I.

Introduction

New York (state), 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”.