[edit]
Main article: History of Connecticut
A map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies
First people[edit]
The name of this state, Connecticut, is derived from the Mohegan-Pequot word that has been translated as "long tidal river" and "upon the long river", both referring to the Connecticut River. Evidence of human presence in the Connecticut region dates to as far back as 10,000 years ago. Stone tools were used for hunting, fishing, and woodworking. Semi-nomadic in lifestyle, these peoples moved seasonally to take advantage of various resources in the area. They shared languages based on Algonquian. The Connecticut region was inhabited by many Native American tribes that can be grouped into the Nipmuc, the Sequin or "River Indians" (which included the Tunxis, Schaghticoke, Podunk, Wangunk, Hammonasset, and Quinnipiac), the Mattabesec or "Wappinger Confederacy" and the Pequot-Mohegan. Some of these groups still reside in Connecticut, including the Mohegans, the Pequots, and the Paugusetts.
In the seventeenth century, more than 8,000 Pequots lived in the Western part of Connecticut into Rhode Island, while 1,500 to 2,500 Mohegans resided West of the Thames River. The Mohegans lived on traditions like hunting, shell fishing, gathering and maize agriculture. This system was passed down through intergenerational knowledge and traditions. Cultural continuity was maintained through oral traditions, which functioned as both historical record and ecological knowledge system. This preserved relationships between people, land, and nonhuman life, while also preserving and acknowledging the past.
An important relationship the Mohegans preserved was one also similar to the Lenape Nation, and that was the Three Sisters Mound. This consisted of corn, beans, and squash, and it nourished the Mohegan tribe throughout the whole year. The Mohegan people used polycultural methods of agriculture that reinforced their relations with the land. Mohegan elder Gladys Tantaquidgeon said, “We hold in reverence the Spirit of Corn,” which reflected the idea that food systems were inseparable from Mohegan culture.
The Pequot and Mohegan tribes practiced rituals like controlled burns, sustainable fishing techniques, and seasonal migration. These practices reflected a view in which humans were understood as part of the natural world rather than superior to it, as Kimmerer says “Being naturalized to place means to live as if this is the land that feeds you, as if these are the streams from which you drink, that build your body and fill your spirit.”. This reflected their idea that humans were a part of the natural world, not superior to it. Such approaches exemplify environmental management and highlight a worldview centered on balance, responsibility, and reciprocal relationships between humans and the natural world. This deep connection to and reliance on the natural environment is also evident in their cultural and economic traditions, particularly in the use of wampum.
Wampum, created from a quahog or whelk shell, was often exchanged at weddings, as a gift, or to symbolize an agreement or deal between two groups of people. Often, it was even used as money. Beyond being an economically functioning object, the wampum represented promise, honor, and truth within the Native Nations of Connecticut. It is sourced from the Thames River, which signifies the importance of land and its parts to the Mohegan tribe. The Mohegan and Pequot societies depended on the river and living organisms within it to structure their society, and the wampum is another example of environmental interdependence within Connecticut Native Nations.
Colonial period[edit]
Main articles: New Netherland, Saybrook Colony, Connecticut Colony, New Haven Colony, New England Confederation, and Dominion of New England
Dutchman Adriaen Block was the first European explorer in Connecticut. He explored the region in 1614. Dutch fur traders then sailed up the Connecticut River, calling it Versche Rivier ("Fresh River") and building a fort at Dutch Point in Hartford, which they named "House of Hope" (Dutch: Huis van Hoop).
On April 26, 1935, the U.S. Post Office issued a postage stamp commemorating the 300th anniversary of the settlement of the Connecticut colony.
The Connecticut Colony originally consisted of several smaller settlements in Windsor, Wethersfield, Saybrook, Hartford, and New Haven. The first English settlers came in 1633 and settled at Windsor, then at Wethersfield the following year. John Winthrop the Younger of Massachusetts received a commission to create Saybrook Colony at the mouth of the Connecticut River in 1635.
A large group of Puritans arrived in 1636 from Massachusetts Bay Colony, led by Thomas Hooker, who established the Connecticut Colony at Hartford. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were adopted in January 1639, and have been described as the first constitutional document in America.
