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County Seat

County seat

A county seat is an administrative center for a county. In the U.S. New England states and the Canadian Maritime Provinces, the term "shire town" is also used, but officially so only in Vermont. In England, Wales and Ireland, the term county town is used. This term is probably still used colloquially in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but today neither are divided into counties - instead being divided, respectively, into regions and districts. Counties are called "parishes" in Louisiana and Alaska is divided into "boroughs" (here, meaning a very large district or region of the state). Their seats of county government are called "parish seat" and "borough seat," respectively. The Canadian province of Ontario, in addition to counties, also has territorial districts, regional muncipalities, and at least one metropolitan municipality, which are effectively different types of counties in that they perform county government functions. In America as in England and Canada, a county is an administrative division of a state which has no sovereign jurisdiction of its own, so it would not be correct to say that a county seat is equivalent to a capital city since it's just an administrative centre. (See also the article, Counties of the United States.) Counties administer state or provincial law at the local level as part of the decentralisation of state/provincial authority. In many U.S. states, state government is further decentralised by dividing counties into townships, to provide local government services to residents of the county who do not live in incorporated cities or towns. A county seat is often, but not always, an incorporated municipality. The county courthouse and county administration are usually located in the county seat, but some functions may also be conducted in other parts of the county, especially if it is geographically large. Most counties have only one county seat. However, some counties in Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Mississippi have two or more county seats, usually located on opposite sides of the county. An example is Harrison County, Mississippi, which lists both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats. The practice of multiple county towns dates from the days when travel was difficult. There have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement since a county seat is a source of pride (and jobs) for the towns involved. In Virginia, all cities are independent cities, which are legally distinct from the counties that surround them. An independent city interacts with the commonwealth (state) government directly whereas villages and other local government authorities do so through the county government apparatus. However, many of Virginia's independent cities act as the county seat for their neighbouring counties. For example, the City of Fairfax is separate from Fairfax County, but is still the county's seat. Uniquely, because it was formerly part of the District of Columbia, Arlington County, Virginia, which is the smallest county in the United States, has no county seat - because it has no muncipalities within its boundaries. Prior to their retrocession to Virginia during the nineteenth century, Arlington and the neighboring independent city of Arlington were, respectively, Arlington County and Alexandria County - two of the three counties of the District of Columbia. The District as currently drawn was coextensive with the County of Washington, which disappeared in the twentieth century following the amalgamation of Tenley, Anacostia and the other rural and semi-rural towns and villages of Washington County, D.C., to the City of Washington.

References

Category:Capitals Category:U.S. counties ja:郡庁所在地

County

Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count. Counts are called "earls" in post-Celtic Britain and Ireland - the term is from Old Norse jarl and was introduced by the Vikings - but there is no correlation between "county" and "earldom." Rather, the term "county," from French comté, was simply used by the Normans after 1066 to replace the native English term scir ("sheer") or "shire," in Modern English. A shire was an administrative division of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom (Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, etc.), usually named after its administrative centre (e.g., Gloucester > Gloucestershire, Worcester > Worcestershire, etc.). Thus, whereas the word comté denoted a sovereign jurisdiction in the original French, the English word "county" denotes a subdivision of a sovereign jurisdiction.

Overview

Australia

New South Wales

While New South Wales was divided into counties in the early days of the colony, often preceding European settlement, hundreds, parishes and counties became dead letters for most purposes other than the registration of land ownership, which, under the Torrens title system, is centralised in the state capital of Sydney. Sydney lies in the County of Cumberland. Local government is organised as municipalities for urban areas, and shires for rural areas. Large urban areas are called "cities".

Canada

shire Main article: Census division Five of Canada's ten provinces are divided into counties. In Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, these are local government units, whereas in Quebec and Prince Edward Island they are now only geographical divisions. Most counties consist of several municipalities, however there are a few that consist of a single large city. In sparsely populated northern Ontario and Quebec, these units are called districts not counties, and in densely populated areas of south-central Ontario new regional municipalities are used for local government instead of counties. See also:
- List of New Brunswick counties
- List of Nova Scotia counties
- List of Prince Edward Island counties
- List of Ontario counties
- List of Quebec counties
- List of Quebec county regional municipalities Divisions of the other provinces:
- In Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland and Labrador, instead of counties, divisions are used. (Though Alberta has "counties," they are not equivalent to Census Divisions). See list of Alberta Census Divisions.
- In British Columbia, regional districts are used. (see List of British Columbia Regional Districts)
- The Yukon Territory is one district in itself
- The Northwest Territories and Nunavut are divided into districts. Statistics
- Census division statistics of Canada

China

Main article: County of China The word "county" is used to translate the Chinese term xiàn (县 or 縣). On Mainland China under the People's Republic of China, counties are the third level of local government, coming under both the province level and the prefecture level. On Taiwan, the streamlining of Taiwan Province has left the county the major governmental level below the Republic of China central government. The number of counties in China proper numbers about 2,000, and has remained more or less constant since the Han dynasty. The county remains one of the oldest levels of government in China and significantly predates the establishment of provinces in the Ming dynasty. The county government was particularly important in imperial China because this was the lowest layer at which the imperial government functioned. In older context, "prefecture" and "district" are alternative terms to refer to xiàn before the establishment of the Republic of China. The English nomenclature "county" was adopted following the establishment of the ROC. The head of a county is the magistrate. See also: Political divisions of China, Counties of Taiwan

Croatia

Counties have been units of regional self-government in Croatia since 1990. There are twenty counties and the city of Zagreb which has the same status. They are called županije and they are each headed by a župan (whose replacement is called a dožupan). See also: Counties of Croatia

Hungary

The administrative unit of Hungary is called megye, or in Latin: comitatus, which can be translated with the word county. Presently Hungary is subdivided into 19 "proper" counties, 22 city counties and 1 capital, Budapest. See the list of counties of Hungary. The comitatus was also the historic administrative unit in the Kingdom of Hungary, which included present-day neighboring countries of Hungary. See the list of historic counties of Hungary.

