This article presents a summary of the history of the town of Boston. Boston is the capital and the principal city of the State of the Massachusetts, in the North-East of the the United States of America. It constitutes the economic and cultural center of the New England. The commune counted: 589141 inhabitants in the year 2000, whereas the metropolitan zone concentrated approximately: 5.8 million inhabitants.

Colonial Boston

The Amerindian presence

The Indians Algonquins occupy the area of Boston before the arrival of the White. Their economy rests on the agriculture and hunting, fishery products (Maïs, Haricot S and Courge S). They are in competition with the Iroquois for the control of the Traite furs. They tie alliances with the French at the 17th century. They call the Péninsule on which Boston will develop Shawmet . The first English colonists baptize the site Trimountaine by reference to the three hills around.

Colonization

The reverend William Blaxton (or William Blackstone ) arrives in 1629 with the first English colonists. But it is in 1630 that the history of Boston starts: John Winthrop leaves Salem to install a group of puritan; the city is founded the same year and Boston takes again the name of a city of the Lincolnshire, in the North-East of England, in which its founders are originating. It is equipped with an official statute and creates representative institutions. It essaime in all the Colony of bay of Massachusetts, from which it constitutes the chief town.

At the 17th century, the Bostonian economy develops quickly and grows rich thanks to its port, by the maritime commercial relations with the Great Britain and the the Antilles. During its first two centuries of existence, the descendants of the first English colonists formed the essence of its population. Boston is essential quickly like the intellectual capital of the New England. Two religious schools are founded ( Boston Latin School in 1635 and Harvard in 1636). The first press to be printed opens in 1639 in Cambridge. As of 1704 appears the newspaper Boston News-letter . The Bostonian culture remains very influenced by the values of the puritanism. But the city also acquires a reputation of intolerance when she banishes Roger Williams and that she imposes laws against the Quaker S. on June 1st, 1660, Mary Dyer is hung with a tree of the Boston Common to be itself opposite with these laws.

Boston in second half of the 18th century

In 1770, Boston (16 000 inhabitants) is the third most populated city of the thirteen colonies derrières Philadelphia (28 000 inhabitants) and New York (21 000 inhabitants). The industrial activity is flourishing: the hydraulic mills are built on the rivers for the needs for the forging mills and the textile.

The port receives products coming from England. It dispatches the productions of the colonies of the south and the center (rice, tobacco and Indigo). The traffic of the goods with the Antilles is important: at the XVIIIe century, Boston exports wood, flour, oil of whale, meat and fish; its merchants return with sugar, Rhum, Mélasse S and Tafia). As of the 17th century, these port activities stimulate naval construction, the metallurgy, the textile, fishing and the Distillerie. The colonial economic advancement enriches the class by merchants.

Principal cultural hearth of the 13 British colonies, the city is dominated by the congregationalists and middle-class families which send their children to make their studies in Latin Harvard or Boston School. Among them, James Bowdoin (1726-1790), John Adams (1735-1826) and John Hancock (1737-1793) founds the American Academy off Arts and Sciences in Boston during the Guerre of independence of the United States of America. This organization falls under the movement of ideas of the Lumières while being devoted to teaching and the progress of knowledge.

The war of American independence

See also: War of independence of the United States of America

Causes

Boston played a central role before and during the American Revolution against Great Britain. The Actes of Navigation decided in London impose the monopoly of the trade to the merchants of the English colonies of North America and Boston in particular. As from 1764, the British Parliament, influenced by the Minister for Finance George Grenville, decides to impose a series of taxes on several products: sugar ( Sugar Act , 1764), newspapers and the books ( Stamp Act , 1765). The metropolis reinforces also its military presence: in 1765, the Quartering Act (" law on the cantonnement") envisages the requisition of the residences and the lodging for the British soldiers stationed in North America. In Boston, a secret club of propaganda called the Wire of freedom ( Sounds off Liberty ) directed by Samuel Adams, destroyed the house of the governor Thomas Hutchinson. The British Parliament ends up moving back by abrogeant the Stamp Act but vote the Declaratory Act which reaffirms the right of Great Britain to raise taxes to America, without the colonists being represented politically at the Parliament of London. In 1767 are voted the Townshend Acts which apply taxation of the goods imported by the 13 colonies. They relate to the, glass, painting, lead and even paper. The colonists threaten to boycott the British products: the Parliament cancels the taxation safe of the but always refuses to recognize a political representation of the Americans.

March 5th, 1770, the Massacre of Boston feeds the rancour of the Bostonians: during a demonstration, the English troop shoots at crowd and kills five men. In 1773, the Parliament passes the Tea Act (" law on the") who exempts the Compagnie of the Indies Orientales of any tax on the coming from India. The British company of trade thus has a privilege which seems unbearable to the colonists. A group disguised as Indians is caught some then with the cargo of a British ship in December 1773: the part of the of Boston ( Boston Tea Party ) is one of the most famous episodes of the American rebellion. In 1774, the English government makes block the wearing of Boston and sends soldiers.