The Quinnipiack Colony was established by John Davenport, Theophilus Eaton, and others at New Haven in March 1638. The New Haven Colony had its own constitution called "The Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony", signed on June 4, 1639.
Each settlement was an independent political entity, established without official sanction of the English Crown. In 1662, Winthrop traveled to England and obtained a charter from Charles II which united the settlements of Connecticut. Historically significant colonial settlements included Windsor (1633), Wethersfield (1634), Saybrook (1635), Hartford (1636), New Haven (1638), Fairfield (1639), Guilford (1639), Milford (1639), Stratford (1639), Farmington (1640), Stamford (1641), and New London (1646).
The Pequot War marked the first significant clash between colonists and Native Americans in New England. The Pequot had been aggressively extending their area of control at the expense of the Wampanoag to the north, Narragansett (east), Connecticut River Valley Algonquian tribes and the Mohegan (west), and Lenape Algonquian people (south). Meanwhile, the Pequot had been reacting with increasing aggression to colonial territorial expansion. In response to the 1636 murder of an English privateer and his crew, followed by the murder of a trader, colonists raided a Pequot village on Block Island. The Pequots laid siege to Saybrook Colony's garrison that autumn, then raided Wethersfield in the spring of 1637. Organizing a band of militia and allies from the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes, colonists declared war and attacked a Pequot village on the Mystic River. Death toll estimates range between 300 and 700 Pequots. After suffering another major loss at a battle in Fairfield, the Pequots sued for peace.
The Mashantucket Pequot Nation, descendants of the Pequot people of southern New England, experienced significant population loss due to violence and disease in the early seventeenth century. In the aftermath, Pequot leaders sued for peace, resulting in the Treaty of Hartford, which divided the surviving Pequots among the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes and forbade them from being called “Pequot” or returning to their homeland. The Pequots and Mohegan tribes assimilated to many European cultural practices. This erased generations of knowledge and tradition. Not until 1651 were the Pequots able to gather the rights to resettle on 500 acres of their original ancestral land.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Pequots and Mohegans were forcefully removed from ancestral lands. The societal structures of these Native Nations dictate their relationship with land. As Vanessa Watts says, they believe that their "land is alive and thinking, humans and nonhumans derive agency through extension of these thoughts". The displacement of Native Americans from their land severed these relationships, which undermines their systems of knowledge, identity, and ultimately their culture.
In more recent years, the restoration of Mohegan lands and cultural practices has faced legal and historical challenges. This is due to the Mohegan Land case, where colonists argued that colonial land could not be given back to native tribes because it was already ‘colonial in nature’, and would be turned back to ‘wilderness’, if put in native possession again. As reflected in disputes over the 1681 treaty, colonial officials asserted full ownership of lands while simultaneously documenting them as part of Native territory, enabling the continued sale and settlement of those lands without consent from the Mohegan Tribe. While the Pequot Tribe sought to maintain and regain their land, colonial and later American legal frameworks often created obstacles to the full recovery of ancestral territories.
Connecticut's original Charter in 1662 granted it all the land to the "South Sea"—that is, to the Pacific Ocean. The Hartford Treaty with the Dutch was signed on September 19, 1650, but never ratified by the British, stated the western boundary of Connecticut ran north from Greenwich Bay for a distance of 20 miles (32 km), "provided the said line come not within 10 miles [16 km] of Hudson River". This agreement was observed by both sides until war erupted between England and The Netherlands in 1652. Conflict continued concerning colonial limits until the Duke of York captured New Netherland in 1664.
Most Colonial royal grants were for long east–west strips. Connecticut took its grant seriously and established a ninth county between the Susquehanna River and Delaware River named Westmoreland County. This resulted in the brief Pennamite-Yankee Wars with Pennsylvania.
Yale College was established in 1701, providing Connecticut with an important institution to educate clergy and civil leaders. The Congregational church dominated religious life in the colony and, by extension, town affairs in many parts.