Ireland

The island of Ireland is divided into 32 counties, of which 26 later formed the Republic of Ireland and 6 made up Northern Ireland (for current status on Northern Irish counties, see under 'United Kingdom,' below). The counties are traditionally grouped into 4 provinces - Leinster (12), Munster (6) Connacht (5) and Ulster (9). Historically, the counties of Meath, West Meath and Dublin constituted the province of Meath - one of the "Five Fifths" of Ireland; but these have long since become the three northernmost counties of Leinster province. In the Republic each county is administered by an elected "county council", and the old provincial divisions are merely traditional names with no political significance. The number and boundaries of administrative counties in the Republic of Ireland were reformed in the 1990's. For example County Dublin was broken into three: Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, and South Dublin - the City of Dublin had existed for centuries before. In addition "County Tipperary" is actually two administrative counties, called North Tipperary and South Tipperary while the major urban centres Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford have been separated from the town and rural areas of their counties. Thus, though sometimes called the 'twenty-six counties', the Republic of Ireland now has thirty-four 'county-level' authorities. For almost all sporting, cultural and other purposes, the traditional 32 counties and 4 provinces remain in common usage. Each county has its own flag/colours (and often a nickname too), and county allegiances are taken quite seriously. See the counties of Ireland.

Japan

"County" is one of the translations of gun (郡), which is a subdivision of prefecture. It is also translated as rural district, rural area or district. The translation "district" is not preferred, because it comes into conflict with the usual translation of "district", chome. In this encyclopedia, district is used for gun. See Japanese translation note. Presently, "counties" have no political power or administrative function. The division is mainly significant in postal services.

Lithuania

Apskritis (pl. apskritys) is the Lithuanian word for county. Since 1994 Lithuania has 10 counties; before 1950 it had 20. The only purpose with the county is an office of a state governor who shall conduct law and order in the county. See counties of Lithuania.

New Zealand

After New Zealand abolished its provinces in 1876, a system of counties similar to other countries' systems was instituted, lasting until 1989. They had chairmen, not mayors as boroughs and cities had; many legislative provisions (such as burial and land subdivision control) were different for the counties. During the second half of the 20th century, many counties received overflow population from nearby cities. The result was often a merger of the two into a "district" (eg Rotorua) or a change of name to "district' (eg Waimairi) or "city" (eg Manukau). The Local Government Act 1974 began the process of bringing urban, mixed, and rural councils into the same legislative framework. Substantial reorganisations under that Act resulted in the 1989 shake-up, which covered the country in (non-overlapping) cities and districts and abolished all the counties except for the Chatham Islands County, which survived under that name for a further 6 years but then became a "Territory" under the "Chatham Islands Council".

Norway

Norway is divided into 19 counties (sing. fylke, plur. fylker, literally "folk") as of 1972. Up to this year Bergen was a separate county, but is today a municipality in the county of Hordaland. All counties are divided into municipalities, (sing. kommune, plur. kommuner), the ones with incorporated cities being called city municipalities (sing. bykommune, plur. bykommuner). The county of Oslo is equivalent to the municipality of Oslo. Each county has its own assembly (fylkesting) whose representatives are elected every 4 years together with representatives to the municipality councils. The counties handle matters as high schools and local roads, and until recently hospitals as well. This responsibility is now transferred to the state, and there is a debate on the future of the county as an administrative entity. Some people, and parties, such as the Conservatives, Høyre, call for the abolishment of the counties once and for all, while others merely want to merger some of them into larger regions.

Poland

Polish second-level administration unit powiat is usually translated into English as county or district. See also:
- List of counties in Poland
- List of counties in Poland by voivodships

Romania

The administrative subdivisions of Romania are called judeţ (plural: judeţe), name derived from jude, a mayor and judge of a city (akin to English judge; both are derived from Latin) Presently Romania is subdivided into 40 counties and the capital, Bucharest having a separate status. See the list of counties of Romania.

Serbia and Montenegro

Subdivisions of Serbia (okrug) are sometimes translated as counties, though more often as districts. See District#Serbia and Montenegro

Sweden

The Swedish division into counties was established in 1634, and was based on an earlier division into Provinces. Sweden is today divided into 21 counties, and each county is further divided into municipalities. At the county level there is a county administrative board led by a governor appointed by the central government of Sweden, as well as an elected county council that handles a separate set of issues, notably hospitals and public transportation. The Swedish term used is län, which literally means "fief."

