products, machinery, electronic components and
computers, industrialized foods and printed materials. The manufacturing
industry accounts for 17% of the state's GDP, employing approximately
285 thousand people. The construction industry is 3% of the state's GDP
and employs approximately 99 thousand people. The effects of mining are
unimportant; This sector employs about 1.9 thousand people.
The
tertiary sector contributes 79% of the state's GDP. Connecticut is a
great hub for the insurance industry. The provision of financial and
real estate services accounts for more than 28% of the state's GDP,
employing approximately 231 thousand people. Hartford is the financial
center of the state, being the largest insurance sector center in the
United States, and the second largest in the world (behind only London).
About 22% of the state's GDP is generated through the provision of
community and personal services. This sector employs about 682 thousand
people. Wholesale and retail trade accounts for 14% of the state's GDP,
and employs approximately 410 thousand people. Government Services are
9% of GDP, employing approximately 225 thousand people. Transportation,
telecommunications and public utilities employ 84 thousand people, and
account for 6% of the GDP. 46% of all electricity consumed annually in
the state is generated in oil-fired thermal plants, and 1% in
hydroelectric plants. 52% is imported from neighboring states and the
Canadian province of Quebec.
In 2002 it owned 893 kilometers of railway tracks. The Amtrak company provides passenger rail transportation service in Hartford and various small cities located along the state's coastline with the Atlantic Ocean. In 2003 it had 33,939 kilometers of public roads, of which 557 kilometers were interstate highways, part of the United States federal highway system.
Connecticut's first newspaper, and the oldest in the country still
published, was the Connecticut Courant (now the Hartford Courant), which
was first published in 1764, in Hartford. Currently, about 110
newspapers are published in the state, of which 19 are daily newspapers.
The state's first radio station was founded in 1922, in Hartford.
The first television station was founded in 1948, in New Haven.
Connecticut currently has 77 radio stations—of which 29 are AM and 48
are FM—and 13 television stations.
The global sports network ESPN
is based in the city of Bristol, located in this state.
The Hartford Whalers played in the National Hockey League from 1979
to 1997, after which they moved states. The Hartford Dark Blues played
in the National Baseball League in 1876.
The Hartford Blues
played in the National Football League in 1926. Meanwhile, the New York
Giants played at home in the Yale Bowl in New Haven in the 1973 and 1974
seasons, during the construction of Giants Stadium.
The Boston
Celtics of the National Basketball Association played some home games at
the Hartford Civic Center between 1975 and 1995. The Connecticut Sun has
played the WNBA since 2003 in the town of Uncasville.
In terms of
college sports, the UConn Huskies play in the American Athletic
Conference of the NCAA Division I, achieving multiple national
championships in American football and men's and women's basketball.
Meanwhile, the Harvard Crimson and Yale Bulldogs of the Ivy League
maintain one of the oldest American football rivalries, having faced
each other for the first time in 1875.
Since 1952, the PGA Tour
has held an annual golf tournament in Hartford, currently called the
Travelers Championship. Meanwhile, the New Haven Tournament has been
part of the WTA Tour since 1998 and the ATP Tour since 2005. For its
part, the Lime Rock Park road course has hosted races for the IMSA GT
Championship, American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series.
Tree: White oak (Quercus alba)
Nicknames:
Constitution State
Arsenal of the Nation (unofficial)
Nutmeg State (unofficial)
Fossil: Eubrontes giganteus
Flower: Kalmia latifolia
Insect:
Praying mantis
Motto: Qui transtulit sustinet
Mammal: Sperm whale
(Physeter macrocephalus)
Mineral: Garnet
Music: Yankee Doodle
Bird: American robin (Turdus migratorius)
Fish: American shad (Alosa
sapidissima)
Slogan: Full of Surprises