Introduction to History of Connecticut
About 6,000 Indians inhabited Connecticut at the time Europeans arrived. All belonged to tribes of the Algonquian language family. Most of the tribes lived by hunting and fishing and had occupied the same settlements for centuries. The warlike Pequots and Mohegans, however, were nomads. They arrived long after the other tribes and were greatly feared by them.
Important dates in Connecticut1614 Adriaen Block claimed Connecticut for the Dutch.1633 The first English settlement in Connecticut was made in Windsor.1636 The towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor united to form the Connecticut Colony.1637 Connecticut and other colonies defeated the Pequot Indians in the Pequot War.1638 A group of wealthy Puritans founded New Haven.1639 The Connecticut Colony adopted the Fundamental Orders.1662 The Connecticut Colony received a charter from England. This charter served as Connecticut's constitution until 1818.1665 The Connecticut and New Haven colonies united.1687 Colonists preserved the Connecticut charter by hiding it, presumably in the Charter Oak in Hartford.1776 Connecticut passed a resolution in favor of independence from Britain on June 14.1788 Connecticut became the 5th state when it ratified the U.S. Constitution on January 9.1910 New London became the home of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.1954 The Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, was built and launched in Groton.1965 Connecticut apportioned its legislative districts on the basis of population. Connecticut adopted a new constitution.1979 Connecticut passed a law banning the construction of additional nuclear power plants. Existing plants were allowed to continue operating.1991 Connecticut established an individual income tax to raise additional state revenue.Exploration and Settlement
Adriaen Block, a Dutch navigator, was the first European to explore the Connecticut region when he sailed up the Connecticut River in 1614. In 1633, when English colonists from Massachusetts Bay Colony became interested in the fertile Connecticut valley, the Dutch tried to protect their claims by building a fort near what is now Hartford on land purchased from the Pequots. The English, however, responded by settling at Windsor in 1633, Wethersfield in 1634, and Hartford in 1635. These settlements, with a total population of about 800, were known as the River Towns. In 1636 the Reverend Thomas Hooker and his congregation from Massachusetts Bay Colony joined the Hartford settlement.
In April, 1637, the Pequot Indians attacked Wethersfield. A force of settlers, aided by Mohegan and Niantic Indians, retaliated, successfully assaulting the Pequot stronghold at Mystic. The force was under the overall command of Captain John Mason; the Mohegans were led by Uncas, who had quarreled with his father-in-law, Sassacus, chief of the Pequots. The Pequot War ended on July 13, 1637, when the remaining Pequots were defeated at the Battle of the Great Swamp.
In 1639, the River Towns adopted the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, often called the world's first written constitution. It was largely the work of Hooker, John Haynes, and Roger Ludlow, and established the self-governing colony of Connecticut, severing political ties with Massachusetts Bay Colony. Haynes was elected governor.
Meanwhile, other communities were being founded by English colonists along Long Island Sound. In 1638, New Haven had been established by the Reverend John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton. In 1643, New Haven and nearby settlements organized New Haven Colony. It sought to remain independent but was eventually absorbed into the Connecticut colony under the provisions of the Charter of 1662, issued to Governor John Winthrop, Jr., by Charles II of England. This charter remained in force for some 150 years, except during 1687–89, when England sought to unite all of its New England colonies as the Dominion of New England. During this period, the Connecticut charter was reputedly hidden from English authorities in an oak tree.
At the start of the 18th century, there were about 30,000 settlers in Connecticut. In 1701, New Haven and Hartford became joint capitals. Agriculture was the mainstay of the colony's economy. Shipbuilding was important along Long Island Sound. Industrialization began with the introduction of gristmills. In 1732, the first iron mine was opened in Salisbury; in 1740 the first tinware manufactured in the colonies was produced in Berlin. The population of Connecticut increased rapidly, reaching nearly 200,000 on the eve of the American Revolution.
Revolution and Statehood
Jonathan Trumbull, governor at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, was the only colonial governor sympathetic to the American cause. During the war, Connecticut served mainly as a source of men and supplies. Only minor battles and skirmishes were fought within its boundaries. After the war, Connecticut, like most of the other recently independent states, had difficulty creating a stable economy and a viable government. Its leaders, therefore, eagerly sent delegates—Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth, and William Samuel Johnson—to the 1787 Philadelphia convention designed to strengthen the Union. The U.S. Constitution, produced by the convention, was ratified by Connecticut on January 9, 1788.
In the early decades of statehood, Connecticut was governed by Federalists, who, like Connecticut's previous leaders, were aristocratic and puritanical. The undemocratic nature of the government caused many colonists to migrate to the unsettled areas to the north and west.
Yale University in Colonial Days. Connecticut Hall, Yale's first permanent building, was completed in 1752. Yale was chartered in 1701.The War of 1812, because of its adverse effect on trade, was bitterly opposed in Connecticut and elsewhere in New England. A conference of New England Federalists was held in Hartford, December, 1814, to January, 1815. Delegates protested the war and sought to safeguard the region's interests.
The 19th century was a period of rapid and significant change. In 1817, Connecticut's governing elite was displaced by an anti-Federalist coalition led by Oliver Wolcott, Jr., who was elected governor. The state's government was made more democratic in 1818 when a constitution was adopted to replace the old colonial charter. In mid-century, manufacturing supplanted agriculture in importance, and Connecticut became New England's most industrialized state. Hats, brass, copper, clocks, and silverware became some of the state's principal products. The insurance industry also began to flourish in Hartford. During the Civil War, the state was a leading supplier of firearms for the Union.
Modern Development
Industrialization continued after the war, and large numbers of immigrant laborers settled in Connecticut. Many had come from the Catholic countries of Europe and Connecticut's population, traditionally Anglo-Saxon and Protestant in character, became more mixed.
As a result of a referendum, Hartford became the sole capital of the state in 1875. During the late 19th century, Connecticut was a leader in the passage of labor reform legislation. A law establishing eight hours as the maximum workday had been passed in 1867. Additional enactments in the last decades of the century included a prohibition of child labor, a factory inspection act, and a law affirming the right of employees to join labor unions. World War I accelerated industrialization and the growth of urban areas. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, social reform measures were enacted, including one of the earliest anti-discrimination laws.
World War II brought an economic boom to Connecticut. In 1954, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, was launched at Groton, and in the 1960's the aerospace industry developed rapidly. By the 1960's, both New Haven and Hartford had initiated successful slum clearance and urban renewal programs. Both cities, however, were the scenes of racial disturbances in the late 1960's, as were a number of other Connecticut cities.
A new constitution was adopted in 1965. Among its provisions was a new electoral redistricting plan, which led to the end of the traditional domination of the state legislature by the rural areas. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Connecticut also started programs based on new laws to lower air and water pollution levels, and as of 1979 new power plant construction was prohibited. In 1974, Connecticut elected its first woman governor, Congresswoman Ella T. Grasso; she was reelected in 1978. The 1980's were a time of general economic stability and prosperity in the state. However, in the early 1990's, there was an economic downturn. From the early 1970s into the early 1990s, the state established several new sources of revenue for itself. Some taxes were raised, several forms of gambling were permitted, and an individual income was started in 1971; it was repealed after initial protests but, then started again in 1991.
In 2004, Governor John Rowland resigned from office after public pressure following a 2003 admission of corruption in state business. Later that year, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a fine and a year-long prison term.