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is divided into a number of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. There are also ceremonial counties and traditional counties which have no administrative function but exist as geographic areas. The metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties had replaced in 1974 a system of administrative counties which were introduced in 1889. Most non-metropolitan counties in England are run by county councils and divided into non-metropolitan districts, each with its own council. Local authorities in the UK are usually responsible for running education, emergency services, planning, transport, social services, and a number of other functions. In England, in the Anglo-Saxon period, Shires were established as areas used for the raising of taxes, and usually had a fortified town at their centre. These became known as the shire town or later the county town. In most cases, the shires were named after their shire town (for example Bedfordshire) however exceptions to this rule exist, such as Wiltshire. In several other cases, such as Devon the shire has a county town different from that which it is named after. The name 'county' was introduced by the Normans, and was derived from a Norman term for an area administered by a Count (lord). These Norman 'counties' were geographically based upon the Saxon shires, and kept their Saxon names. Several traditional counties, including Essex, Sussex and Kent, predate the unification of England by Alfred the Great, and originally existed as independent kingdoms. The thirteen traditional counties of Wales were fixed by Statute in 1539 (although counties such as Pembrokeshire date from 1138) and most of those of Scotland are of at least this age. The county boundaries of England have changed over time. In the mediæval period, a number of important cities were granted the status of counties in their own right, such as London, Bristol and Coventry, and numerous small exclaves such as Islandshire were created. The next major change occurred in 1844, when many of these exclaves were re-merged with their surrounding counties (for example Coventry was re-merged with Warwickshire). For centuries, the counties were used mainly for legal administration and tax raising. Modern local government did not come into being until 1889, when administrative counties (county councils) were created which were based upon the traditional county areas. In 1965 and 1974 a major re-organisation of local government created several new administrative counties such as Hereford and Worcester and also created several new metropolitan counties which served large urban areas as a single administrative unit. In 1986, however, the metropolitan county councils were abolished, and divided into a series of unitary authorities, although the counties still exist in name and for some administrative and ceremonial purposes. Traditionalists still refer to traditional counties for geographic purposes rather than administrative ones. Uniquely, the Isle of Wight is a unitary authority with county status. Modern local government in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and a large part of England is based on the concept of smaller unitary authorities, a system similar to that proposed for most of Britain in the 1960s. See also:
- Association of British Counties
- County Watch

United States

Main article: County (United States) County (United States) The term "county" is used in 48 of the 50 states of the United States for the tier of state government authority immediately below the statewide tier and above the township tier, in those states that sub-divided counties into civil townships. Each county contains a county seat, which is where county offices are located (this is usually, but not always, an incorporated municipality). In some states, counties are subdivided into townships, which typically provide some or all of the local government services provided by cities and towns. The State of Michigan additionally has "charter townships", which are self-governing townships that have many of the rights of a city but fewer of the responsibilities, e.g., a charter township can have its own police force but it can also opt merely to use the county sheriff's deputies; and whereas ordinary townships cannot refuse to release land that a neighbouring city wishes to annex, charter townships, by virtue of having a charter from the state, have right of refusal. In most western states, the county controls all unincorporated land within its boundaries. In states with a township tier, unincorporated land is controlled by the township. Residents of unincorporated land who are dissatisfied with county-level or township-level resource allocation decisions can incorporate as a city or village. In turn, depending on the state, the city or village government can then choose to provide all its own services, or provide only some and allow the county to provide the rest. Usually, the key difference between "city" and "village" is that a city must provide all of its own services and equivalent county authorities have no jurisdiction without the city's permision; while villages (which remain subject to township governments in those states that have them), being usually rural or semi-rural jurisdictions, are typically required to provide only those services that they can, with the rest being provided by the county or township. Lists of counties by state can be found through U.S. counties; for more comparative information on U.S. counties, see county statistics of the United States.

Exceptions in Louisiana and Alaska

Louisiana uses the term parishes and Alaska uses boroughs. The U.S. Census Bureau lists 3,141 counties or county-equivalent administrative units. The power of the county government varies widely from state to state as does the relationship between counties and incorporated municipal governments, but counties (parishes, boroughs) are always administrative divisions of the state and the power they exercise is state government power. Unlike cities, which are municipal corporations with a degree of sovereignty granted by the state, counties have no powers of their own but merely exercise powers of state government that have assigned to their jurisdiction, either by the state constitution or the state legislature.

New England

In New England, counties function primarily as judicial districts, as most local government is exercised by towns. In Connecticut and Rhode Island, they have even lost all governmental function and are solely geographic designations. Outside New England, counties typically maintain law enforcement agencies, public utilities, library systems, collect vital statistics and prepare, and/or process to the state, certificates of births, deaths, marriages, and dissolutions (divorce decrees). In some states, the county sheriff is the principal law enforcement officer in the county, usually limited to areas outside the jurisdiction of cities and towns. In parts of the U.S., counties are "policed" by sheriffs, and cities are policed by police. In other areas, county law enforcement is called "County Police" with county sheriffs providing court services.

Massachusetts

As of 2005, Massachusetts has terminated 6 of 14 County Governments and put these county governments under state control.

Independent Cities in the U.S.

In Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as cities are organized as separate political units that are not part of any county (i.e., independent cities). In Maryland, the city of Baltimore is independent of any county, and Baltimore County is a separate entity outside the city. In Missouri, the city of St Louis is independent of any county, and St Louis County is a separate entity outside the city. There are also a small number of independent cities (not part of any county) in other states. However, independent cities are the exception rather than the rule, as are metropolitan municipalities. (In addition, until November 7, 1997, the portion of Yellowstone National Park that was within Montana was not part of any county, but as of that date, that portion has been added to Gallatin County.) The City of Atlanta is planning to merge with Fulton County to become an independent city or a consolidated city.

