What is the capital of massachusetts
What is the capital of massachusetts
Massachusetts
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Massachusetts, constituent state of the United States of America. It was one of the original 13 states and is one of the 6 New England states, lying in the northeastern corner of the country. Massachusetts (officially called a commonwealth) is bounded to the north by Vermont and New Hampshire, to the east and southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by Rhode Island and Connecticut, and to the west by New York. It is the seventh smallest of the U.S. states in terms of total area. Its capital is Boston, the state’s most populous city. English explorer and colonist John Smith named the state for the Massachuset tribe, whose name meant “near the great hill”—believed to refer to Blue Hill, which rises south of Boston in an otherwise flat area. Massachusetts’s residents represent an amalgamation of the prototypical Yankee spirit of an earlier America and the energies of the later immigrants who flocked to its cities in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Massachusetts is unique among states because its history and culture predate and epitomize the experiences of the country as a whole. It is commonly known that the Puritans and Pilgrims set the stage for eventual liberty of religious belief when they fled an oppressive government to settle in the New World. With such documents as the Mayflower Compact (1620) and the Body of Liberties (1641), an early code of law, they provided the basis for the concept that governments should rule by consent of the governed and with guarantees to protect individual expression.
These notions of individual liberty came into conflict with the colonies’ status as part of the British Empire. The American Revolution originated in Massachusetts with the first resistance against British colonial rules. It was in Massachusetts that the colonists raised the hue and cry against taxation without representation, as exemplified by the Boston Tea Party; the activism of the Massachusetts colonists inspired others and culminated in the “shot heard round the world” at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775.
Massachusetts was in the vanguard when the new country began transforming itself from an agrarian to an industrial economy. The state’s merchants, such as Francis Cabot Lowell, whose fortunes depended on trade, sought safer investments after severe losses during the War of 1812. Textile, boot, and machinery manufacturing began in Massachusetts (and Rhode Island) and set the groundwork for the eventual industrialization and urbanization of the northeastern states. Farmers and their sons and daughters trekked to the new cities; by the mid-1870s, Massachusetts had become the first state in the Union in which more people lived in towns and cities than in rural areas.
Throughout the 19th century, Massachusetts was a leading manufacturing centre. Southern competition in the first half of the 20th century led to a massive economic decline, resulting in the closing of factories throughout the state. But World War II and the Cold War created new high-technology industries that depended on federal largesse in the form of defense spending. Meanwhile, service activities such as finance, education, and health care expanded, helping to create a new economy with Boston as its centre. In 2004 Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage; the law pointed out that excluding certain citizens from a valued institution was incompatible with the principles of individual autonomy and legal equality. Massachusetts’s long struggle to maintain individual liberty while paying attention to communal needs resulted in the coalition of democratic principles and capitalist drives that are the hallmark of the United States. Area 10,554 square miles (27,336 square km). Population (2020) 7,029,917.
The Massachusetts coastline is about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) in length, yet the cross-country distances are only 190 miles (310 km) from east to west and 110 miles (180 km) from north to south. The coast—whose configuration marked by numerous embayments gave rise to Massachusetts’s nickname, the Bay State—winds from Rhode Island around Cape Cod, in and out of scenic harbours along the shore south of Boston, through Boston Harbor and up the North Shore, swinging around the painters’ paradise of Cape Ann to New Hampshire.
Relief
The indented coast of Massachusetts was formed by the great glaciers that in some places covered the land with several thousand feet of ice. When the last ice disappeared some 11,000 years ago, massive chunks of rocks were exposed along the shore. Hard, flat land stretches out beyond, becoming stony upland pastures near the central part of the state and a gently hilly country in the west. Except toward the west, the land is rocky, often sandy, and not fertile.
In the southeast, Cape Cod juts out into the ocean, forming Cape Cod Bay. This 65-mile- (105-km-) long appendage is rectangular in shape except at its easternmost point, where it hooks northward. Its offshore waters are among the most treacherous in the country. Tufts of grass spring up along the sand dunes, and gnarled jack pines and scrub oaks, some only head high, grow in bunches. Off the southeastern coast lie the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, lashed by the gray Atlantic in winter but in summer alive with thousands of tourists and longtime seasonal residents.
