Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, forming the Mason-Dixon Line, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio to its west, the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest via Lake Erie, New York to its north, and the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east. Pennsylvania's most populous city is Philadelphia, and the state capital is Harrisburg. Among all US states, Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous with over 13 million residents as of the 2020 United States census, the ninth-highest by population density, and the 33rd-largest by land area. The largest metropolitan statistical area is the Philadelphia metropolitan area in southeastern Pennsylvania, also known as the Delaware Valley and centered on Philadelphia, the sixth-most populous U.S. city. Pennsylvania's second-largest metropolitan area, Greater Pittsburgh, is centered in and around Pittsburgh, the commonwealth's second-largest city.
Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 through a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of the commonwealth's namesake. Before that, between 1638 and 1655, a southeast portion of the state was part of New Sweden, a Swedish colony. Established as a haven for religious and political tolerance, the British colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania was known for its relatively peaceful relations with native tribes, innovative government system, and religious pluralism. Pennsylvania played a vital and historic role in the American Revolution and the ultimately successful quest for independence from the British Empire, hosting the First and Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, the latter of which formed the Continental Army commanded by George Washington in 1775, during the American Revolutionary War, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence the following year. On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania was the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution after Delaware.
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought in July 1863 around Gettysburg, was the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War with over 51,000 Union and Confederate casualties, and resulted in a repulsion of the Confederacy's invasion of the North. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, the state's steel production and manufacturing-based economy contributed to the development of much of the nation's early infrastructure, including key bridges, skyscrapers, and military hardware used in U.S.-led victories in World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. In the 21st century, Pennsylvania has garnered the nickname "Cellicon State" for the central role of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in the development of immunotherapies to treat different cancers.
Pennsylvania's geography is highly diverse. The Appalachian Mountains run through the center of the state, the Allegheny and Pocono mountains span much of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and close to 60% of the state is forested. Although Pennsylvania technically has no oceanic shoreline, it has of waterfront along Lake Erie and along the tidal Delaware River, the latter of which reaches the Delaware Bay, a marginal bay of the Atlantic Ocean.
History
Indigenous settlement
Pennsylvania's history of human habitation extends thousands of years before the foundation of the colonial Province of Pennsylvania in 1681. Archaeologists believe the first settlement of the Americas occurred at least 15,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, though it is unclear when humans first inhabited present-day Pennsylvania. Between 10,000 and 16,000 years ago, Native Americans crossed the two continents, arriving in North America. Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Jefferson Township includes the earliest known signs of human activity in Pennsylvania and perhaps all of North America, including the remains of a civilization that existed over 10,000 years ago and possibly pre-dated the Clovis culture. By 1000 AD, in contrast to their nomadic hunter-gatherer ancestors, the native population of Pennsylvania had developed agricultural techniques and a mixed food economy.By the time European colonization of the Americas began, at least two major Native American tribes inhabited Pennsylvania. The first, the Lenape, spoke an Algonquian language and inhabited the eastern region of the state, then known as Lenapehoking. It included most of present-day New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley and Delaware Valley regions in eastern and southeastern Pennsylvania. The Lenape's territory ended somewhere between the Delaware River in the east and the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. The second tribe, the Susquehannock, spoke an Iroquoian language and were based in Eastern Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River. European disease and constant warfare with several neighboring tribes and groups of Europeans weakened these two tribes, and they were grossly outpaced financially as the Hurons and Iroquois blocked them from proceeding west into Ohio during the Beaver Wars. As they lost numbers and land, the Hurons abandoned much of their western territory and moved closer to the Susquehanna River, and the Iroquois and Mohawk tribes moved further north. Northwest of the Allegheny River was the Iroquoian Petun, who were fragmented into three groups during the Beaver Wars: the Petun of New York, the Wyandot of Ohio, and the Tiontatecaga of the Kanawha River in southern West Virginia. South of the Allegheny River was a nation known as Calicua, which may have been part of the Monongahela culture.
17th century
In the 17th century, the Dutch and the English each claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their colonial lands in America. The Dutch were the first to take possession. By June 3, 1631, the Dutch began settling the Delmarva Peninsula by establishing the Zwaanendael Colony on the site of present-day Lewes, Delaware. In 1638, Sweden established the New Sweden Colony in the region of Fort Christina on the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. New Sweden claimed and, for the most part, controlled the lower Delaware River region, including parts of present-day Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but settled few colonists there.On March 12, 1664, King Charles II of England gave James, Duke of York a grant that incorporated all lands included in the original Virginia Company of Plymouth Grant and other lands. This grant was in conflict with the Dutch claim for New Netherland, which included parts of today's Pennsylvania.