Counties switching into Regional or Metropolitan Municipalities

Metropolitan municipalities are consolidated city and county governments, which simultaneously operate as administrative divisions of and subordinate to state power and as municipal corporations that exercise whatever degree of sovereignty the state government or constitution confers upon them. Examples are San Francisco, California, Denver, Colorado, Honolulu, Hawaii, Indianapolis, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Nashville, Tennessee. The City of Greater New York is a unique metropolitan municipality in the world, being coextensive with five counties, each with their own administrative organs but all of them subject to one, integrated citywide government. With the exception of Denver and Broomfield, Colorado, both city and county councilors are the same.

County seats overlapping two or more counties

Some cities lie within two or more counties with state approval: Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Atlanta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri.

Atlanta and Fulton County

As Atlanta has grown, its relationship with Fulton County has become more complicated. Below are several plans for reconciliation.

Secession

One solution which has come up frequently during the 2000s is for north Fulton to secede, again becoming Milton County. This time it would include Roswell, as well as its original county seat of Alpharetta, and the neighborhood incorporated as Mountain Park. Some proposals call for it to include Sandy Springs as well, though it has always been in Fulton County and not in Milton. One of those proposals is being studied by a commission set up by the Georgia General Assembly during its 2005 session. Any change in Georgia's county borders requires the consent of any county whose territory is involved, and the state legislature. In addition, any attempt to divide Fulton would require a constitutional amendment to the Georgia state constitution, in order for more than 159 counties to exist.

Municipalization

Since the 1970s, the longest-running battle has been allowing Sandy Springs to incorporate. With over 80,000 residents, it is already one of the largest cities in the state. It has not become a city however, due to the fact that it will take at least 20 million dollars away from the county every year, which will not be offset by the services the new city would take over. In 2005, the legislature finally allowed a referendum on the matter, and on June 21 Sandy Springs residents voted 94% in favor of incorporation. The new city will take over on the first day of 2006, though the county will continue to provide most services under contract through sometime in 2007. Since 2004, municipalization of the entire county is also being considered, which would incorporate every area into a city. This would esentially eliminate the county's home rule powers (granted in the 1960s) to act as a municipality in unincorporated areas, and return it to being entirely a local extension of state government. At least one proposal would create several small cities, even where there are no longer towns to base them in. If Milton were to become a county again, incorporating the relatively undeveloped northern and eastern corners of it would eliminate the need for much new government for a new county, though it would also create a need for two new city governments, possibly without a large enough tax base to support one or either of them. Incorporating the southwest of the county (formerly part of Campbell County) would be difficult, as the cities are really only smaller towns, and the unincorporated areas are quite large and not necessarily near any of them.

Other options

Other options which may be considered:
- Under current Georgia law, the city of Atlanta could merge government with Fulton County's, becoming a consolidated city-county. This could be complicated by the fact that part of Atlanta is in another county, and by the presence of other large cities in Fulton.
- Consolidation could also occur by reducing Fulton County down to only Atlanta, or to Atlanta and its immediate neighbors, leaving no unincorporated areas. This would also put the Atlanta-in-DeKalb area into Fulton, and require two new counties in the north and southwest.
- Atlanta could be made an independent city and if possible, they may change the official city name as The Corporation of Fulton County(simply as City of Fulton County), taking it out of both Fulton and DeKalb entirely. This would be difficult until more urban development can improve the city's tax base, and until the state begins to give significant support for MARTA and Grady Hospital (which serve the entire metro area but are paid for almost entirely by the city and county). Doing this would split Fulton County, requiring the remaining parts to become another two counties.
- Extraterritorial jurisdiction could be allowed, though statutory restrictions on the distance this could extend from an existing city may make it difficult to reach the far corners of the unusually-shaped and very unevenly-populated county. ETJ could also become a problem if boundaries are not organized and agreed upon at the beginning, which could spark further confusion and political discord if it becomes a first-come, first-served situation. ETJ is also mainly a zoning function, and thus may not be a complete solution.
- A different type of municipal or civil division could be created, such as a town or township. This could give independent local boards certain ETJ-like powers, but unlike a new city still allow for annexation by existing cities. This option could be politically complicated, as it would make a change which would likely have a statewide effect. The only neighboring state with townships is North Carolina, where they are considered county divisions.
- With the approval of the legislature, the far ends of the county could join other counties with their consent. The north end could rejoin Forsyth County, bringing the heavy business tax base of Alpharetta into the heavily-residential and still largely rural exurban county. The largely-undeveloped southwest end could rejoin with Douglas County, as they were originally under Campbell County. Some of those options (except the first two and last) would also require an amendment passed by two-thirds of both the state house and senate, and a statewide referendum. Most have not yet been widely discussed, though the idea of consolidation has recently been mentioned by at least one state legislator.

Notes

# [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=county&searchmode=none Etymology of the word county.]

References

Category:Subnational entities
- simple:County

New England

:This article is about the region in the United States of America. For other uses, see New England (disambiguation). New England (disambiguation) The New England region of the United States is located in the northeastern corner of the country. Boston is its business and cultural center and its most populous city. The region is made up of the following states:
- Connecticut
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- Rhode Island
- Vermont New England is the most well-defined region of the United States, with more uniformity and more shared heritage than other regions of the country. But, while there is cultural and historical uniformity throughout the whole region, Northern and Southern New England differ in the fact that the former is more rural whereas the latter is very urban. This difference has always existed, however, even when the region was young, and thus does not imply a growing or changing trend, but rather the result of historical population patterns. Western and Eastern New England share similar differences, with the former not only being much more rural, but also usually lacking the Boston accent that typifies the region in the eyes of outsiders. While some parts of Western New England closely border metropolitan New York City, they are still historically, and, for the most part, culturally part of New England. Together, the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions are generally referred to as the Northeastern region of the United States.

