New England

Region of northeast USA, comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; population (2000 est) 13,922,500. It is a geographic region rather than a political entity, with an area of 172,681 sq km/66,672 sq mi. Boston is the principal urban centre of the region, and Harvard and Yale are its major universities. First inhabited by the American Indian Algonquin peoples, New England was named by the explorer John Smith in 1614, and settled by Pilgrims and Puritans from England in the 17th century.

The area is still heavily forested, and the economy relies on tourism and services as well as industry.

History To its European settlers, New England was the Puritan Commonwealth. Its boundaries expanded west and north from Massachusetts Bay and embraced later settlements formed by dissident religious groups. The ties which developed between the colonies were initially religious or vocational, strengthened by the attempts to subdue and evangelize the American Indian population, who were also seen as the common enemy.

An economic unit A common involvement in commerce and industry arose from the agricultural poverty of the region, the necessity of an alternative economic base, and factors such as the abundance of water power for mills. New England was the first industrial region in the New World, specializing in textiles up to World War I. In the inter-war years, the textile industry moved to the southeastern states, leaving the region in crisis. Industrial renewal since 1945 has introduced new, high-technology industries to the area, and its share of US income is now larger than its share of population.

The popular image Traditionally, a New Englander may be caricatured as the lofty Puritan, with strict and unchanging standards in both private and public morality, and an assumption of superiority, intellectual and social, over the remainder of the American nation; or as the determined Irish Catholic politician. The opposing images are reflected in the conflict between the old colonial families dating from the 17th century, and the immigrants of the 19th century who arrived in large numbers. The reputation of New England as a supplier of high-quality financial, legal, and cultural services, is founded on its university resources, research groups, and long-established commercial firms.