The history of New York
Where is New York? Do you know anything about its history?
Introduction
New York is the biggest city in the United States of America. More than eight million people live and work in New York. Another ten million people live very near to the city and travel to work there every day. NewYork is one of the most important cities in the world. It is a centre forbusiness.
It is also a centre for music and art. New York has many famous buildings and places of interest. But New York is also exciting and important because of its people. They come from many different countries of the world. Let us look at this unusual city.
The Indians and the Dutch
The first people in New York were the native Americans. They lived on Manhattan Island at the mouth of a river. The island had a beautiful harbour. The native Americans killed animals and then sold their fur.
One day, in 1609, a ship came into the harbour. It was a Dutch ship and its captain was Henry Hudson. He met the native Americans and they sold him some fur.
Hudson returned to the Netherlands. He described the harbour and he showed the fur. After that, many Dutch ships went to Manhattan island to buy fur.
In 1626, one of the Dutch leaders bought Manhattan Island from the native Americans. He gave them about twenty four dollars.
New Amsterdam and New York
Some Dutch people stayed on Manhattan Island and built small houses near the harbour. They called their little town New Amsterdam after the town of the same name in Holland. Other Europeans bought land from the Dutch and built houses there, too. In 1643, about five hundred people
lived in New Amsterdam. They spoke eighteen different languages. Most of them traded with the native Americans.
At that time the English had land on Manhattan Island but they also wanted to control the town and the harbour as well. One day, in 1664, an English ship sailed into the harbour, ready to fight the Dutch. The Dutch handed over the little town to the English. The English changed the name of the town from New Amsterdam to New York.
Independence
In 1775, the English needed money. Many ships sailed from England to North America. Some carried glass. Others carried paper and tea. The English made the people in America, including those in New York, pay a tax on these things. This made them very angry. 'Why must we pay taxes to the government in England?' they asked. The people were so angry that they started a war against the English. They wanted to become free of the English. The War of Independence began in 1776. The Americans had a great leader -George Washington. He became General Washington. Later, he became the first president of the United States of America. The Americans finally beat the English in 1783.
The Immigrants
After the War of Independence in 1776, people came to America from all parts of the world. They wanted to live in the new country. They came by ship to New York. Some ships carried more than a thousand immigrants. At first most of the people who lived in New York were from England and Scotland. Soon many new immigrants came from Germany, Ireland and Italy. Many Jewish people came, too. By 1890, New York had more immigrants than any other city in the world. In one year 1907 -1,285,349 people arrived in New York. Some of the immigrants went to other parts of the United States. But most of them stayed in New York. There were many problems. The immigrants in New York had no money and did not speak English. But usually immigrants from the same country lived close together. They helped each other. These new Americans worked very hard. Today New York has an interesting mix of people and customs.
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