History

The indigenous peoples of New England

New England has long been inhabited by Algonquian-speaking native peoples, including the Abenaki, the Penobscot, the Wampanoag, and many others. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans such as Giovanni Verrazano, Jacques Cartier and John Cabot (known as Giovanni Caboto before being based in England) charted the New England coast. They referred to the region as Norumbega, named for a fabulous native city that was supposed to exist there. See also: List of place names in New England of aboriginal origin.

Early European settlement (1610s-1630s)

List of place names in New England of aboriginal origin while its interior is rendered New Belgium, New Netherland and Irocoisia]] The name New England dates to the earliest days of European settlement: in 1616 Captain John Smith described the area in a pamphlet "New England." The name was officially sanctioned in 1620 by the grant of King James I to the Plymouth Council for New England. The region was subsequently divided through further grants, including the 1629 royal grant of "Hampshire" which was issued for "makeing a Plantation & establishing of a Colony or Colonyes in the Countrey called or knowen by ye name of New England in America."

The New England Confederation (1630s-1650s)

Following the Pequot War in 1637, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut joined together in a loose compact called the New England Confederation. The confederation was designed largely to coordinate mutual defense against the Dutch in the New Netherland colony to the south and the French in New France to the north, as well as to enforce the return of runaway slaves. The confederation had a council comprising two delegates from each of the four colonies, but it had no formal enforcement powers and relied on the individual colonies to voluntarily follow council decisions. The confederation disintegrated in the 1650s when the powerful Massachusetts Bay Colony refused to follow decisions of the confederation council regarding the conflict with the Dutch. King Philip's War (1675-1676), the bloodiest Indian war of the early colonial period, had a devastating effect on the colonies of southern New England, but effectively ended the power and influence of the Indians in the region.

The Dominion of New England (1686-1689)

In 1686, King James II, concerned about the increasingly independent ways of the colonies, in particular their open flouting of the Navigation Acts, decreed the Dominion of New England, an administrative union comprising all the New England colonies. Two years later, the provinces of New York and New Jersey, which had been acquired from the Dutch, were added. The union, imposed from the outside, was highly unpopular among the colonists. In 1687, when the Connecticut Colony refused to follow a decision of the dominion governor Edmund Andros, he sent an armed contigent to seize the colony's charter, which the colonists, according to popular legend, hid inside the Charter Oak tree. Andros' efforts to unify the colonial defenses met little success and the dominion ceased after only three years, after the removal of King James II in the Glorious Revolution in 1689.

Modern New England (1689-present)

Glorious Revolution The colonies were not formally united again until 1776, when they became part of the United States; however, especially in the 18th century and the early 19th century, New England was still considered to be a very distinct region of the country, as it is today. During the War of 1812, there was talk of secession from the Union, as New England merchants opposed the war with Great Britain. Aside from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, or "New Scotland", New England is the only North American region to inherit the name of a kingdom in the British Isles. New England has largely preserved its regional character, especially in its historic sites. Its name is a reminder of the past, as many of the original English-Americans have migrated further west.

Politics

The early European settlers of New England were English Protestants fleeing religious persecution. This, however, did not prevent them from establishing colonies where religion was legislated to an extreme, and where those who deviated from the established doctrine were persecuted greatly.

Town meetings in New England

A derivative of meetings held by church elders, town meetings were an integral part of governance and remain so today in towns across New England. At such meetings, any citizen of the town may discuss issues of the day with other members of the community, and vote on them. This is the most direct democracy in the United States today, and the form of dialogue has been adopted under certain circumstances elsewhere. Such a strong democratic tradition was even apparent in the early 19th century, when Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America that: In New England, where education and liberty are the daughters of morality and religion, where society has acquired age and stability enough to enable it to form principles and hold fixed habits, the common people are accustomed to respect intellectual and moral superiority and to submit to it without complaint, although they set at naught all those privileges which wealth and birth have introduced among mankind. In New England, consequently, the democracy makes a more judicious choice than it does elsewhere.

New England and political thought

Democracy in America spirit that, in many ways, is still alive and well in New England today.]] In the colonial period and the early time of the republic, New England leaders like John Hancock, John Adams, and Samuel Adams joined those in Philadelphia and Virginia to direct the country. At the time of the Civil War, New England, the mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest combined against slavery, eventually ending the practice in the United States. Henry David Thoreau, one of New England's most iconic thinkers, made the case for civil disobedience, libertarianism, and even had some anarchist tendencies; this spirit is still alive in the Free State Project and occasional discussions of secession. New England led the rest of the country in abolishing the death penalty for crimes like robbery and burglary in the 19th century. In the 20th century, the region remained a source of political thought and intellectual ferment in the nation, eventually becoming the forefront of the civil rights issue of same sex marriage, with Vermont being the first state to allow civil unions between same sex couples, and Massachusetts being the first state to allow marriage between same sex couples. As of 2005, Connecticut now also allows for civil unions. While well known for its liberal tendencies, the region still has a history similar to the rest of the country. Puritan New England, of course, was highly intolerant of any deviation from the strict social norms. Arguments against slavery, at first, were not moral, but economic, since owning slaves was expensive and not very useful in the northern climate. During the civil rights era, Boston brewed with tension over school busing to end de facto segregation of its public schools. Despite these examples, the region is still known as one of the more liberal regions of the United States.