Military operations in Boston

The war begins in 1775 with the Bataille of Lexington and Concord which is held to about thirty kilometers of Boston. June 17th, 1775 begins the Bataille of Bunker Hill (Charlestown) which shows the defeat of the American insurrectionists. In 1776, George Washington conquers Boston, held by the troops of the British general William Howe, forced to withdraw itself until Halifax, in Canada. The seat lasts from April 20th to March 17th, 1776. For this period, Paul Revere, the son of a huguenot (his name of birth was Paul Rivoire ), makes its famous ride. Consequently, Boston is called the cradle of Freedom and several of its historic sites to date remain tourist attractions popular. The war finishes in 1783 by the Traité of Versailles and the creation of the United States of America. Massachusetts becomes a federate state of the Union in 1788 and its Gouverneur seat from now on in Boston.

The development of Boston at the 19th century

After the War of independence, the city continued to develop like a port of international business, exporting Rhum, Poisson, salt and Tabac. A charter granted its municipal autonomy in to him 1822, and during the Années 1850 it was the one of greatest manufacturing centers of the United States, famous for the clothes industry, the industry of the Cuir and the manufacture of machines. Naval construction is also a strong point of the saving in Boston: the Boston Navy Yard remains in activity until 1974. In the years 1830, Boston is a center militant for the abolition of slavery in the states of the south, thanks to the action of William Lloyd Garrison the arsenals build warships such as the US Constitution at the end of the XVIIIe century. The American Civil War stimulates the industrial production for the supply of the troops.

Although today of rich person families whose genealogy goes back to the Pilgrims and Puritains remains powerful in the city (some are called the “Brahmans of Boston”, in allusion to the system of Caste S Indian), starting from the Années 1840, of many new immigrants Européens started to settle there, in particular many Irish, which flees the famine in their country. They are employed in textile industry, and Italy NS, giving to the city an important population Catholique. It is today the third greater community catholic of the United States after Chicago and Los Angeles.

In spite of the competition of New York, Boston remains a intellectual and cultural hearth of first order. The city accommodates many American writers (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, etc). The first medical school for women, “The Boston Female Medical School” (the female medical school of Boston) opens on November 1st 1848. Mary Baker Eddy creates in 1879 the movement of the Christian Science. The first theater of American boulevard opened the February 28th 1883 in Boston.

With the economic advancement and the surge of immigrants, the agglomeration did not cease extending: remblaiment of the marshes throughout the XIXe century allows to arrange new districts (Back Bay…). Between 1630 and 1890, the surface of the city has triplet. But the large fire of Boston of 1872, which began the November 9th destroyed approximately 30 hectares of the city, is 776 buildings, most of the financial zone and made 60 million dollars of damage. September 1st 1897, Boston inaugurated the first subway of North America.

Boston in crisis (1900-1970)

The Between-Two-War is one crisis period for the city: in September 1919, a great strike touches the police force of Boston. August 23rd, 1927, the Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are carried out. During the Second world war, Boston reconverts its economy into the industry of war. But after the conflict, the economy is in recession, in particular fishing. The factories close and the companies will be established in the South where labor is cheaper. The few assets of Boston, of excellent banks, its hospitals, its universities, its technical know-how, then count little on a scale economy of the United States. The economic crisis involves a social crisis and urban. Between 1962 and 1964,13 women are assassinated by the serial killer Albert Henry DeSalvo. These murders inspire by many novels on the throttle valve of Boston.

Towards a revival (as from 1970)?

Boston knows an economic revival since the years 1970. The importance of the financial institutions in the US economy increased much, much of private individuals now placing their saving out of purse and Boston developed in the financial sector. Whereas the financial weight of health increases in the United States, from many hospitals of the city release from the benefit. The universities, whose university Harvard and Massachusetts Institute off Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT), attract tens of thousands of students and very important funds are invested by the government in research, in particular with fine soldiers during the Cold war. The agglomeration becomes the second pole for high technologies, behind the Silicon Valley in California. The construction of new skyscrapers in the district of the businesses testifies to the economic revival of Boston: the John Hancock Tower (241 meters), drawn by Ieoh Ming Pei, is built in 1976 and remains the highest tower of the city.

Many graduates of MIT found prosperous companies in the industry of the electronic and the Informatique in the area of Boston. Politicians of the city, influential on a country scale, like John F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy and Tip O' Neill make sure that Boston receives many investments of the federal government.

In 2002, the city is shaken by the scandal of the sexual abuses in the catholic clergy, which led to the dismissal of the cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston. In 2004 democratic convention for the presidential election takes place.

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