New England

Six-state region in northeastern U.S. with strong cultural identity.

The six states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont make up the New England region in the northeastern part of the United States.^[1] Massachusetts' capital, Boston, is the biggest city found in New England.^[1]

Quick Facts

States

Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Vermont

Largest city

Boston, Massachusetts

Area type

U.S. Census Bureau regional division

Notable geographic feature

Atlantic fall line enabling water power along rivers

Facts from the source article.

Geography and history

New England has a combined area of 186,447 km², slightly smaller than Great Britain.^[2] The region's hills, mountains, and coastline are glacial landforms from the retreat of ice sheets about 18,000 years ago.^[3] At least 10,500 years in the past, humans had already arrived in the area that is now New England, settling a landscape that had only recently been freed from glaciers.^[4] The year 1616 saw the region receive the name "New England" from the English explorer John Smith.^[5]

Permanent European colonization in New England started in 1620 when the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts.^[6] A royal charter in 1629 established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and its major settlement of Boston was founded the following year, in 1630.^[5] By the year 1784, every state located in New England had begun the process of ending slavery.^[7] The Industrial Revolution in the United States had New England as a central player, with the Blackstone Valley being referred to as its birthplace.^[8]

What the cited sources add

Unincorporated areas exist only in portions of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.^[9] The article cites Hoffman further to state that technological shifts brought agriculture and ceramics before European arrival.^[4] Taller trees are associated with higher tree species diversity.^[10] Chiu's 2009 book notes that towns, which are small municipalities, are the typical subdivision for each state, and many of these towns use town meetings for their governance.^[9]

Data from the USDA Forest Service, analyzed in a study, shows that for each degree of latitude moving southward, the number of tree species increases by roughly two to three.^[10]

References

Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area", census.gov (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "State Area Measurements and Internal Point Coordinates", United States Census Bureau; "Part 1: Population and Housing Unit Counts", 2000 Census of Population and Housing United States Summary: 2000, April 2004; "The British Isles and all that ...", Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Glacial Features of the Exotic Terrane", The Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Earth Science of the Northeastern US; "The Geography of New England", The Macmillan Company, 1922 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hoffman, Curtiss R. E., "People of the Fresh Water Lake: A Prehistory of Westborough, Massachusetts", Peter Lang, 1990, p. 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cressy, David (1987). Coming Over: Migration and Communication Between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century. p. 4. Cambridge University Press.; Swindler, William F., ed; Sources and Documents of United States Constitutions 10 Volumes; Dobbs Ferry, New York; Oceana Publications, 1973–1979. Volume 5: pp. ; "joint stock company organized in 1620 by a charter from the British crown with authority to colonize and govern the area now known as New England." New England; "Signers of the Mayflower Compact, vol. 1", The Mail and Express en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "What are the oldest cities in America?", Glo-con.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Harper, "Slavery in New Hampshire", Slavenorth.com; "Yankeeland", The Random House Dictionary, 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "New England - Further Reading - MSN Encarta"; "History & Culture: Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution", Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, MA, RI, June 11, 2009; Bagnall, William R. The Textile Industries of the United States: Including Sketches and Notices of Cotton, Woolen, Silk, and Linen Manufacturers in the Colonial (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chiu, "Asian Americans in New England: Culture and Community", University of New Hampshire Press, 2009, p. 44 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "New England" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pan, "Forest biodiversity, relationships to structural and functional attributes, and stability in New England forests", Forest Ecosystems, 2018-03-07, p. 14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article New England (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.