Contemporary New England politics

Today, the dominant party in New England is the Democratic Party, though most states have a significant Republican electorate, especially New Hampshire and Maine which are both represented in the U.S. Senate by two Republicans. As of the 2004 elections, Maine is the only state that has its governorship and legislature controlled by one party (the Democrats). In the 2000 presidential election, Democratic candidate Al Gore carried all of the New England states except for New Hampshire, and in 2004, John Kerry, a native New Englander himself, carried all six New England states for the Democrats. New Hampshire and Connecticut are the only New England states with capital punishment, although New Hampshire currently has no person on death row and has not had an execution since 1939. Connecticut last had an execution in 2005, the first in New England in forty-five years.

Education

Higher education

2005.]] New England contains some of the oldest and most renowned institutions of higher learning in the United States. The first such institution, Harvard, was founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1636. According to US News and World Report, 8 of the nation's top-50 universities and 13 of its top-50 liberal arts colleges are located in New England. These include Amherst College, Bates College, Boston College, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Brown University, Colby College, Connecticut College, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, College of the Holy Cross, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Middlebury College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Trinity College, Tufts University, Wesleyan University, Wellesley College, Wheaton College, Williams College, and Yale University. A number of the graduates settle in the region after school, providing the area with a well-educated population and one of its most valuable resources.

Public and private education

In terms of public education, many New England states spend higher than the national average on their students and schools. Massachusetts and Connecticut, for instance, have some of the best and highest-rated public schools in the United States. The state of Massachusetts, on average, is consistently ranked as one of the most educated states in the country. A recent government-funded survey of the 50 states ranked Massachusetts as number one in public education. The renowned Boston Latin School is the oldest public high school in America. In addition, New England is also home to many of the United States' most prominent independent schools (also known as private schools), such as Roxbury Latin and Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, St. Paul's School and Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. The concept of the elite "New England prep school" and the "preppy" lifestyle is an iconic part of the region's image, especially when viewed from the rest of the United States. Culturally, education is considered to be very important, especially in the more-populated, more-urban states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

Population

In 1910, 6,552,681 people lived in New England. Today, the total population of New England is 13,922,517. If New England were one state, the population would rank 5th in the nation, behind Florida. The total area in this scenario (181,440 sq km) would rank 20th behind North Dakota.

Regional population layout

North Dakota As some of the original English New England settlers migrated westward, immigrants from Canada, Ireland, Italy, and eastern Europe moved into the region. Massachusetts in particular has the highest concentration of persons of Irish heritage in the country. Rhode Island has the highest concentration of Italians (percentage-wise). Today, although the region has attracted quite a few Jewish and Asian-American residents, it remains one of the whitest parts of the nation and has a smaller proportion of African-Americans and Hispanic Americans than much of the country. Connecticut (which is adjacent to New York City) and Massachusetts (which has Boston) have higher minority populations than the rest of New England, while Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are largely populated with people of European descent. New England still retains a large English population, especially in the more rural areas. The region has remained consistently openminded towards other backgrounds however, a tradition which has continued from the abolitionist days of William Lloyd Garrison and Charles Sumner.

Southern New England

The bulk of the region's population is concentrated in southern New England, which contains Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The most populous state is Massachusetts, whose population is centered mostly around its political and cultural capital, Boston; whereas Western Massachusetts is less densely populated and more spread out. The resulting effect is a minor cultural divide between urban New Englanders, typically Bostonians, and rural New Englanders, who hail from western Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Coastal New England

The coastline is more urban than western New England, which is typically rural, even in urban states like Massachusetts. These characteristics of the region's population are due mainly to historical factors; the original colonists settled mostly on the coastline of Massachusetts Bay. The only state without access to the Atlantic Ocean, Vermont, is also the least-populated. After nearly 400 years, the region still maintains, for the most part, its historical population layout. New England's coast is dotted with urban centers, such as Portland, Portsmouth, Boston, Providence, New Haven, and Bridgeport, as well as smaller cities, like Newburyport, Gloucester, and New London. The smaller fishing towns, like Gloucester, are popular tourist attractions, as they tend to retain their historical character, and often have colorful pasts. Cape Cod, also a popular tourist attraction, is lined with sandy beaches and dotted with bed and breakfasts. The rocky coast of Maine is best known for its lobster. New Hampshire, which has the smallest coastline of all of the coastal New England states, is home to Hampton Beach, also frequented by visitors to the region.

Urban New England

Cape Cod neighborhood, with Cambridge on the northern bank of the Charles River.]] Three of the four most densely populated states in the United States are in New England. In order, the four most densely populated states are: New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Indeed, southern New England forms an integral part of the BosWash megalopolis, a conglomeration of urban centers that spans from Boston to Washington, D.C. The largest cities by population in New England are: Greater Boston: approx. 5,800,000
- Boston, Massachusetts: 589,141
- Cambridge, Massachusetts: 101,355
- Lynn, Massachusetts: 88,025
- Quincy, Massachusetts: 88,025
- Newton, Massachusetts: 83,829
- Somerville, Massachusetts: 77,478
- Brookline, Massachusetts: 57,107 Brookline, Massachusetts Providence, Rhode Island: 173,618 Worcester, Massachusetts: 172,648 Springfield, Massachusetts: 152,082 Hartford, Connecticut: 141,578 Bridgeport, Connecticut: 139,529 New Haven, Connecticut: 123,626 Stamford, Connecticut: 117,083 Waterbury, Connecticut: 107,271 Manchester, New Hampshire: 107,006 Lowell, Massachusetts: 105,167

Regional nomenclature

A person from New England is known as a New Englander. Sometimes, they are also referred to as Yankees, although this term has grown to refer to the people of the greater region of the northeastern United States.

