Maine, ME
The
State of Maine is a state in the New England
region of the northeastern United States of
America. It is the northernmost portion of New
England.
The
state is known for its scenery — its jagged,
mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling
mountains, and its heavily forested interior —
as well as for its seafood cuisine, especially
lobsters and clams.
The
original inhabitants of the territory that is
now Maine were Algonquian-speaking peoples. The
first European settlement in Maine was in 1604
by a French party.
The
first English settlement in Maine was
established by the Plymouth Company at Popham in
1607, the same year as the settlement at
Jamestown, Virginia. Both colonies were predated
by the Roanoke Colony by 22 years. Because the
Popham Colony did not survive the harsh Maine
winters and the Roanoke Colony was lost,
Jamestown enjoys the distinction of being
regarded as America’s first permanent
settlement.
A
number of English settlements were established
along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although
the rugged climate, deprivations and Indian
attacks wiped out many of them over the years.
As
Maine entered the 18th century, only a half
dozen settlements still survived. American and
British forces contended for Maine's territory
during the American Revolution and the War of
1812.
Because it was physically separated from the
rest of Massachusetts (properly speaking, the
Department of Maine was an exclave of
Massachusetts) and because it was growing in
population at a rapid rate, Maine became the
23rd state on March 15, 1820 as a component of
the Missouri Compromise.
Origin of the name
There continues to be much interest in the
origin of the name of Maine, as there is not a
definitive answer.
The
Maine legislature in 2002 adopted a resolution
establishing Franco-American Day which stated
that the state was named after the ancient
French province of Maine.
Other theories mention earlier places with
similar names, or claim it's a nautical
reference to the mainland.
Whatever the origin, the name was fixed in 1665
when the King's Commissioners ordered that the
"Province of Maine" be entered from then on in
official records.
This article is licensed under
the
GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the
Wikipedia article
"Maine".