New York (state)

B

Places of Interest

New York state has many areas of natural beauty and interest, including Niagara Falls, the Thousand Islands of the St Lawrence River, the gorges of the Genesee River, the Finger Lakes region, the beaches of Long Island, and the picturesque lakes of the Adirondack and Catskill mountains. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail passes through the state on its route from Maine to Georgia. Central Park, a large metropolitan park covering 341 hectares (843 acres) of Manhattan Island, opened in 1876 and houses a number of attractions, including a zoo, a bird sanctuary, a formal garden, a meteorological observatory, and an 18th Dynasty Egyptian obelisk, known as Cleopatra’s Needle. A wide range of historical sites can be found in the state. Among the historical homes are those of the political writer Thomas Paine, located in New Rochelle; the statesman Alexander Hamilton, in New York; Chief Justice John Jay, in Mount Kisco; the women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony, in Rochester; the writer Washington Irving, in Tarrytown; President Martin Van Buren, in Kinderhook; President Theodore Roosevelt, in New York and in Oyster Bay; and President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, in Hyde Park.

Other notable historical sites are Fort Stanwix National Monument, near Rome, and Saratoga National Historical Park, near Stillwater, both of which were scenes of important patriot successes against the British in 1777 during the American War of Independence; Castle Clinton National Monument, at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, including the structure through which approximately eight million immigrants passed from 1855 to 1892; and Statue of Liberty National Monument, on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, containing the famous statue, in the base of which is housed the American Museum of Immigration. The Statue of Liberty and nearby Ellis Island were declared a national monument in 1924, and the statue was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Skyscrapers dominate the New York skyline; the Flatiron Building, completed in 1902, was one of the first in the city. Others include the Chrysler Building (1930), the Woolworth Building (1915), the Empire State Building (1931), and the group of buildings that constitute Rockefeller Center (begun 1931). The former World Trade Center (1972) ranked among the world's tallest buildings until its destruction by terrorist action on September 11, 2001.

New York is the foremost cultural centre of the United States. Its most famous institutions include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Frick Collection, the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Jewish Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian (1922; reorganized in 1993 as the George Gustav Heye Center of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian), the American Museum of Natural History, the International Wildlife Conservation Park (commonly known as the Bronx Zoo), the New York Botanical Garden, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Brooklyn Museum. Other major museums in the state include the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, in Buffalo; the New York State Museum (1836), in Albany; the International Museum of Photography, in Rochester; the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, in Cooperstown; the Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning; and the Hudson River Museum, in Yonkers.

New York is the major US centre for the performing arts. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a complex of several large buildings, is the home of such major groups as the Metropolitan Opera Company, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet. Other well-known performing arts groups of the city include the American Ballet Theatre, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, and numerous theatrical organizations, such as the Manhattan Theatre Club, the New York Shakespeare Festival, and the Negro Ensemble Company. In addition, the midtown section of Manhattan around Broadway is famous for its many theatres. The Buffalo Philharmonic and the Rochester Philharmonic are noted orchestras based outside New York.

New York state has many important specialized and general libraries. Leading research centres include the New York Public Library and the Columbia University libraries, in New York, and the Cornell University libraries, in Ithaca. The papers of President Franklin D. Roosevelt are housed in a library in Hyde Park.

C

Sports and Recreation

New York’s mountains, lakes, rivers, beaches, and parks offer opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, swimming, boating, fishing, hunting, and winter sports. Famous thoroughbred racetracks in the state are Aqueduct, in New York; Belmont Park, in Elmont; and Saratoga Race Course, in Saratoga Springs. A motor racetrack is in Watkins Glen. The New York Yankees baseball club, which uses Yankee Stadium in the Bronx (New York), is one of the world’s most famous professional sports teams. Madison Square Garden, in New York, is a noted site for sports and entertainment events and for conventions.

D

Government and Politics

The state of New York is governed under a constitution adopted in 1894 and put into effect in 1895, as amended. The chief executive is a governor, who is popularly elected to a term of four years and who may be re-elected any number of times. Other elected state officials include the lieutenant-governor, attorney-general, and comptroller.

Legislative authority is vested in a bicameral legislature composed of a Senate and an Assembly. The 62 members of the Senate and the 150 members of the Assembly are popularly elected to two-year terms. At a national level, New York elects 2 senators and 29 representatives to the US Congress. The state has 31 electoral votes in presidential elections (see Electoral College).

New Yorkers have played a prominent role in national politics since the founding of the United States. In the early 1990s, Democrats and Republicans were fairly evenly matched in the state, with the majority of New York voters being Democrats and the rest of the state generally having a greater proportion of Republicans. Increasingly important as a swing bloc during the 1970s and 1980s were the voters living in the suburbs of New York. Although New York’s share of electoral votes has declined from a peak of 47 in the 1930s and 1940s, the state remains a major battleground in presidential elections; in the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 elections the vote was Democratic.

In the 2006 elections, 23 Democrats and 6 Republicans were returned to represent the state. Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton (both Democrats) represent New York and face re-election in 2010 and 2012 respectively. In 2006 Democrat Eliot Spitzer was elected state governor, defeating Republican candidate John Faso.

IV

History

The Native Americans who lived in the western and northern parts of what is now the state of New York before the coming of the Europeans were divided into two main groups: the Algonquian of the Hudson Valley and Long Island and the Iroquois in the western area. The Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Five Nations, was a highly organized political and military entity, originally consisting of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes; the Tuscarora were admitted early in the 18th century.

A

Colonial Period

The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano entered New York Bay in 1524, but European colonization did not begin until after the English navigator Henry Hudson claimed the area for the Netherlands in 1609. The Dutch West India Company established settlements at Fort Orange (near present-day Albany) in 1624 and at New Amsterdam on the southern end of Manhattan Island two years later. In 1629 a charter of freedoms and exemptions was adopted as an inducement for settlement. The New Netherland colony, which suffered from mismanagement and Native American attacks in its early years, achieved a measure of peace and economic stability under Peter Stuyvesant, who governed it from 1647 to 1664. In the latter year it was seized by the English and was renamed New York in honour of its proprietor, James, Duke of York, brother of King Charles II. James made New Jersey, which had been part of New Netherland, a separate colony and acquired eastern Long Island from Connecticut. After a brief Dutch reoccupation (1673-1674), the colony returned to English control. When James became King as James II, he formed the short-lived Dominion of New England, uniting New England, New York, and New Jersey (1686). On receiving the news that James had been dethroned in 1688, the citizens of New York rebelled and named Jacob Leisler as governor. Although Leisler was hanged for treason when royal authority was reinstated in 1691, the representative assembly he established was thereafter retained as part of the colony’s government. Subsequent governors sought to carry out Crown and parliamentary decrees while the assembly managed to strengthen its control over purse strings.

Schenectady was destroyed by a French and Native American attack in 1690, and New York continued to be a battleground during the wars with the French and their Native American allies in the decades that followed. In the French and Indian War of 1754-1763, the French formed a major base at Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and penetrated as far south as Lake George. Not until Lord Jeffrey Amherst ousted them from Ticonderoga and Crown Point in 1759 was New York secure from further French attacks. The Peace of 1763 ended the French presence and signalled a move into former Native American holdings in the Mohawk Valley and Great Lakes regions.