Culture

See Cuisine of New England

Historico-cultural roots

The first European colonists of New England were focused on maritime affairs such as whaling and fishing, rather than more continental inclinations such as surplus farming. As the oldest of the American regions, New England has developed a distinct cuisine, dialect, architecture, and government. New England cuisine is known for its emphasis on seafood and dairy; clam chowder, lobster, and other products of the sea are among some of the region's most popular foods.

New England's unique culture

Despite a changing population, much of the original spirit of the region remains. It can be seen in the simple, woodframe houses and quaint white church steeples that are features of many small towns, and in the traditional lighthouses that dot the Atlantic coast. New England is also well known for its mercurial weather and its crisp chill. (Mark Twain is quoted as saying "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes.") For its vibrant colored foliage in autumn, the region is a popular tourist destination. As a whole, New England tends to be progressive in its politics, although somewhat Puritan in its personal mores. Due to the fact that so many recent European immigrants live in the region and due to the influence of the many universities, the region often shows a greater receptivity to European ideas and culture than the rest of the country. The region has remained consistently openminded towards other backgrounds, a tradition which has continued from the abolitionist days of William Lloyd Garrison and Charles Sumner to the region's recent controversial legal battle in regarding relationships between homosexual couples. As of 2005, Massachusetts permits same sex marriages, and Vermont and Connecticut allow for civil unions between gay couples. Although New England has always been one of the more socially progressive regions of the United States, its internal cultural and social battles have always been somewhat paradoxical. Its fervent abolitionism, for instance, was often met with intense racism on the part of the recently-immigrated Irish segment of its population, which resented the control of native born Protestants over the region, and often competed economically with African-Americans. It was Alexis de Tocqueville who noted, in 1835, that New England was the only region of the United States at the time to have properly separated religion from its government, an ironic mixture of the region's heavy Puritan heritage and strong tradition of direct democracy.

Social life in New England

Bars and pubs, especially those with Irish themes, are popular social venues. Closer to Boston, musicians from Ireland often tour pubs, playing traditional Irish folk music, usually with a singer, a fiddler, and a guitarist. In the rural parts of the region, people socialize through typical common activities such as church, sports, and town government.

The continuing European influence

The overall feeling of the region can be described as decidedly European, with the region's colonial past still alive and thriving through tourism, the hundreds of historic sites that dot the region, and the rich cultural traditions that have endured and developed over centuries. Long-time and native residents are typically knowledgeable of the history of the region, and proud of it, as well. The often-parodied dialect of the region is most commonly known as Boston English, although, in reality, this accent is reserved mostly for the coasts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. It is the result of an incomplete transition from 17th century British English, which the standard American dialect imitates, and modern British English. There are also other regional accents as well, such as the Cape Cod Brahmin accent, which is also often heavily parodied.

Intraregional cultural differences

While Boston is typically viewed as the region's cultural center, the extent to which it influences the rest of New England is debatable. Perhaps as a result of the "Hub of the Universe" mentality that is demonstrated by many Bostonians, people from Massachusetts may sometimes have a tendency to over-emphasize the importance of the role that their state and city play in New England. People from the northern parts of the region, such as northern Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, as well as the southwestern part of the region, such as Fairfield County, Connecticut, may have divergent views with regard to the cultural influence of Boston, with some rejecting its influence entirely. Much of southwestern Connecticut, for example, is considered a part of metropolitan New York City. Boston, however, certainly only exemplifies, for the most part, the gritty culture of urban New England; therefore, to say that its sphere of influence does not encompass all of New England.

Economy

In the twentieth century, most of New England's traditional industries have relocated to states or foreign countries where goods can be made more cheaply. In more than a few factory towns, skilled workers have been left without jobs. Largely around Boston in the ring of Route 128, the gap has been partly filled by high technology industries, in particular biotech. Education, high technology, financial services, tourism, and medicine, continue to drive the local economy. In the southwestern Connecticut counties of Fairfield and New Haven the economy is more closely associated with New York City, and the economy is more often viewed as an extension of the New York Metropolitan Area. For years many residents of southwestern Connecticut have crossed the state line each day to work in Manhattan. More recently, New Yorkers have begun to travel into Connecticut as part of a reverse commute to many of the job centers developed in the suburbs. The GDP of New England is approximately $649 billion; per capita it is $45,786

Literature

New England has always received a great deal of attention from American writers like Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, John Updike, John Irving and Arthur Miller. Largely on the strength of local writers like Thoreau, Boston, Massachusetts was for some years the center of the U.S. publishing industry, before being overtaken by New York in the middle of the nineteenth century. Boston remains the home of publishers Houghton Mifflin and Pearson Education, among others, as well as the literary magazine The Atlantic Monthly. New England is also the setting for most of the gothic horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft, most probably because he lived his life in Providence, Rhode Island. Real New England towns such as Ipswich, Newburyport, Rowley, and Marblehead are given fictional names such as Dunwich, Arkham, Innsmouth, Kingsport, and Miskatonic and then featured quite often in his stories. More recently, author Stephen King has also used the small towns of the New England state of Maine as the setting for much of his horror fiction, with much of the action taking place in or near the fictional town of Castle Rock. Modern author Rick Moody has set many of his works in southern New England, focusing on wealthy families of suburban Connecticut's Gold Coast and their battles with addiction and anomie. The novel Ethan Frome was written in 1911 by Edith Wharton. It is set in turn-of-the-century New England, in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Like much literature of the region, it plays off themes of isolation and hopelessness.

