Massachusetts Geography, Population, Business and History

Massachusetts is a state of the United States of New England. It is located on the Atlantic coast and borders north to Vermont and New Hampshire, west to New York and south to Connecticut and Rhode Island. Massachusetts has a land area of ​​27,337 km2 and has 6,859,819 residents (US Census, 2017). The capital and largest city is Boston.

The state is abbreviated MA and Mass. And is often called The Bay State after the first two colonies The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630) and The Plymouth Colony (1620). The name comes from Native American ‘high hills’, when the natives called themselves ‘the people from the high hills’.

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Geography

Massachusetts can be geographically divided into two main regions. The eastern part of the state consists largely of lowlands and belongs to the Atlantic coastal plain. The area includes Cape Cod Peninsula and Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Islands, all moraine formation. The more hilly western Massachusetts is split into two of the Connecticut River, and includes several parallel mountain ranges that all belong to the Appalachians, including the Berkshire Hills and the Green Mountains. The highest point is Mount Greylock (1064 meters) in the Taconic Range to the northwest.

The climate is temperate, but somewhat cooler and drier in the west than in the east. Boston has an average temperature of -3 °C for January and 24 °C for July and approx. About 1085 mm of precipitation. The rainfall is evenly distributed over the year; snow occurs in the period November – April. About 60 percent of the area is wooded (birch, beech, ash, oak, spruce).

Population

Massachusetts was one of the first states to be colonized, and by 1850 the population had passed one million. After World War II, population growth has been moderate. In the period from 2000 to 2010, the total population increased by 3.1 per cent (against 9.7 per cent for the country as a whole). Many residents here are of English, Irish and Italian descent. Massachusetts is highly urbanized, and over 92 percent of the population lived in cities or urban areas in 2010. The capital of Boston is the largest city with 685,094 residents, and is the centerpiece of the larger Boston-Worcester-Providence metropolitan area with 8,233,270 residents., 2017).

Massachusetts is one of the Democrats’ strongest areas in the United States, including the home state of the Kennedy family. Massachusetts sends two senators and nine representatives to Congress.

Business

Industry and service industries dominate the business world. It produces, among other things, electrical and electronic articles, machines, precision instruments, metal products, books and paper. The modern electronics companies are concentrated along the Route 128 ring road. Massachusetts ‘ industrialization dates back to the 1640s, and the state was formerly the United States’ largest manufacturer of textile and leather goods. Agriculture has traditionally had a secondary economic significance. The most important agricultural products are milk, cheese, vegetables, poultry, tobacco and cranberries (Cape Cod). Gloucester and New Bedford are among the more significant fishing ports in the United States. Here was earlier whalinga very important trade route. Boston is one of the leading port cities and wholesale shopping centers.

The state has a number of reputable institutions of higher education: in Cambridge at Boston are Harvard University (founded 1636) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1861), in Boston itself are Northeastern University (1898) and Boston University (1869), and Amherst University of Massachusetts (1863).

History

In May 1620, the pilgrim fathers of the Mayflower ship founded Plymouth as the first permanent white settlement in New England. The Massachusetts Company, founded in 1629, gained new immigrants. Among other things, many Puritans had tried in vain to reform the English Church in a stricter direction, and in 1643 the state was instrumental in forming the New England Federation.

The Puritans were zealous traders, but their economic progress was marred by their intolerance and persecution of people with differing opinions. In 1691, Massachusetts merged with Plymouth and Maine into one crown colony. The English restrictions and fees were badly taken up by Massachusetts with its lively trade and shipping.

The North American freedom struggle began with the clashes at Lexington in 1775 and in Concord. Massachusetts became a separate state in 1780 (one of the original 13) and ratified the constitution in 1788. Maine was excreted as its own state in 1820. In the 1800s, among other things, a significant textile industry grew, which led to great immigration especially by Irish and Italians. Boston became the new cultural center of the state and was a center of gravity in the fight against slavery.

Massachusetts Population 2019

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