With more than 600 miles (970 km) of coastline including along its navigable rivers, Connecticut developed the antecedents of a maritime tradition during its colonial years that would later produce booms in shipbuilding, marine transport, naval support, seafood production, and leisure boating.
Historical records list the Tryall as the first vessel built in Connecticut Colony, in 1649 at a site on the Connecticut River in modern Wethersfield. In the two decades leading up to 1776 and the American Revolution, Connecticut boatyards launched about 100 sloops, schooners and brigs according to a database of U.S. customs records maintained online by the Mystic Seaport Museum, the largest being the 180-ton Patient Mary launched in New Haven in 1763. Connecticut's first lighthouse was constructed in 1760 at the mouth of the Thames River with the New London Harbor Lighthouse.
American Revolution[edit]
Main article: American Revolutionary War
A 1799 map of Connecticut which shows The Oblong, from Low's Encyclopaedia
Connecticut designated four delegates to the Second Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Huntington, Roger Sherman, William Williams, and Oliver Wolcott. Connecticut's legislature authorized the outfitting of six new regiments in 1775, in the wake of the clashes between British regulars and Massachusetts militia at Lexington and Concord. There were some 1,200 Connecticut troops on hand at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775. In 1775, David Bushnell invented the Turtle which the following year launched the first submarine attack in history, unsuccessfully against a British warship at anchor in New York Harbor.
In 1777, the British got word of Continental Army supplies in Danbury, and they landed an expeditionary force of some 2,000 troops in Westport. This force marched to Danbury, then destroyed homes and much of the depot. Continental Army troops and militia led by General David Wooster and General Benedict Arnold engaged them on their return march at Ridgefield in 1777. For the winter of 1778–79, General George Washington decided to split the Continental Army into three divisions encircling New York City, where British General Sir Henry Clinton had taken up winter quarters. Major General Israel Putnam chose Redding as the winter encampment quarters for some 3,000 regulars and militia under his command. The Redding encampment allowed Putnam's soldiers to guard the replenished supply depot in Danbury and to support any operations along Long Island Sound and the Hudson River Valley. Some of the men were veterans of the winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the previous winter. Soldiers at the Redding camp endured supply shortages, cold temperatures, and significant snow, with some historians dubbing the encampment "Connecticut's Valley Forge".
The state was also the launching site for a number of raids against Long Island orchestrated by Samuel Holden Parsons and Benjamin Tallmadge, and provided soldiers and material for the war effort, especially to Washington's army outside New York City. General William Tryon raided the Connecticut coast in July 1779, focusing on New Haven, Norwalk, and Fairfield. New London and Groton Heights were raided in September 1781 by Benedict Arnold, who had turned traitor to the British.
At the outset of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress assigned Nathaniel Shaw Jr. of New London as its naval agent in charge of recruiting privateers to seize British vessels as opportunities presented, with nearly 50 operating out of the Thames River which eventually drew the reprisal from the British force led by Arnold.
Early statehood[edit]
Early national period and industrial revolution[edit]
Connecticut ratified the U.S. Constitution on January 9, 1788, becoming the fifth state.
The state prospered during the era following the American Revolution, as mills and textile factories were built and seaports flourished from trade and fisheries. After Congress established in 1790 the predecessor to the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service that would evolve into the U.S. Coast Guard, President Washington assigned Jonathan Maltbie as one of seven masters to enforce customs regulations, with Maltbie monitoring the southern New England coast with a 48-foot cutter sloop named Argus.
In 1786, Connecticut ceded territory to the U.S. government that became part of the Northwest Territory. The state retained land extending across the northern part of modern Ohio called the Connecticut Western Reserve. The Western Reserve section was settled largely by people from Connecticut, and they brought Connecticut place names to Ohio.
Connecticut made agreements with Pennsylvania and New York which extinguished the land claims within those states' boundaries and created the Connecticut Panhandle. The state then ceded the Western Reserve in 1800 to the federal government, which brought it to its existing boundaries (other than minor adjustments with Massachusetts).
Nineteenth century[edit]
For the first time in 1800, Connecticut shipwrights launched more than 100 vessels in a single year. Over the following decade up to the doorstep of renewed hostilities with Britain that sparked the War of 1812, Connecticut boatyards constructed close to 1,000 vessels, the most productive stretch of any decade in the nineteenth century.
