I.

Introduction

New York, one of the mid-Atlantic coast states of the United States, bordered on the north by the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec; on the east by Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; on the south-east by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by New Jersey and Pennsylvania; and on the west by Pennsylvania and Ontario. Several boundaries are formed by bodies of water, including Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River, in the north; Lake Champlain and the Poultney River, in the north-east; the Hudson and Delaware rivers, in the south-east; and Lake Erie and the Niagara River, in the west. Although New York is the largest city in the country, much of New York State is still rural.

New York entered the Union on July 26, 1788, as the 11th of the original 13 states. New York has long been a leader in the political, cultural, and economic life of the United States. Despite economic difficulties in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly in New York and other urban areas, the state still ranks among the US leaders in such important sectors as manufacturing, commerce, foreign trade, communications, and finance. It is the birthplace of four US presidents: Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Others, such as Presidents Grover Cleveland and Chester A. Arthur, spent most of their lives in the state. New York, named in the 1660s after the Duke of York, later James II of England, is known as the “Empire State”.

II.

Land and Resources

New York has an area of 141,299 sq km (54,556 sq mi). The mainland portion of New York is shaped roughly like a right-angled triangle; Long Island forms an extension in the south-east. The extreme dimensions of the mainland are about 510 km (315 mi) from east to west and about 480 km (300 mi) from north to south; Long Island extends about 190 km (118 mi) from east to west. Elevations begin at sea level, along the Atlantic Ocean in the south-east, and range up to 1,629 m (5,344 ft), from the top of Mount Marcy in the north-east. The coastline measures 204 km (127 mi).

A.

Physical Geography

New York’s geography is diverse, encompassing seven major regions: the St Lawrence Lowland, the Adirondack Upland, the Eastern Great Lakes Lowland, the Appalachian Mountains, the Hudson-Mohawk Lowlands, the New England Upland, and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The St Lawrence Lowland region, in the north, is made up of a narrow lowland corridor along the St Lawrence River plus an area bordering Lake Champlain.

The Adirondack Upland in north-eastern New York takes in about one quarter of the state. Much of it is rugged, and many peaks, including Mount Marcy, rise to more than 1,220 m (4,000 ft). The Eastern Great Lakes Lowland region, bordering Lakes Erie and Ontario (two of the five Great Lakes), is generally flat close to the lakes and somewhat rolling to hilly farther away.

The Appalachian Plateau region occupies nearly half of the southern area of the state; the Catskill Mountains, with elevations ranging to about 1,280 m (4,200 ft), form the eastern part of the region. The Hudson-Mohawk Lowlands region is in the central and eastern parts of New York. Between the Appalachian Plateau and the New England Upland region is the narrow Hudson Valley. The Mohawk Valley lies north-west of the Hudson, mainly between the Adirondacks and the Appalachian Plateau.

Three main subdivisions make up the New England Upland region: the Taconic Mountains along the eastern border; the spectacular Hudson Highlands south-west across the Hudson River; and the crystalline Manhattan Hills, which are relatively low and make up most of Westchester County and Manhattan Island.

Long Island and Staten Island represent most of New York’s share of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The northern part of Long Island is composed of low hills rising to about 90 m (300 ft), and in the south is a low, flat plain.

New York has many rivers and lakes. The Great Lakes-St Lawrence Basin system drains much of western and central New York. Besides the St Lawrence, some of the better-known rivers are the Genesee, Black, Niagara, Oswego, Hudson, Mohawk, Allegheny, Susquehanna, and Delaware. Picturesque waterfalls are found along several of New York’s rivers. The best known is Niagara Falls.

New York contains a large number of lakes, many of which are frequented by holidaymakers. Three large lakes—Champlain, Erie, and Ontario—are only partly in the state. Lakes located wholly within New York include Oneida Lake, the Finger Lakes, Lake George, and Conesus Lake.

B.

Climate

In general, New York’s climate is humid continental. The south-eastern part of the state has the highest mean monthly temperature, and the uplands of the north-east the lowest. Most of the state receives abundant snowfall. The recorded temperature in New York has ranged from -46.7° C (-52° F), in 1934 at Stillwater Reservoir and in 1979 at Old Forge, both in the Adirondacks, to 42.2° C (108° F), in 1926 at Troy in the east. Aside from thunderstorms and heavy snowfalls, New York is struck by few damaging storms. Hurricanes occasionally strike Long Island and the south-eastern section of the state’s mainland.

C.

Natural Resources

New York’s mineral resources are mainly non-metallic. They include stone, salt, sand and gravel, natural gas, limestone, talc, slate, garnets, clay, emery, and oil. Metallic minerals include lead, zinc, iron, and silver.

D.

Plants and Animals

About 53 per cent of the land area is covered with forest, most of it regrowth on cut-over land. Major tree and wild flower species include birch, sugar and red maple, basswood, hemlock, white pine, azalea and other rhododendrons, violets, orchids, and mountain laurel.