On June 24, 1664, the Duke of York sold the portion of his large grant that included present-day New Jersey to John Berkeley and George Carteret for a proprietary colony. The land was not yet in British possession, but the sale boxed in the portion of New Netherland on the West side of the Delaware River. The British conquest of New Netherland began on August 29, 1664, when New Amsterdam was coerced to surrender while facing cannons on British ships in New York Harbor. The conquest was completed in October 1664, when the British captured Fort Casimir in what today is New Castle, Delaware. The Treaty of Breda between England, France, and the Netherlands confirmed the English conquest on July 21, 1667, although there were temporary reversions.
On September 12, 1672, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch reconquered New York Colony/New Amsterdam, establishing three County Courts, which went on to become original Counties in present-day Delaware and Pennsylvania. The one that later transferred to Pennsylvania was Upland. This was partially reversed on February 9, 1674, when the Treaty of Westminster ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War and reverted all political situations to the status quo ante bellum. The British retained the Dutch Counties with their Dutch names. By June 11, 1674, New York reasserted control over the outlying colonies, including Upland, and the names started to be changed to British names by November 11, 1674. Upland was partitioned on November 12, 1674, producing the general outline of the current border between Pennsylvania and Delaware.
On February 28, 1681, Charles II granted a land charter to Quaker leader William Penn to repay a debt of £16,000 owed to William's father. The transaction represents one of the largest land grants to an individual in history. Penn proposed that the land be called New Wales, but there were objections to that name, so he recommended Sylvania. The King named it Pennsylvania in honor of Admiral Penn. The younger Penn was embarrassed at this name, fearing that people would think he had named it after himself, but King Charles would not rename the grant. Penn established a government with two innovations, the county commission and freedom of religion, which were subsequently replicated in many of the Thirteen Colonies.
What had been Upland on the Pennsylvania side of the Pennsylvania-Delaware border was renamed Chester County when Pennsylvania instituted its colonial governments on March 4, 1681. Penn signed a peace treaty with Tamanend, leader of the Lenape, which began a long period of friendly relations between the Quakers and the Indians. Additional treaties between Quakers and other tribes followed. The Treaty of Shackamaxon of William Penn was never violated.
18th century
Between 1730 and when the Pennsylvania Colony was shut down by Parliament with the Currency Act in 1764, the Pennsylvania Colony made its own paper money to account for the shortage of actual gold and silver. The paper money was called Colonial Scrip.The Colony issued bills of credit, which were as good as gold or silver coins because of their legal tender status. Since they were issued by the government and not a banking institution, they were interest-free, largely defraying the expense of the government and therefore taxation of the people. It also promoted general employment and prosperity, since the government used discretion and did not issue excessive amounts that inflated the currency. Benjamin Franklin had a hand in creating this currency, whose utility, he said, was never to be disputed. The currency also met with "cautious approval" by Adam Smith.
In 1740, Franklin also founded the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The university, one of nine colonial colleges, was the first college established in Pennsylvania and one of the first in the nation. Today, it is an Ivy League university, which is routinely ranked among the world's best universities. Dickinson College in Carlisle, founded by Benjamin Rush and named after John Dickinson, was the first college founded after Revolutionary War and the unification of the states. Established in 1773, it was ratified on September 9, 1783, five days after the Treaty of Paris.
James Smith wrote that in 1763, "the Indians again commenced hostilities, and were busily engaged in killing and scalping the frontier inhabitants in various parts of Pennsylvania. This state was then a Quaker government, and at the first of this war the frontiers received no assistance from the state." The ensuing hostilities became known as Pontiac's War.
After the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, delegate John Dickinson of Philadelphia wrote the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. The Congress was the first meeting of the Thirteen Colonies, which convened at the request of the Massachusetts assembly; nine of the 13 colonies sent delegates. Dickinson then wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, To the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, which were published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle between December 2, 1767, and February 15, 1768.
When the Founding Fathers convened in Philadelphia in 1774, 12 colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress. The Second Continental Congress, which began in May 1775, authored and signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, but when Philadelphia fell to the British in the Philadelphia campaign, the Continental Congress moved west, where it met at the Lancaster courthouse on Saturday, September 27, 1777, and then to York. In York, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, largely authored by Pennsylvania delegate John Dickinson, that formed 13 independent States into a new union. Later, the Constitution was written, and Philadelphia was once again chosen to be cradle to the new nation. The Constitution was drafted and signed at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, now known as Independence Hall, the same building where the Declaration of Independence was previously adopted and signed in 1776.
On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania was the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, five days after Delaware became the first. At the time, Pennsylvania was the most ethnically and religiously diverse of the thirteen colonies. Because a third of Pennsylvania's population spoke German, the Constitution was presented in German so those citizens could participate in the discussion about it. Reverend Frederick Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister and the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, acted as chairman of Pennsylvania's ratifying convention.
For half a century, the Pennsylvania General Assembly met at various places in the Philadelphia area before it began meeting regularly in Independence Hall in Philadelphia for 63 years. However, events such as the Paxton Boys massacres of 1763 had made the legislature aware of the need for a central capital. In 1799, the General Assembly moved to the Lancaster Courthouse.