During the war, the British launched raids in Stonington and Essex and blockaded vessels in the Thames River. Derby native Isaac Hull became Connecticut's best-known naval figure to win renown during the conflict, as captain of the USS Constitution.
The British blockade during the War of 1812 hurt exports and bolstered the influence of Federalists who opposed the war. The cessation of imports from Britain stimulated the construction of factories to manufacture textiles and machinery. Connecticut came to be recognized as a major center for manufacturing, due in part to the inventions of Eli Whitney and other early innovators of the Industrial Revolution.
The war led to the development of fast clippers that helped extend the reach of New England merchants to the Pacific and Indian oceans. The first half of the nineteenth century saw as well a rapid rise in whaling, with New London emerging as one of the New England industry's three biggest home ports after Nantucket and New Bedford.
The state was known for its political conservatism, typified by its Federalist party and the Yale College of Timothy Dwight. The foremost intellectuals were Dwight and Noah Webster, who compiled his great dictionary in New Haven. Religious tensions polarized the state, as the Congregational Church struggled to maintain traditional viewpoints, in alliance with the Federalists. The failure of the Hartford Convention in 1814 hurt the Federalist cause, with the Democratic-Republican Party gaining control in 1817.
Connecticut had been governed under the "Fundamental Orders" since 1639, but the state adopted a new constitution in 1818.
Civil war era[edit]
Main article: Connecticut in the American Civil War
View of New London in 1854
Connecticut manufacturers played a major role in supplying the Union forces with weapons and supplies during the Civil War. The state furnished 55,000 men, formed into thirty full regiments of infantry, including two in the U.S. Colored Troops, with several Connecticut men becoming generals. The Navy attracted 250 officers and 2,100 men, and Glastonbury native Gideon Welles was Secretary of the Navy. James H. Ward of Hartford was the first U.S. Naval Officer killed in the Civil War. Connecticut casualties included 2,088 killed in combat, 2,801 dying from disease, and 689 dying in Confederate prison camps.
A surge of national unity in 1861 brought thousands flocking to the colors from every town and city. However, as the war became a crusade to end slavery, many Democrats (especially Irish Catholics) pulled back. The Democrats took a pro-slavery position and included many Copperheads willing to let the South secede. The intensely fought 1863 election for governor was narrowly won by the Republicans.
Second industrial revolution[edit]
1895 map from Rand McNally
Jewett City, which is modern day Griswold Connecticut, is one of the original examples of industrial development in Connecticut within the nineteenth century. Samuel Slater started the expansion of textile and cotton manufacturing into Connecticut starting in 1823. These manufacturing systems relied heavily on the two main rivers within the region: the Pachaug and the Quinebaug. The running water from these rivers powered textile mills and factories all along that region of Connecticut.
These factories relied on running water to turn belt systems using turbines. The construction of these dams and turbines changed the river flow, which prevented fish from migrating up and down rivers, and also flooded the surrounding wetlands. As time went on, the rivers became increasingly more polluted. Millions of gallons of waste water were dumped into the waterways, which often combined with municipal sewage. During this time, the only source of freshwater was from nearby streams and rivers. This polluted the local drinking water and had a severe effect on the surrounding population.
Mills were often located next to low income, marginalized communities. This can be seen within the city of Danbury, as mills were located along the Still and Housatonic Rivers. Elemental mercury, copper, zinc, and lead was deposited as wastewater into these freshwater streams. Economic necessity drove citizens to these jobs despite the environmental and health risks. By 1887, there were 30 hat factories across the city. However, by 1923, only six were left within the city. The hat industry was the primary source of employment in places like Danbury, where the economy depended heavily on hat manufacturing; as factories closed due to changing fashions and economic downturns, this led to reduced employment opportunities and economic instability in the community. Similar issues also happened in Jewett City, as it was located next to the two largest Native American reservations within the state.