New York’s larger mammals include Virginia deer and black bear, the former widespread over the state and the latter living mainly in more remote regions of the Adirondacks and the Appalachian Plateau. Some of the more common birds are warblers, crows, bluebirds, and woodpeckers. The fresh and marine waters of New York are inhabited by large numbers of fish.

E.

Resources, Products, and Industries

Dairy farming is the principal agricultural pursuit, although considerable income is also derived from the sale of beef cattle, pigs, chickens, eggs, turkeys, ducks, and sheep. Leading crops include hay, corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, onions, lettuce, snap beans, tomatoes, cabbage, grapes, apples, and cherries. The forestry and fishing industries have a small presence in the state, although their contribution to the economy is not substantial.

New York remains one of the leading industrial states in the United States, although the manufacturing sector has diminished in importance in recent decades. Chief manufactured goods include printed materials; precision instruments such as cameras, optical and medical equipment, and measuring devices; electronic equipment such as lighting and communications equipment; and industrial machinery such as engines and turbines, and refrigeration and heating equipment.

New York is also an important source of other manufactured goods such as clothing, computers, navigation and guidance equipment, aircraft, car parts, chemicals, toiletries, processed foods, beverages, and paper, glass, rubber, and plastic goods. Major corporations with headquarters in the state include computer manufacturer International Business Machines Corporation, based in Armonk; communications corporation Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., media and entertainment company Time Warner Inc., and electronics manufacturer Sony Corporation of America, all in New York.

Tourism was a major industry; in the late 1990s, with visitor spending exceeding US$34 billion annually.

III.

Population

According to the 2000 census, New York had 19,297,729 inhabitants, an increase of 5.5 per cent since 1990. New York was one of the few states to lose population between 1970 and 1990. In 2001 the average population density was 158 people per sq km (409 per sq mi). Nearly half the state’s population was concentrated in the New York metropolitan area. Apart from New York (population, 2006, 8,214,426), the state’s major cities are Albany, the capital (population, 2000, 93,963); Buffalo (population, 2006, 276,059); Rochester (poulation, 2006 ,208,123); Yonkers (population, 2006, 197,852); and Syracuse (population, 2006, 140,658).

In 1990 whites made up 74.4 per cent of the state population and blacks 15.9 per cent; more blacks live in New York (2.9 million) than in any other state. Additional population groups included some 284,144 people of Chinese descent, 140,985 people of Asian Indian background, 95,648 people of Korean origin, 62,259 people of Filipino extraction, 60,855 Native Americans, 35,281 people of Japanese ancestry, and 15,555 people of Vietnamese origin. Approximately 2.2 million state residents, or 12.3 per cent of the total population, were of Latino background; many of these were people of Puerto Rican origin living in the New York metropolitan area.

A.

Education

The New York legislature passed a bill in 1784 creating a board of regents to oversee education in the state. In 1812 legislation was passed to establish a statewide system of state elementary schools, and in 1867 such schools were made tuition free. By the 1860s the state also had a number of free high schools. In the late 1990s New York spent about US$9,334 annually on each student's education, compared to a national average of about US$6,835.

The first institution of higher education in the state was King’s College (now Columbia University), in New York, which was incorporated under a royal charter in 1754. In the early 2000s New York had 325 institutions of higher education. Besides Columbia University, which encompasses Barnard College and Teachers' College, notable institutions included New York University (1831), the Juilliard School (1905), Rockefeller University (1901), Yeshiva University (1886), Pratt Institute (1887), Fordham University (1841), Wagner College (1883), St John’s University (1870), and the New School for Social Research (1919), all in New York; the United States Military Academy (1802), at West Point; Cornell University (1865) and Ithaca College (1892), in Ithaca; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1824), in Troy; Skidmore College (1911), in Saratoga Springs; Vassar College (1861), in Poughkeepsie; Syracuse University (1870), in Syracuse; Sarah Lawrence College (1926), in Bronxville; and the University of Rochester (1850), in Rochester. Two state systems of higher education—the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY)—have large numbers of students.

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 2008 David Paterson was elected state governor, replacing Eliot Spitzer.

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.

B.

American War of Independence

At the Stamp Act Congress held in New York in 1765, representatives of nine American colonies met to protest against new taxes imposed by the British parliament. When the New York legislature refused to provide housing and supplies to British military personnel in 1767, it was dissolved by act of parliament; a newly elected legislature proved more cooperative. In the early 1770s a split developed between the radicals who opposed British rule and the mercantile aristocracy who remained loyal to the Crown. When Massachusetts rose in rebellion in April 1775, New York sent a volunteer force to aid the rebels. In October the last royal governor, William Tryon, fled to safety aboard a British warship.