Central Massachusetts comprises rolling plains fed by innumerable streams. Beyond lie the broad and fertile Connecticut River valley and the Berkshire Hills. The now-paved Mohawk Trail crosses the Berkshires—the Hoosac Range on the east and the Taconic Range on the west. The state’s highest point, 3,491 feet (1,064 metres), is Mount Greylock, on the Taconic side near Adams. In North Adams a natural bridge of white marble has been formed by the wind and water, and at nearby Sutton is a short gorge that knifes through the rock, exposing some 600 million years of geologic history.
Drainage
The land is veined with rivers—19 main systems, the most notable of which are the Connecticut, Charles, and Merrimack. More than 1,100 ponds and lakes lie among the hollows of the hills; there is a body of water in almost every one of the more than 350 communities. Many bear long Indian names, most notably Lake Chaubunagungamaug (in Webster), the long form of which is Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. The best-known small body of water, however, is Walden Pond, immortalized by writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau.
The Boston metropolitan area gets its drinking water from Quabbin Reservoir in the western part of the state. The world’s largest man-made domestic water supply, it was built between 1933 and 1939 and required the displacement of 2,500 people and four towns (Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott) to provide water for dozens of towns and cities to the east.
What Is the Capital of Massachusetts?
The state flag of Massachusetts.
What Is the Capital of Massachusetts?
Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, which borders the Atlantic Ocean and the states of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, and Rhode Island. It was named after the Massachusett people, who inhabited the area in the past. It is the most populous state in the New England area, with a population of about 6.8 million people. The capital and the most populous city in Massachusetts and the larger New England region is Boston. The majority of the population (80%) lives in the Greater Boston Metropolitan area. Boston, together with the other cities in Massachusetts, has played a major commercial and cultural role in the history of the US.
Boston
Boston is the seat of Suffolk County and the capital of Massachusetts. The area covered by Boston is about 48 square miles, and it has a population of about 673,000, the highest in the New England region, and one of the most populous cities in the US. The Greater Boston area has a population of about 4.8 million residents, making it the 10th largest metropolitan area in the US. Boston is one of the oldest cities in the US, founded in 1630 by the Puritans. It was a strategic city for several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Siege of Boston and the Boston Massacre. Boston is not only an economic and cultural base, but also an international center for education. Boston is one of the most expensive cities in the US, characterized by its high cost of living.
Geography and Climate
Economy
Government and Politics
Boston has a council government system headed by a mayor elected every four years. The mayor has executive powers. The Boston City Council, elected every two years, is made up of 9 district seats and 4 citywide seats. Several commissions and state authorities function alongside the city government. Boston also has several federal facilities, including federal buildings, post office, banks, and courts. As the capital of Massachusetts, Boston plays a significant role in the politics of the state.
Why Is Boston the Capital of Massachusetts?
The Capital of Massachusetts
Named for the Massachusetts tribe that once inhabited part of the territory, the official name of Massachusetts is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. With a population of approximately 6.8 million people, the state is the most populous among the Northeastern New England region of the United States.
Massachusetts is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the East, New Hampshire and Vermont to the North, New York to the West, and Connecticut and Rhode Island to the South. It is one of the original thirteen American colonies, and the history of the state is deeply embedded within the broader ambit of early American history.
Today, approximately 80% of the population lives in or around the capital city of Boston.
The History of Boston
Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula way back in 1630, making it one of America’s oldest and most historically rich city settlements. The first inhabitants were Puritan settlers from England who came to flee religious persecution.
Boston is both the capital city of the state of Massachusetts and the economic and cultural center of the larger New England area. The city is distinguished for playing a unique cultural and historical role in American history, and as such, is sometimes nicknamed the “Cradle of Liberty” or “The Birthplace of the Revolution”. The city was the site of many important events in the American Revolution, like the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Boston Massacre, and the Siege of Boston.
Boston would later distinguish itself as a major manufacturing and shipping hub, eventually becoming one of the world’s wealthiest international ports. Descendants from the wealth generated in old Boston form an elite social class sometimes referred to as the “Boston Brahmins”.
The city’s demographics were altered in the early 19th century by a wave of Irish immigrants and the Roman Catholic religion that they brought with them. To this day, the Catholic population remains the dominant religious community within the city. Many influential political figures, such as President John F. Kennedy, were offshoots of this Boston Catholic persuasion.
As the city’s industrial sector began to wane with global shifts in manufacturing demand, Boston gradually reinvented itself as a banking and investment center. Meanwhile, large-scale urban renewal projects brought life back to degraded segments of the city.
Boston was home to the first public school and the first subway system in the county. Boston residents are informally referred to as “Bostonians”.
Why Is Boston the Capital of Massachusetts?
Being one of the oldest cities in the country, Boston was an intuitive choice for the capital of what was originally known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
It was officially named the capital of the nascent state back in 1632, over a hundred years before Confederation. The city was named after the English hometown of the first deputy-governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Dudley, who was one of many prominent members of the Massachusetts Bay Company to hail from Boston, Lincolnshire.
As one of 21 capital cities to be named during the formative years of New England, Boston was once the capital city of the entire territory. Despite occasional challenges from Springfield to the west of the state, Boston is currently the longest-running state capital in the entire country. That said, Boston was not the first capital of the territory known today as Massachusetts. It was originally predated by Plymouth, which was the capital of Massachusetts back when it was known as Plymouth Colony.
Boston Today
Recent estimates put the population of the city proper at 685,094. However, there are about 4.8 million people living in the Greater Metropolitan Area.
Boston is widely considered a global economic powerhouse, ranking among the top not only in terms of American cities but also across the globe. The Greater Boston Area is one of the top 15 economies on the planet.
The city continues to attract over 16 million visitors a year due to its rich cultural and historical significance. The city is known for having a high cost of living and a distinguished reputation for educational excellence. The city’s many established elite educational institutions continue to attract millions in revenue and a continual influx of students on an annual basis.
Today, the city is dealing with problems related to gentrification and racial tension as a result of the continued efforts to transform the city’s poorest neighborhoods into wealthy communities. However, Boston continues to boast one of the country’s highest standards of living and is often ranked as one of the most desirable places to live in America.
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Boston
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Boston, city, capital of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and seat of Suffolk county, in the northeastern United States. It lies on Massachusetts Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. The city proper has an unusually small area for a major city, and more than one-fourth of the total—including part of the Charles River, Boston Harbor, and a portion of the Atlantic—is water. Area city, 46 square miles (119 square km). Pop. (2010) 617,594; Boston-Quincy Metro Division, 1,887,792; Boston-Cambridge-Quincy Metro Area, 4,552,402; (2020) 675,647; Boston Metro Division, 2,054,736; Boston-Cambridge-Newton Metro Area, 4,941,632.
Character of the city
The area, the people, and the institutions within its political boundaries can only begin to define the essence of Boston. Its nickname “Beantown” has its origin in colonial times, when Boston, as a stop on a major trade route with the West Indies, had a steady supply of molasses from the Caribbean, thus leading to the creation of a popular dish that became known as Boston baked beans (beans baked in molasses). As a city and as a name, Boston is a symbol of much that has gone into the development of the American consciousness, and its presence reaches far beyond its immediate environs. As the spiritual capital of the New England states, as the progenitor of the American Revolution and the nation, and as the earliest centre of American culture, Boston has influenced the country for some three centuries. Though Boston, like New England in general, has played a lessening role in national life since the early 20th century, it has remained the focal point of what may be the most diversified and dynamic combination of educational, cultural, medical, and scientific activities in the United States.
Landscape
The Boston region’s topography was largely shaped by the glaciers that covered the land during the last ice age. The city and its sheltered deepwater harbour sit in a basin that extends to Lynn in the north and Quincy in the south and is ringed by modest hills: the Middlesex Fells (north) to the Blue Hills (south). There are harder, higher surface rocks (mostly granites) on those northern and southern edges, while inside the basin the lower-lying rocks—commonly known as pudding stone—are found mostly below the surface in such areas as Roxbury, Newton, Brookline, Mattapan, West Roxbury, and Dorchester. The land, enormously compressed by the vast accumulation of glacial ice on it, has since been rebounding (rising up) at an extremely gradual rate.
Numerous drumlins (mounds of glacial debris) form low hills in the city and islands that dot the harbour. At the beginning of English settlement in the 17th century, the Shawmut Peninsula was called Trimountain (or Tramount) because of its dominating three-topped hill on the northwest corner near the mouth of the Charles River. Beacon Hill is its only surviving, though greatly reduced, remnant. The other portions were leveled to become landfill that added to the city’s area in the 19th century.
Boston, Massachusetts
 Flag |  Seal |
Location in Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It is the capital and largest city in the state of Massachusetts and the largest city in New England. Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region. With a 2008 estimated population of 616,535, Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.4 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country.
Puritan colonists from England founded the city in 1630. During the late eighteenth century Boston was the location of several major events surrounding the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Battle of Bunker Hill. After independence from Great Britain was attained, Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center. Its rich history now attracts 16.3 million visitors annually.
The city was the site of several firsts, including America’s first public school, Boston Latin School in 1635. Boston was also home to the first subway system in the United States.
Contents
With many colleges and universities such as Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology within the city and surrounding area, Boston is a center of higher education and medicine. The city’s economy is based on research, finance, and technology; principally biotechnology. Toward the beginning of the twenty first century, Boston began experiencing gentrification and obtained one of the highest costs of living in the United States, though it remains high on livability rankings.
Geography
Owing to its early founding, Boston is very compact. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 89.6 square miles (232.1 km²)—nearly half of which is water. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula where it started. Yet it is the fourth most densely populated city in the country not a part of a larger city’s metropolitan area. Of United States cities with a population over 500,000, only San Francisco is smaller in land area. The highest point in Boston is Bellevue Hill at 330 feet (101 m) above sea level, while the lowest point is at sea level.
Much of the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods are built on reclaimed land—all the earth from two of Boston’s three original hills was used as landfill material. Only Beacon Hill, the smallest of the three original hills, remains partially intact; just half of its height was cut down for landfill.
Climate
Boston has what may basically be described as something between a humid continental climate and a humid subtropical climate, which is common in New England. Summers are warm and humid, while winters are cold, windy, and snowy. Prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore affect Boston, minimizing the influence of the Atlantic Ocean.
Spring in Boston can be warm, with temperatures as high as the 90s when winds are offshore, though it is just as possible for a day in late May to remain in the lower 40s due to cool ocean waters. The hottest month is July, with an average high of 82°F (28°C) and average low of 66°F (18°C). The coldest month is January, with an average high of 36&°F (2&°C) and an average low of 22°F (-6°C).
The city averages about 43 inches (108 cm) of precipitation a year, with 40.9 inches (104 cm) of snowfall a year. Snowfall increases dramatically as one goes inland away from the city and the warming influence of the ocean.
Boston’s coastal location on the North Atlantic, though it moderates temperatures, also makes the city very prone to Nor’easter weather systems that can produce much snow and rain. Fog is prevalent, particularly in spring and early summer, and the occasional tropical storm or hurricane can threaten the region, especially in early autumn.
Cityscape
The downtown area and immediate surroundings consist mostly of low-rise brick or stone buildings, with many older buildings in the Federal style. Several of these buildings mix in with modern high-rises, notably in the Financial District, Government Center, the South Boston waterfront, and Back Bay, which includes many prominent landmarks such as the Boston Public Library, Christian Science Center, Copley Square, Newbury Street, and New England’s two tallest buildings: the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center. Smaller commercial areas are interspersed among single-family homes and wooden/brick multifamily row houses.
Boston Common, located near the Financial District and Beacon Hill, is the oldest public park in the U.S. Along with the adjacent Boston Public Garden, it is part of a string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to encircle the city. Franklin Park is the city’s largest park and houses a zoo. Another major park is the Esplanade located along the banks of the Charles River. Other parks are scattered throughout the city, with the major parks and beaches located near Castle Island, in Charlestown and along the Dorchester, South Boston, and East Boston shorelines.
The Charles River separates Boston proper from Cambridge, Watertown, and the neighborhood of Charlestown. To the east lies Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The Neponset River forms the boundary between Boston’s southern neighborhoods and the city of Quincy and the town of Milton. The Mystic River separates Charlestown from Chelsea and Everett, while Chelsea Creek and Boston Harbor separate East Boston from Boston proper.
History
The Shawmut peninsula was connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, and surrounded by the waters of Massachusetts Bay and the Back Bay, an estuary of the Charles River. Several prehistoric Native American archaeological sites excavated in the city have shown that the peninsula was inhabited as early as 5000 B.C.E. Boston’s early European settlers first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed the town after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, from which several prominent colonists had emigrated.
Boston was founded on September 17, 1630, by Puritan colonists from England, who were distinct from the Pilgrims who had founded Plymouth Colony ten years earlier. The two groups differed in religious practice, and the separate colonies were not united until the Province of Massachusetts Bay was formed in 1691. Boston was the largest town in British North America until the mid-1700s.
Role in independence
In the 1770s, British attempts to exert more stringent control on the thirteen colonies, primarily via taxation, prompted Bostonians to initiate the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre of 1770 and several early battles occurred in or near the city, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston.
After the Revolution, Boston became one of the world’s wealthiest international trading ports. Exports included rum, fish, salt, and tobacco. In 1822, Boston was chartered as a city.
Manufacturing center
By the mid-1800s, the city’s industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance. Until the early 1900s, Boston remained one of the nation’s largest manufacturing centers, and was notable for its garment production and leather goods industries. A network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region made for easy shipment of goods and allowed for a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads facilitated the region’s industry and commerce.
From the mid- to late nineteenth century, Boston flourished culturally; it became renowned for its literary culture and artistic patronage. It also became a center of the abolitionist movement.
In the 1820s, Boston’s population began to swell and the city’s ethnic composition changed dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants, especially from Ireland. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians, French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settle in the city. By the end of the nineteenth century, Boston’s neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants. Italians inhabited the North End, the Irish dominated South Boston, and Russian Jews lived in the West End.
Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Catholics make up Boston’s largest religious community, and since the early twentieth century the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics—prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O’Neill, and John F. Fitzgerald.
Urban renewal
By the mid-twentieth century, the city was in decline as factories became old and obsolete, and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), which was established in 1957. By the 1970s, the city’s economy boomed after thirty years of economic downturn. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women’s led the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as Harvard University, MIT, Boston University, Boston College, and Northeastern University attracted students to the area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s.
The Columbia Point housing projects, built in 1953 on the Dorchester peninsula, had gone through bad times until there were only 350 families residing there in 1988. It was run down and dangerous. In 1984, the city of Boston gave control of it to a private developer, Corcoran-Mullins-Jennison, who re-developed and revitalized the property into an attractive residential mixed-income community called Harbor Point Apartments which was opened in 1988 and completed by 1990. It is a very significant example of revitalization and re-development and was the first federal housing project to be converted to private, mixed-income housing in the United States.
By the early twenty-first century the city had become an intellectual, technological, and political center. It had, however, experienced a loss of regional institutions, which included the acquisition of the Boston Globe by the New York Times and the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004. The city also had to tackle gentrification issues and rising living expenses, with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s.
Government
Boston has a strong mayor system in which the mayor is vested with extensive executive powers. The mayor is elected to a four-year term by plurality voting. The city council is elected every two years. There are nine district seats, each elected by the residents of that district through plurality voting, and four at-large seats. Each voter casts up to four votes for at-large councilors, with no more than one vote per candidate. The candidates with the four highest vote totals are elected. The president of the city council is elected by the councilors from within themselves. The school committee for the Boston Public Schools is appointed by the mayor. The Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Zoning Board of Appeals (a seven-person body appointed by the mayor) share responsibility for land-use planning.
As the capital of Massachusetts, Boston plays a major role in state politics. The city also has several properties relating to the federal government, including the John F. Kennedy Federal Office Building and the Thomas P. O’Neill Federal Building. The city also serves as the home of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, as well as the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The city is in the Eighth and Ninth Congressional Districts.