Connecticut's extensive industry, dense population, flat terrain, and wealth encouraged the construction of railroads starting in 1839. By 1840, 102 miles (164 km) of line were in operation, growing to 402 miles (647 km) in 1850 and 601 miles (967 km) in 1860.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, called the New Haven or "The Consolidated", became the dominant Connecticut railroad company after 1872. J. P. Morgan began financing the major New England railroads in the 1890s, dividing territory so that they would not compete. The New Haven purchased 50 smaller companies, including steamship lines, and built a network of light rails (electrified trolleys) that provided inter-urban transportation for all of southern New England. By 1912, the New Haven operated over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of track with 120,000 employees.
As steam-powered passenger ships proliferated after the Civil War, Noank produced the two largest built in Connecticut during the nineteenth century, with the 332-foot wooden steam paddle wheeler Rhode Island launched in 1882, and the 345-foot paddle wheeler Connecticut seven years later. Connecticut shipyards launched more than 165 steam-powered vessels in the nineteenth century.
In 1875, the first telephone exchange in the world was established in New Haven.
Twentieth century[edit]
World War I[edit]
When World War I broke out in 1914, Connecticut became a major supplier of weaponry to the U.S. military; by 1918, 80% of the state's industries were producing goods for the war effort. Remington Arms in Bridgeport produced half the small-arms cartridges used by the U.S. Army, with other major suppliers including Winchester in New Haven and Colt in Hartford.
Connecticut was also an important U.S. Navy supplier, with Electric Boat receiving orders for 85 submarines, Lake Torpedo Boat building more than 20 subs, and the Groton Iron Works building freighters. On June 21, 1916, the Navy made Groton the site for its East Coast submarine base and school.
The state enthusiastically supported the American war effort in 1917 and 1918 with large purchases of war bonds, a further expansion of industry, and an emphasis on increasing food production on the farms. Thousands of state, local, and volunteer groups mobilized for the war effort and were coordinated by the Connecticut State Council of Defense. Manufacturers wrestled with manpower shortages; Waterbury's American Brass and Manufacturing Company was running at half capacity, so the federal government agreed to furlough soldiers to work there.
Interwar period[edit]
In 1919, J. Henry Roraback started the Connecticut Light & Power Co. which became the state's dominant electric utility. In 1925, Frederick Rentschler spurred the creation of Pratt & Whitney in Hartford to develop engines for aircraft; the company became an important military supplier in World War II and one of the three major manufacturers of jet engines in the world.
On September 21, 1938, the most destructive storm in New England history struck eastern Connecticut, killing hundreds of people. The eye of the "Long Island Express" passed just west of New Haven and devastated the Connecticut shoreline between Old Saybrook and Stonington from the full force of wind and waves, even though they had partial protection by Long Island. The hurricane caused extensive damage to infrastructure, homes, and businesses. In New London, a 500-foot (150 m) sailing ship was driven into a warehouse complex, causing a major fire. Heavy rainfall caused the Connecticut River to flood downtown Hartford and East Hartford. An estimated 50,000 trees fell onto roadways.
World War II[edit]
The advent of lend-lease in support of Britain helped lift Connecticut from the Great Depression, with the state a major production center for weaponry and supplies used in World War II. Connecticut manufactured 4.1% of total U.S. military armaments produced during the war, ranking ninth among the 48 states, with major factories including Colt for firearms, Pratt & Whitney for aircraft engines, Chance Vought for fighter planes, Hamilton Standard for propellers, and Electric Boat for submarines and PT boats.
On May 13, 1940, Igor Sikorsky made an untethered flight of the first practical helicopter. The helicopter saw limited use in World War II, but future military production made Sikorsky Aircraft's Stratford plant Connecticut's largest single manufacturing site by the start of the twenty-first century.
Connecticut was known as the “Provisions State” or the “Arsenal of Democracy” during wartime for its production efforts during the Revolutionary, Civil, and World Wars. The state quickly transformed into a manufacturing powerhouse. With its strong history of aircraft and manufacturing, Connecticut was a large part of the World War II home front. Pratt & Whitney was a large Connecticut run manufacturing company, and by 1943, 96% of all U.S. Army and Navy transport planes used Pratt & Whitney engines. The state also produced ammunition, auto parts, and airplanes. While this allowed for the state to amass a large amount of revenue, it also caused severe environmental and economic issues once the war ended.