On July 9, 1776, a new legislature approved the Declaration of Independence, and the former royal province became the state of New York. In August American troops, led by General George Washington, were defeated at the Battle of Long Island and in October, British commander-in-chief Sir William Howe made some important strategic advances during the Battle of White Plains. By October of that year the British army had occupied New York, Long Island, and lower Westchester County. The city served as British military headquarters from then until the end of the war. The British were less successful in their efforts to control the rest of the state, suffering heavy losses at the Battle of Oriskany. The surrender of General John Burgoyne after the Battles of Saratoga in 1777 was a major setback for them and helped bring France into the war on the American side. The upper Hudson River valley remained in patriot hands throughout the war, and the Hudson River itself was guarded by cannons at West Point. Benedict Arnold sought to reveal the plans of West Point in a plot aborted by the capture of his British accomplice Major John André, at Tarrytown in 1780.

C.

New York in the New Nation

At the war’s conclusion, the state returned to agricultural pursuits and to developing its commercial activities. New York’s determination to increase its use of the harbour area and the Hudson River shipping lanes led to friction with New Jersey, and its claim to Vermont caused a conflict with the residents of that area until Vermont became a state in 1790.

Opposition to ratification of the federal constitution developed in New York, but the constitution was finally approved in July 1788. Under the new government, New York became the first US capital and the scene of George Washington’s inauguration as president in 1789. Washington’s first appointees included such distinguished New Yorkers as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. Jay served as governor of New York from 1795 to 1801. Another New Yorker, Aaron Burr, served as vice-president under Thomas Jefferson.

Renewed naval warfare between Britain and France soon embroiled the United States. Although New York shipping was affected by British and French depredations, western New York opposed the war with Britain that broke out in 1812, which once again made a battleground of the area along the Canadian border.

D.

The Empire State

After the War of 1812, Governor de Witt Clinton, recognizing that a transport link with the upper Ohio Valley was essential, pressed for construction of a canal across the state, from the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers west to Lake Erie. The state legislature authorized construction of the Erie Canal in 1817, and it was completed in 1825. A commercial and financial success, the canal provided the impetus for the rapid settlement and development of western New York by former New Englanders and by immigrants from Europe.

The opening of the West, increased maritime trade, and rapid industrialization soon made New York the leading seaport in the nation. Between 1825 and the American Civil War (1861-1865), New York emerged as the major manufacturing centre in textiles, as the nation’s cotton mart, and as the centre for banking, imports, insurance, the stock exchange, and ready-made clothing. The growth encouraged immigration to New York from Ireland, Germany, and Canada. By the time of the Civil War, however, the number of immigrants had decreased, and business opportunities had increased. As a result of New York’s close ties with the cotton market, popular sentiment opposed a war against the seceded Southern states. Although New Yorkers served in every major battle of the Civil War, the inauguration of a military draft led to the New York draft riots of July 1863.

US Presidents Martin Van Buren, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Millard Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt were all New Yorkers. Other national political figures from New York include Governors Alfred E. Smith, Herbert H. Lehman, Thomas E. Dewey, Nelson Rockefeller, and Mario Cuomo, as well as New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and Senators Robert F. Wagner, Jacob Javits, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Until the 1960s New York was the most populous state in the Union. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, the state began to experience an economic decline. New York in particular suffered from unemployment, chronic financial problems, decaying neighbourhoods, and a declining population, although it remained the nation’s centre for stock exchange activities, advertising, banking and finance, and retail merchandising, and served as headquarters for many major national and international companies. The city was also a major centre for the publishing, fashion, and entertainment industries and for the arts in general.

Democrat Mario Cuomo served three terms as state governor between 1983 and 1994 and attempted to stabilize and expand the state’s economy, as well as pledging to maintain and repair New York’s infrastructure. Cuomo was defeated in his bid for a fourth term by Republican George Pataki, who embarked on a programme to trim the state’s bureaucracy and regulatory functions, begin tax cuts, and improve New York’s business climate. In 1995 he approved a bill that restored the death penalty for certain crimes and resolved to reduce the share of state financing for public higher education. By 2001 crime had been dramatically reduced, and the population of the state was again on the rise.

In the 2000 election the then First Lady, Hillary Clinton, contested and won the New York Senate seat. Initially, she ran against the mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani; after he pulled out for health reasons in May 2000, New York Republicans nominated Congressman Rick Lazio, a businessman from Long Island, as their candidate. After a bitter campaign, Hillary Clinton became the first presidential wife in history to win a Senate seat, in November 2000; she was sworn in by the outgoing vice-president Al Gore on January 3, 2001.

On September 11, 2001, New York became the site of a devastating terrorist attack. Two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the 110-storey twin towers of the World Trade Center, located in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district. As people evacuated the buildings, both towers collapsed completely, killing thousands. The same morning, another hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C., and a fourth hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Around 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attack, which was the deadliest in United States history.