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The
history of the State of Maine
spans thousands of years, from the earliest human
habitations there to European colonization and
settlement to its present-day statehood as part of
the United
States of America.
The origin
of the name Maine is the subject of some controversy.
Many historians believe that Maine is named after the
French province of
Maine. Others
suggest that the name was coined by English settlers living
on islands along the coast, who would speak of going to the
mainland as "going over to the main."
Pre-European History
The
earliest culture known to inhabit Maine was the
Red Paint People, from
roughly 3000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. They were a maritime culture
known for their elaborate burials using red ochre. In Maine,
they were followed by the
Susquehana culture,
a pottery using culture.
By the time
of European arrival, the inhabitants of Maine were
Algonquian-speaking peoples
including the Wabanaki,
Passamaquoddy, and
Penobscots.
European colonization and
political permutations
The first
European settlement in Maine was made in 1604 by a French
party that included Samuel de
Champlain, the noted explorer. The French named the area
that includes Maine as Acadia; later
English colonization pushed Acadia north into what are today
the Canadian Maritimes.
English
colonists, sponsored by the
Plymouth Company, first settled in 1607, though the
attempt was unsuccessful. The territory between the
Merrimack and
Kennebec Rivers first became
known as the Province of Maine
in a 1622 land patent granted to
Ferdinando Gorges and
John Mason. The two split the
territory along the Piscataqua
River in a 1629 pact that resulted
in the Province of New
Hampshire being formed by Mason in the south and
New Somersetshire being
created by Gorges to the north, in what is now Maine. The
failure to colonize New Somersetshire, however, resulted in
a second patent, granted to Gorges by
Charles I, for what
became known once again as the Province of Maine. Gorges'
second effort also ended unsuccessfully.
What is
present-day Maine north and east of the
Kennebec River was more
sparsely settled and was known in the 17th century as the
Territory of Sagadahock.
In 1669 this land, along with what had
been the Province of Maine, was incorporated into another
patent, this time by
Charles II, to James,
Duke of York. Under the terms of this grant, all the
territory from the St.
Lawrence River to the Atlantic
Ocean was constituted as
Cornwall County,
now part of a vastly expanded
Province of New York.
With the incorporation of Sagadahock, the territory that
would become Maine extended along the coast from the
Piscataqua to the
St. Croix
River for the first time, incorporating the entire
coastline of the future state.
In
1673, part of this territory was
partitioned to create
Devonshire,
Massachusetts. The remainder was lost to the
Abnaki in a war in
1675. In 1683 Cornwall County was
reconstituted as part of New York, which itself was absorbed
into the Dominion of New
England in 1687. In
1692 the entirety of the former Province of Maine, from
the Piscataqua to the St. Croix, was absorbed into the
Province of
Massachusetts Bay as Yorkshire,
a name which survives in present day
York County.
Maine was
much fought over by the French and English during the 17th
and early 18th centuries. After the defeat of the
French colony of
Acadia during the
French and Indian War (part of the global struggle
between France and Britain that is known overall as the
Seven Years War), the
territory from the Penobscot
River east fell under the nominal authority of the
Province of Nova Scotia, and
together with present day New
Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia County of
Sunbury, with its
court of general sessions at
Campobello.
Independence and border disputes
American
and British forces contended for Maine's territory during
the American Revolution
and the War of 1812. The treaty
concluding revolution was ambiguous about Maine's boundary
with British North America.
The territory of Maine was confirmed as part of
Massachusetts when the United
States was formed, although the final border with British
territory was not established until the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
of 1842. (Indeed, in 1839 Governor Fairfield declared war on
Britain over a boundary dispute between New Brunswick and
northern Maine. Known as the
Aroostook War, this is the only time a U.S. state has
declared war on a foreign power. The dispute was settled,
however, before any blood was shed.)
Statehood
Maine
gained its statehood in 1820 as the
result of the Missouri
Compromise, a move which paved the way for slavery-free
northern states to approve the statehood of
Missouri. Maine, which was under the
jurisdiction of Massachusetts, was free of slavery, and its
admission to the union would allow for northern
congressional representation which would balance Missouri's
pro-southern and pro-slavery influence.
Industrialization and
discrimination against French Canadians
In the late
19th century, many French
Canadians began migrating to Maine and other
New England states from the
Quebec and
New Brunswick provinces of Canada to work in the newly
established mills, which took advantage of the state's many
rushing rivers. These new arrivals were often forcibly
assimilated into Anglo-American culture; notably, children
were subjected to corporal punishment for speaking French in
schools. In response the French Canadian community in New
England was determined to preserve some of its cultural
norms; this doctrine, like efforts to preserve francophone
culture in Quebec, became known as
la Survivance.
20th and 21st centuries
By the 20th
century, the textile industry which had driven the growth of
mills was establishing itself more profitably in other parts
of the United States closer to raw materials. The focus of
the economy shifted primarily back to logging and
shipbuilding; the Bath Iron Works
was a notable producer of naval vessels during the
Second World War. In recent
years, however, even Maine's traditional industries have
been threatened; forest conservation efforts have cut down
on logging; shipbuilding competition with other parts of the
country has been stiff, and restrictions on world fisheries
have exerted considerable pressure on each of these key
fields. In response the state has attempted to diversify its
economic activities, attracting
telemarketing call centers to
rural towns and villages. Tax incentives allowed
outlet shopping
centers began to establish themselves in the southern part
of the state.
Over the
course of the 19th and 20th centuries, tourism also became a
major activity in Maine, which adopted the slogan
"Vacationland" for its licence plates. Many began to visit
Maine to enjoy is vast area of relatively unspoiled
wilderness, its ski-friendly mountains, and its hundreds of
miles of coastline. "Cottage people" from
New York City and
Boston summered in many of the state's
seaside towns. The Bush family
compound in Kennebunkport is a
notable example of this trend. State and national parks in
Maine also became loci of tourism, especially
Acadia National Park on
Mount Desert Island.
In recent
years the state has sought to address its legacy of
intolerance against French Canadians, embracing such symbols
as bilingual signs and actively promoting French Canadian
culture in schools and local festivities.
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