For example, the US Naval base in New London, CT allowed for many industrial level pollutants to enter Connecticut. Items like acid-filled ship batteries, oil, and petroleum were shipped to help fuel the war grade submarines. The EPA has ordered tests and studies that identified “polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs; polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs; lead, metals and pesticides” present within the bases surroundings. These pollutants are hard to break down, and cause cancer, development issues, damage to the nervous system, disruption of cognitive function. This disrupts not only the food chain and the biodiversity of the area, but the civilians local to the base are put in harm's way. This did not just happen due to the Naval presence in Connecticut, but was also due to the large scale manufacturing and agricultural upticks occurring within the state during World War II.
Post-World War II economic expansion[edit]
Connecticut lost some wartime factories following the end of hostilities, but the state shared in a general post-war expansion that included the construction of highways and resulting in middle-class growth in suburban areas.
Prescott Bush represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1952 to 1963; his son George H. W. Bush and grandson George W. Bush both became presidents of the United States. In 1965, Connecticut ratified its current constitution, replacing the document that had served since 1818.
In 1968, commercial operation began for the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Haddam; in 1970, the Millstone Nuclear Power Station began operations in Waterford. In 1974, Connecticut elected Democratic Governor Ella T. Grasso, who became the first woman in any state to be elected governor without being the wife or widow of a previous governor.
The postwar period also brought economic decline, as industrial jobs rapidly disappeared. 10,200 employees in Waterbury factories were let go within a week of V-J Day. At the same time, environmental degradation remained, with waterways contaminated by industrial byproducts such as heavy metals, dyes, and pesticides. Most of Connecticut's wetlands had been destroyed by development, which reduces the ecological resilience of the area.
Late twentieth century[edit]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (October 2021)
Connecticut's dependence on the defense industry posed an economic challenge at the end of the Cold War. The resulting budget crisis helped elect Lowell Weicker as governor on a third-party ticket in 1990. Weicker's remedy was a state income tax which proved effective in balancing the budget, but only for the short-term. He did not run for a second term, in part because of this politically unpopular move.
In 1992, initial construction was completed on Foxwoods Casino at the Mashantucket Pequots reservation in eastern Connecticut, which became the largest casino in the Western Hemisphere. Mohegan Sun followed four years later.
Early twenty-first century[edit]
In 2000, presidential candidate Al Gore chose Senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate, marking the first time that a major party presidential ticket included someone of the Jewish faith. Gore and Lieberman fell five votes short of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the Electoral College. In the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, 65 state residents were killed, mostly Fairfield County residents who were working in the World Trade Center. In 2004, Republican Governor John G. Rowland resigned during a corruption investigation, later pleading guilty to federal charges.
Connecticut was hit by three major storms in just over 14 months in 2011 and 2012, with all three causing extensive property damage and electric outages. Hurricane Irene struck Connecticut August 28, and damage totaled $235 million. Two months later, the "Halloween nor'easter" dropped extensive snow onto trees, resulting in snapped branches and trunks that damaged power lines; some areas were without electricity for 11 days. Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey and passed over Connecticut with hurricane-force winds and tides up to 12 feet above normal. Many coastal buildings were damaged or destroyed. Sandy's winds drove storm surges into streets and cut power to 98% of homes and businesses, with more than $360 million in damage.
Police arrive at Sandy Hook Elementary, after the shooting
On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old man named Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, and then killed himself. The massacre spurred renewed efforts by activists for tighter laws on gun ownership nationally.
In the summer and fall of 2016, Connecticut experienced a drought in many parts of the state, causing some water-use bans. As of November 15, 2016 (2016-11-15), 45% of the state was listed at Severe Drought by the U.S. Drought Monitor, including almost all of Hartford and Litchfield counties. All the rest of the state was in Moderate Drought or Severe Drought, including Middlesex, Fairfield, New London, New Haven, Windham, and Tolland counties. This affected the agricultural economy in the state.
