Page 72 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

70  NE W Y ORK CIT Y & THE MID-A TLANTIC REGION

Around this time, the first Europeans were
making efforts to forge trade relations.
Although Giovanni da Verrazano visited
New York as early as 1524, it was not
until 1609, when the Dutch West India
Company sent Henry Hudson to explore
the river that now bears his name, that
the first settlements were established. In the
same year, a French explorer, Samuel de
Champlain, laid claim to northeastern Detail from Benjamin West’s monumental Penn’s Treaty with the
New York State, having ventured there by Indians, circa 1770
way of Quebec.
In 1624 the Dutch founded the to the Native Americans, who paid for
region’s first colony, Fort Orange, at present- them with valuable beaver and other
day Albany, began another at New pelts. However, contact with foreigners
Amsterdam (later New York) the following led to the spread of diseases, including
year, and later expanded to smallpox and measles, which soon
make footholds in New Jersey decimated Native Americans.
and Pennsylvania. Relations From the 1660s onward, as England
between the Dutch and the wrestled for power in the New World,
Native Americans were upstate New York evolved into a
mutually beneficial, battleground for distant European wars.
in that the Dutch To consolidate their control over trans-
supplied guns and Atlantic trade, the English first acquired the
Giovanni da Verrazano other metal products Dutch colonies and established a new one
of their own – Pennsylvania. This colony,
KEY DATES IN HISTORY which developed on land granted by King
1524 Italian sailor Giovanni da Verrazano sails into Charles II to wealthy Quaker William Penn
New York harbor in 1680, thrived, thanks to fertile soil,
1609 Henry Hudson explores and maps the Hudson a healthy climate, and a group of
River and New Jersey shore comparatively wealthy and industrious
1624 The Dutch establish Fort Orange colonists. Its capital, Philadelphia, flourished
1664 England takes over New Netherland. The city
of New Amsterdam is renamed New York and became the key center of the nascent
1731 Benjamin Franklin establishes the nation’s first movement for American independence.
public library in Philadelphia
1776 The Declaration of Independence is adopted Independence & Industry
in Philadelphia Throughout the first half of the 18th
1825 The 363-mile (588-km) Erie Canal opens century, the English and their American
1863 Union forces defeat Robert E. Lee and the colonists fought a series of frontier battles
Confederacy at Gettysburg
1929 Stock Market crash triggers the against the French and their Native
Great Depression American allies. The cost of these wars
1933 New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt in loss of life and property was high, and
is elected president to pay for them the English Crown raised
1978 Gambling legalized in Atlantic City a series of taxes, many of which were
1987 Stock Market crash especially onerous for the merchants of
2001 World Trade Center destroyed in terrorist attack New York and Philadelphia. In 1774, and
2011 The National September 11 Memorial opened again in 1776, delegates to Philadelphia’s
on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11
2013 Bill de Blasio becomes the first Democratic mayor Continental Congress debated the issues
to win the election, by a landslide margin, since 1993 and eventually declared independence
from England. Soon after, the English

068-071_EW_USA.indd 70 11/2/16 2:43 PM
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Portrait template “UK” LAYER
(SourceReport v1.2)
Date 5th December 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm