Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
Jacob Leisler

Jacob Leisler

Jacob Leisler (? 1640 - May 16, 1691) was a German-born American colonist. Beginning in 1689, he led an insurrection dubbed Leisler's Rebellion in colonial New York, seizing control of the colony until he was captured and executed in New York City for treason against James II of England. He was born probably at Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, about 1640. He went to New Netherland (New York) in 1660, married a wealthy widow, engaged in trade, and soon accumulated a fortune. The English Revolution of 1688 divided the people of New York into two well-defined factions. In general the small shop-keepers, small farmers, sailors, poor traders and artisans were arrayed against the patroons, rich fur-traders, merchants, lawyers and crown officers. The former were led by Leisler, the latter by Peter Schuyler (1657-1724), Nicholas Bayard (c. 1644 1707), Stephen van Cortlandt (1643-1700), William Nicolls (1657 1723) and other representatives of the aristocratic Hudson Valley families. The Leislerians claimed greater loyalty to the Protestant succession. When news of the imprisonment of Gov. Andros in Massachusetts was received, they took possession on May 31, 1689 of Fort James (at the southern end of Manhattan Island), renamed it Fort William and announced their determination to hold it until the arrival of a governor commissioned by the new sovereigns. Thus began Leisler's Rebellion. The aristocrats also favoured the Revolution, but preferred to continue the government under authority from James II rather than risk the danger of an interregnum. Lieutenant-Governor Francis Nicholson sailed for England on June 24, a committee of safety was organized by the popular party, and Leisler was appointed commander-in-chief. Under authority of a letter from the home government addressed to Nicholson, or in his absence, to such as for the time being takes care for preserving the peace and administering the laws in His Majesty's province of New York, he assumed the title of lieutenant-governor in December 1689, appointed a council and took charge of the government of the entire province. He summoned the first Intercolonial Congress in America, which met in New York on May 1, 1690 to plan concerted action against the French and Native Americans. Colonel Henry Sloughter was commissioned governor of the province on September 3, 1689 but did not reach New York until March 19 1691. In the meantime Major Richard Ingoldsby and two companies of soldiers had landed (January 28, 1691) and demanded possession of the fort. Leisler refused to surrender it, and after some controversy an attack was made on 17 March in which two soldiers were killed and several wounded. When Sloughter arrived two days later Leisler hastened to give over to him the fort and other evidences of authority. He and his son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, were charged with treason for refusing to submit to Ingoldsby, were convicted, and on the 16 May 1691 were executed. There has been much controversy among historians with regard both to the facts and to the significance of Leisler's brief career as ruler in New York. See JR Brodhead, History of the State of New York (vol. 2, New York, 1871). For the documents connected with the controversy see EB O'Callaghan, Documentary History of the State of New York (vol. 2, Albany, 1850).

External link


- [http://www.nyu.edu/leisler/biography.html The Life of Jacob Leisler] Leisler, Jacob Leisler, Jacob Leisler, Jacob

1640

Events


- Charles I summons and rapidly dismisses the Short Parliament in an attempt to fund the second of the Bishops Wars.
- October 26 - The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of England.
- November: The English Long Parliament is summoned.
- December 1 - Portugal regains its independence from Spain and João IV of Portugal becomes king. Spain does not recognize the Independence before 1668.
- Change of Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from Murat IV (1623-1640) to Ibrahim I (1640-1648).
- First book printed in North America, the Bay Psalm Book.
- First known European coffee house opens in Venice.
- Henry Glapthorne flourishes.

Births


- January 25 - William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier and statesman (d. 1707)
- March 18 - Philippe de la Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1719)
- March 30 - John Trenchard, English statesman (d. 1695)
- April 1 - Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (d. 1697)
- May 31 - Michał Wiśniowiecki, King of Poland (d. 1673)
- June 9 - Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1705)
- September 29 - Antoine Coysevox, French sculptor (d. 1720)
- November 28 - Willem de Vlamingh, Flemish sea captain
- December 6 - Claude Fleury, French historian (d. 1723)
- December 13 - Robert Plot, British naturalist (d. 1696) See also :Category:1640 births.

Deaths


- January 14 - Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, English lawyer and judge (b. 1578)
- January 25 - Robert Burton, English scholar (b. 1577)
- February 9 - Murad IV, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1612)
- March 17 - Philip Massinger, English dramatist (b. 1583)
- April 10 - Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer (b. 1578)
- May 30 - Peter Paul Rubens, German painter (b. 1577)
- June 3 - John Aylmer, English politicial theorist (b. 1521)
- June 3 - Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, English politician (b. 1584)
- October 20 - John Ball, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1585)
- December 30 - John Regis, French saint (b. 1597)
- Uriel Acosta, Portuguese philosopher (suicide) (b. 1585) See also :Category:1640 deaths. Category:1640 ko:1640년

May 16

May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). There are 229 days remaining.

Events


- 1204 - Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders is crowned first Emperor of the Latin Empire.
- 1527 - The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence re-establishes a republic.
- 1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
- 1568 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
- 1605 - Paul V becomes Pope.
- 1770 - 14-year old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste who later becomes king of France.
- 1777 - Lachlan McIntosh and Button Gwinnett shoot each other during a duel near Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, dies three days later.
- 1836 - Edgar Allan Poe marries his 13-year-old cousin Virginia.
- 1843 - The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
- 1866 - The U.S. Congress eliminates the half dime coin and replaces it with the five cent piece, or nickel.
- 1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
- 1868 - President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
- 1910 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the creation of the United States Bureau of Mines.
- 1918 - The Sedition Act is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government a jailable offense.
- 1919 - US Navy Naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
- 1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
- 1929 - In Hollywood, California, the first Academy Awards are handed out.
- 1938 - A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.
- 1943 - Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
- 1943 - World War II: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on German dams.
- 1948 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
- 1960 - Nikita Khrushchev demands an apology from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower for U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union thus ending a Big Four summit in Paris.
- 1960 - Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
- 1966 - Two extremely influential rock albums are released on the same day: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
- 1969 - Venera program: Venera 5, a Soviet spaceprobe, lands on Venus.
- 1975 - India annexes Sikkim after the mountain state held a referendum where popular vote was in favour of merging with India.
- 1975 - Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
- 1988 - A report by American Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
- 1992 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
- 2002 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones opens in cinemas.
- 2003 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
- 2005 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith premieres in London.
- 2005 - Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

Births


- 1490 - Duke Albert of Prussia (d. 1568)
- 1578 - Everard Digby, English conspirator (d. 1606)
- 1611 - Pope Innocent XI (d. 1689)
- 1710 - William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (d. 1782)
- 1718 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (d. 1799)
- 1763 - Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist (d. 1829)
- 1827 - Pierre Cuypers, Dutch architect (d. 1921)
- 1845 - Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Russian microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1916)
- 1891 - Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (d. 1948)
- 1905 - Henry Fonda, American actor (d. 1982)
- 1910 - Olga Berggolts, Russian poet (d. 1975)
- 1912 - Studs Terkel, American writer
- 1913 - Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (d. 1987)
- 1917 - Juan Rulfo, Mexican novelist (d. 1986)
- 1919 - Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987)
- 1923 - Merton Miller, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1927 - Nílton Santos, Brazilian football player
- 1928 - Billy Martin, baseball player and coach (d. 1989)
- 1929 - Adrienne Rich, American writer
- 1930 - Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist (d.2000)
- 1931 - Natwar Singh, Indian politician
- 1936 - Roy Hudd, British radio and television actor
- 1936 - Karl Lehmann, German Catholic cardinal
- 1946 - Robert Fripp, English guitarist
- 1950 - J. Georg Bednorz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1953 - Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
- 1955 - Olga Korbut, Russian gymnast
- 1955 - Jack Morris, baseball player
- 1955 - Hazel O'Connor, British singer
- 1955 - Debra Winger, American actress
- 1963 - Mercedes Echerer, Austrian actress and politician
- 1963 - Rosie Perez, American actress
- 1965 - Krist Novoselic, American bassist (Nirvana)
- 1966 - Janet Jackson, American singer
- 1966 - Thurman Thomas, American football player
- 1969 - Tucker Carlson, American television commentator
- 1969 - Steve Lewis, American athlete
- 1970 - Gabriela Sabatini, Argentine tennis player
- 1973 - Tori Spelling, American actress
- 1977 - Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Canadian hockey player

Deaths


- 1620 - William Adams, English navigator and samurai (b.1564)
- 1657 - Andrzej Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
- 1667 - Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, English statesman (b. 1607)
- 1669 - Pietro da Cortona, Italian architect (b. 1598)
- 1691 - Jacob Leisler, German-born American colonist (b. 1640)
- 1703 - Charles Perrault, French author (b. 1628)
- 1778 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (b. 1718)
- 1782 - Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b. 1736)
- 1790 - Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, English politician (b. 1720)
- 1891 - Ion C. Bratianu, Romanian statesman (b. 1821)
- 1926 - Mehmed VI, last Ottoman Sultan (b. 1861)
- 1944 - George Ade, American author (b. 1866)
- 1947 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1861)
- 1953 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian musician (b. 1910)
- 1955 - James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
- 1957 - Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903)
- 1984 - Andy Kaufman, American comedian (b. 1949)
- 1984 - Irwin Shaw, American author (b. 1913)
- 1985 - Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
- 1988 - Charles Keeping, British illustrator (b. 1924)
- 1990 - Sammy Davis, Jr., American singer, actor, and comedian (b. 1925)
- 1990 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)
- 2003 - Mark McCormack, American sports business pioneer

Holidays and observances


- In the Irish Calendar - Feast of Saint Brendan the Navigator
- The feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  - Ubaldus
  - Saint Honoré
  - John of Ponuk or John Nepomucene (1330 - 1393)
  - Andrew Bobola
  - Simon Stock
- Whit Monday in Western Christianity (2005)
- Adelaide Cup day - South Australia (2005)

Song

"May 16" is also the title of a punk/rock song by Lagwagon from their album Let's Talk About Fellings. It is a upbeat song about living life on your own, and was featured in the soundtrack to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/5/16 Today in History: May 16] ---- May 15 - May 17 - April 16 - June 16 – listing of all days ko:5월 16일 ms:16 Mei ja:5月16日 simple:May 16 th:16 พฤษภาคม

1691

Events


- March 5 - French troops under Marshal Louis-Francois de Boufflers besiege the Spanish-held town of Mons
- March 20 - Leisler's Rebellion - New governor arrives in New York - Jacob Leisler surrenders after standoff of several hours
- March 29 - Siege of Mons ends to the city’s surrender
- May 6 - Spanish inquisition condemns and forcibly baptizes 219 Jews in Palma Majorca. When 37 try to escape the island, they are burned alive at the stake
- May 16 - Jacob Leisler is hanged for treason
- October 3 - Treaty of Limerick which guaranteed civil rights to catholics was signed. (it was broken "before the ink was dry")
- Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Suleiman II (1687-1691) to Ahmed II (1691-1695).
- Michel Rolle invents Rolle's theorem, an essential theorem of mathematics.
- In New England the two separate Colonies of Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony are united into a single entity by an act of the King and Queen of England.

Births


- February 27 - Edward Cave, English editor and publisher (d. 1754)
- April 9 - Johann Matthias Gesner, German classical scholar (d. 1761)
- June 17 - Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (d. 1765)
- September 29 - Richard Challoner, English Catholic prelate (d. 1781)
- October 1 - Arthur Onslow, English politician (d 1768)
- October 28 - Peder Tordenskjold, Norwegian naval hero (d. 1720)

Deaths


- Suleiman II, Sultan, Ottoman Empire (b. 1642)
- January 13 - George Fox, English founder of the Society of Friends (b. 1624)
- February 1 - Pope Alexander VIII (b. 1610)
- April 3 - Jean Petitot, Swiss enamel painter (b. 1608)
- May 11 - Colonel John Birch, English soldier (b. 1615)
- May 16 - Jacob Leisler, German-born American colonist (b. 1640)
- May 23 - Adrien Auzout, French astonomer (b. 1622)
- May 29 - Cornelis Tromp, Dutch admiral (b. 1629)
- July 16 - François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (b. 1641)
- July 30 - Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (b. 1639)
- August 14 - Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, Irish rebel (b. 1630)
- September 12 - John George III, Elector of Saxony (b. 1647)
- October 9 - William Sacheverell, English statesman (b. 1638)
- October 10 - Isaac de Benserade, French poet (b. 1613)
- November 14 - Tosa Mitsuoki, Japanese painter (b. 1617)
- November 15 - Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
- December 8 - Richard Baxter, English clergyman (b. 1615)
- December 30 - Robert Boyle, Irish chemist (b. 1627)
- December 30 - Dudley North, English economist (b. 1641) Category:1691 ko:1691년

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Leisler's Rebellion

Leisler's Rebellion was an uprising led by Jacob Leisler, who seized control of lower colonial New York from 1689 to 1691. After the accession of James II to the throne of England in 1685, New York had become a royal colony. He decreed the formation of the Dominion of New England the following year, and in 1687 added the colonies of New York and New Jersey, designating New York City as the capital. This unilateral union was highly unpopular among the colonists. In late 1688, James II was deposed for his Catholicism in the Glorious Revolution. The event introduced the principle that the people could replace a ruler they deemed unsuitable; uprisings against royal governors sprouted throughout the colonies. James' newly appointed governor of New England, Edmund Andros, was already unpopular due to his stricter enforcement of the Navigation Acts and other restrictions on colonists. He attempted to flee, dressed as a woman, but was caught and sent back to England. Amidst this turmoil, Jacob Leisler (b. 1640 in Frankfurt-am-Main), a well-born Calvinist immigrant merchant turned militia captain, deposed Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson in 1689. The coup was ostensibly intended to hold New York for William III and Mary II. Backed by Dutch laborers and artisans who resented the English ruling elite, Leisler enacted a government of direct popular representation. By some counts, he also moved to redistribute wealth to the poor. Both policies earned him the scorn of New York's predominantly Anglican merchant and aristocratic classes. The new king, William III, dispatched a new governor in 1691. After Leisler refused to cede authority, English troops entered the city and arrested Leisler for treason. He was tried and found guilty, and he and his son-in-law Jacob Milborn were hanged, drawn, and quartered on May 16. The rebellion established a core of rebellious sentiment against British domination, and reinforced the sentiment that the colonies were subject to British rule by their free will, not nature. At the same time, the presence of British soldiers on colonial soil and the reinvigorated enforcement of the heretofore neglected Navigation Acts led to increased tension between colonists and British forces.

References


- Max Kade German-American Research Institute: [http://www3.la.psu.edu/histrlst/maxkade/Leisler.htm The Papers of Jacob Leisler], offering an overview of Leisler's significance
- New York University: [http://www.nyu.edu/leisler/ The Jacob Leisler Papers Homepage], virtual archive of Leisler-related papers as well as information about NYU's physical documentary holdings
- McCormick, Charles H. Leisler's Rebellion (Outstanding Studies in Early American History). Garland, 1989. (ISBN 082406190X)
- Reich, Jerome R. Leisler's Rebellion: A Study of Democracy in New York, 1664-1720. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953. (ISBN 0735336734)
- Schnurmann, Claudia. Representative Atlantic Entrepreneur: Jacob Leisler, 1640-1691 in Postma, Johannes and Enthoven, Victor, eds. Riches from Atlantic Commerce: Dutch Transatlantic Trade and Shipping, 1585-1817. Leiden: Brill, 2003. (ISBN 9004125620) Category:American colonial wars Category:Rebellions in the United States

Province of New York

The Province of New York was an English colony that existed roughly where the State of New York does now. The province originally claimed the current states of New Jersey and Vermont. The economy of the Province of New York was based on manufacturing and agriculture. The citizens made iron and built ships. Farmers grew rice and wheat while raising cattle.

Conquest of New Netherlands

The province was granted to James, Duke of York, before the capture of the New Netherland colony from the Dutch on September 12,1664. The Duke had already granted the Province of New Jersey to his friends Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The Dutch retook part of New York in the next war; but finally lost it in 1674. When the Duke succeeded to the throne of England as James II, in 1685, New York became a Crown Colony. During the Glorious Revolution, Jacob Leisler led a rebellion in favor of William of Orange. In principle, the form of government was absolute rule by the Duke of York, or later the King; but in practice, he delegated his authority to a provincial governor whom he had appointed and instructed, and a provincial legislature elected by freeholders.

The twelve original counties

The Province of New York was divided into twelve counties on November 1, 1683:
- Albany County: All of the region that is now northern and western New York. Also claimed the area, later disputed, that is now Vermont. In addition as there was no fixed western border to the colony (sea-to-sea grant), Albany County theoretically extended to the Pacific Ocean. Most of this land has now been ceded to other states and most of the land within New York has been divided into new counties.
- Cornwall County: An area in what is now Maine. Ceded to Massachusetts Colony in 1692.
- Dukes County: The Elizabeth Islands, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island east of Long Island. Ceded to Massachusetts Colony in 1691.
- Dutchess County: Now Dutchess and Putnam counties.
- Kings County: The current Kings County.
- New York County: The current New York County; Manhattan .
- Orange County: Now Orange and Rockland counties.
- Queens County: Now Queens and Nassau counties.
- Richmond County: Richmond County; Staten Island.
- Suffolk County: The current Suffolk County.
- Ulster County: Now Ulster and Sullivan counties and part of what is now Delaware and Greene counties.
- Westchester County: Now Bronx and Westchester counties, which includes Rye, Scarsdale, Harrison, Larchmont, and other towns.

List of provincial governors


- Richard Nicholls (1664-1668)
- Francis Lovelace (1668-1673)
- Cornelis Evertsen (1673)
- Anthonie Colve (1673-1674)
- Edmund Andros (1674-1681 & 1688)
- Anthony Brockholls (acting: 1681-1683)
- Thomas Dongan (1683-1688)
- Francis Nicholson (acting: 1688-1691)
- Jacob Leisler (1689-1691)
- Henry Sloughter (1691)
- Richard Ingoldsby (acting: 1691-1692 & 1709-1710)
- Benjamin Fletcher (1692-1698)
- Richard Coote (1698-1701)
- John Nanfan (1701-1702)
- Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury (1702-1708)
- John Lovelace (1708-1709)
- Peter Schuyler (1709 & 1719-1720)
- Gerardus Beekman (acting: 1710)
- Robert Hunter (1710-1719)
- William Burnet (1720-1728)
- John Montgomerie (1728-1731)
- Rip Van Dam (acting: 1731-1732)
- William Cosby (1732-1736)
- George Clarke (1736-1743)
- George Clinton (1743-1753)
- Sir Danvers Osborn (1753)
- James de Lancey (1753-1755, 1757-1760)
- Sir Charles Hardy (1755-1757)
- Cadwallader Colden (acting: 1760-1761, 1763-1765 & 1769-1770)
- Robert Monckton (1761-1763)
- Sir Henry Moore (1764-1769)
- Lord Dunmore (1770-1771)
- William Tryon (1771-1780)

See also


- History of New York
- List of extinct U.S. counties

External links


- [http://www.sunysb.edu/libmap/Sauthier.htm 1776 map of Province of New York] Category:New York history Category:Thirteen Colonies

Treason

In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation. A person who betrays the nation of their citizenship and/or reneges on an oath of loyalty and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor. Oran's Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason as: "...[a]...citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation]." It is also generally considered treason to attempt or conspire to overthrow the government. Traitor may also mean a person who betrays the