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History of Connecticut

The History of Connecticut begins as a number of unrelated colonial villages. These ventures gradually coalesced into larger units until they were finally combined under a single royal charter in 1662.

Colonies in Connecticut

The Dutch were the first Europeans in Connecticut. In
1614 Adriaen Block explored the coast of Long Island Sound, and sailed up the Connecticut River at least as far as modern Hartford, Connecticut. By 1623, the new Dutch West India Company regularly traded for furs there and ten years later they fortified it for protection from the Pequot Indians as well as from the expanding English colonies. They fortified the site, but encroaching English colonization made them agree to withdraw in the Treaty of Hartford, and by 1654 they were gone.

The first English colonists came from the Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and they settled at Windsor in 1633, Weathersfield (1634), and Hartford (1636). The Bay colony also built Fort Saybrook at the mouth of the River in 1636. Another Puritan group started the New Haven Colony in 1637. The Massachusetts colonies did not seek to absorb their progeny in Connecticut and Rhode Island into the Massachusetts governments. Communication and travel was too difficult, and it was also convenient to have a place for nonconformists to go.

The English settlement and trading post at Windsor especially threatened the Dutch trade, since it was upriver and more accessible to the Indians from the interior. That fall and winter the Dutch sent a party upriver as far as modern Springfield, Massachusetts spreading gifts to convince the Indians to bring their trade to the Dutch post at Hartford. Unfortunately they also spread smallpox and by the end of the 1633-34 winter the Indian population of the entire valley was reduced from over 8,000 to less than 2,000. This left the fertile valley wide open to further settlement.

The Pequot War

Main article: Pequot War.

The ravages of disease, coupled with trade pressures invited the Pequots to tighten their hold on the river tribes. Additional incidents began to involve the colonists in the area in 1635 and Next spring their raid on Weathersfield prompted the three towns to meet. On May 1, 1637 they each sent delegates to the first General Court held at the meeting house in Hartford. This was the start of self government in Connecticut. They pooled their militia under the command of John Mason of Windsor, and declared war on the Pequots. When the war was over, there were officially no more Pequots. The Treaty of Hartford in 1638 reached agreements with the other tribes that gave the colonists the Pequot lands.

Under the Fundamental Orders

Main article: Fundamental Orders of Connecticut The River Towns had created a general government when faced with the demands of a war. In 1639, they took the unprecedented step of documenting the source and form of that government. They enumerated individual rights and concluded that a free people were the only source of government's authority. Rapid growth and expansion grew under this new regime.

In 1662 the colony succeeded in gaining a Royal Charter that embodied and confirmed the self-government that they had created with the Fundamental Orders. The only significant change was that it called for a single Connecticut government. Since 1638, the New Haven Colony had been independent of the river towns, but there was another factor added to the Charter. The new government in New York, under the Duke of York (a distrusted Catholic), had already taken their settlements on Long Island. By January, 1665 they gave in and sent delegates from their towns to the general court.

Indian pressures were relieved for some time by the severity and ferocity of the Pequot War. King Philip's War in 1665 and 1666 brought renewed fighting to Connecticut. Although primarily a war of Massachusetts, Connecticut provided men and supplies. This war effectively removed any remaining Indian influence in Connecticut.

The Dominion of New England

In 1686, Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned as the Royal Governor of the Dominion of New England. Andros maintained that his commission superceded their 1662 Charter. At first, Connecticut ignored this situation. But in late October of 1687, Andros arrived with troops and naval support. Governor Robert Treat had no choice but to convene the assembly. Andros met with the governor and General Court on the evening of October 31, 1687.

Governor Andros praised their industry and government, but after he read them his commission, he demanded their charter. As they placed it on the table, people blew out all the candles. When the light was restored the charter was missing. According to legend, it was hidden in the Charter Oak. Sir Edmund named four members to his Council for the Government of New England and proceeded to his capital at Boston.

Since Andros viewed New York and Massachusetts as the important parts of his Dominion, he mostly ignored Connecticut. Aside from some taxes demanded and sent to Boston, Connecticut also mostly ignored the new government. When word that the Glorious Revolution had placed William and Mary on the throne, the citizens of Boston drove Andros into exile. The Connecticut court met, and voted on May 9, 1689 to restore the Charter. They also reelected Robert Treat as governor each year until 1698.

The American Revolution (1775-1789)

Connecticut was the only one of the 13 colonies involved in the American Revolution that did not have an internal revolution of its own. It had been largely self-governing since its beginnings. Governor Jonathan Trumbull was elected every year from 1769 to 1784. Connecticut's government continued unchanged even after the revolution, until the United States Constitution was adopted in 1789.

Early United States (1789-1818)

The 1818 Constitution (1818-1890)

The Modern Era (After 1890)

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