Notable New Englanders

All of the following people were born in New England or spent a significant portion of their life in New England, making them a well-known figure in the region. Some of them, like Robert Frost, who was actually born in California, emigrated to New England and are now considered to be icons of the region. All of them exemplify some aspect of the region in one way or another.
- John Adams
- John Quincy Adams
- Samuel Adams
- Some members of Aerosmith
- Trey Anastasio
- Susan B. Anthony
- Crispus Attucks
- Clara Barton
- Katharine Lee Bates
- Bill Belichick
- Lizzie Borden
- Amar Bose
- Edward Brooke
- Bobby Brown
- Dan Brown
- Charles Bulfinch
- James J. "Whitey" Bulger
- William "Billy" Bulger
- Leonard Bernstein
- George Herbert Walker Bush
- George W. Bush
- David Byrne
- Calvin Coolidge
- John Singleton Copley
- Norm Crosby
- E.E. Cummings
- Richard Cardinal Cushing
- Dick Dale
- Howard Dean
- Emily Dickinson
- Ronnie James Dio
- Frederick Douglass
- Rachel Dratch
- Michael Dukakis
- Mary Dyer
- Kevin Eastman
- Jonathan Edwards
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Patrick Ewing
- Bobby Farrelly
- Peter Farrelly
- Doug Flutie
- John Ford
- Benjamin Franklin
- Robert Frost
- Richard Buckminster Fuller
- Robert Goulet
- Spalding Gray
- Anthony Michael Hall
- Elizabeth Hasselbeck
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
- Winslow Homer
- John Irving
- Edward "Ted" Kennedy
- Ethel Kennedy
- John F. Kennedy
- Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
- Patrick J. Kennedy
- Robert Kennedy
- Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
- Rosemary Kennedy
- John Kerry
- Stephen King
- King Philip
- Jack Kerouac
- Stephen King
- Peter Laird
- Denis Leary
- Jay Leno
- Joseph Lieberman
- Robert Lowell
- H.P. Lovecraft
- Rowland Hussey Macy
- Aimee Mann
- Massasoit
- Cotton Mather
- Will McDonough
- Seth Meyers
- Mandy Moore
- Ephraim Morse
- James Naismith
- New Kids On The Block
- Leonard Nimoy
- Conan O'Brien
- Ric Ocasek
- Ken Olsen
- Tip O'Neill
- Theodore Parker
- George Patton
- Joe Perry
- Franklin Pierce
- Sylvia Plath
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Amy Poehler
- Josiah Quincy
- Sumner Redstone
- Paul Revere
- Jonathan Richman
- Adam Sandler
- Anne Sexton
- Daniel Shays
- Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
- William James Sidis
- Sarah Silverman
- Carly Simon
- Olympia Snowe
- Squanto
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Louis Sullivan
- Donna Summer
- James Taylor
- Paul Tsongas
- Henry David Thoreau
- Steven Tyler
- John Updike
- Claus von Bülow
- Sunny von Bülow
- Mark Wahlberg
- Barbara Walters
- Daniel Webster
- William "Bill" Weld
- Eli Whitney
- John Greenleaf Whittier
- Alicia Witt
- Peter Wolf
- James Woods
- My Chemical Romance
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Good Charlotte

Major Professional Sports Teams

Informal polling, along with a general consensus among the sports media, indicates that baseball is the most-watched sport in New England, with the Boston Red Sox being the region's most popular sports franchise and the region's focal point of conversation throughout the summer. Even Red Sox players have noted the feeling of affection and ownership the entire New England region has towards the team. Nearly every major town in the region carries the Red Sox through the town radio station. The 2004 World Series victory by the Red Sox, the first since 1918, inspired widespread euphoria throughout the region, and three million people attended the team's victory parade in Boston. The recent success of the New England Patriots, a team that has won three of the past four Super Bowls, has sparked a renewed interest in football. It should be noted that in the parts of southwestern Connecticut that are close to New York City, there are an abundance of New York Yankees and New York Mets fans, who are often self-identified as suburban New Yorkers. Additionally, until the team relocated to Washington for the start of the 2005 season, the Montreal Expos received some fan support in northern New England. Up until 13 April 1997, Hartford also had its own major hockey team, the Hartford Whalers. Originally known as the New England Whalers, they changed their name to the Hartford Whalers in 1979 after leaving the WHA for the NHL, hoping to carve a niche market in Hartford. In 1997 the Whalers left Hartford for Raleigh, North Carolina (amid much controversy), where they became the Hurricanes. In 1999, the New England Patriots also flirted with the idea of moving to Hartford, in exchange for what three NFL franchise owners called "the greatest financial deal any NFL owner has ever received". The package, announced by then Connecticut Governer John Rowland, included, according to the Boston Globe: total costs of building a new stadium, training facility and highways; $175 million to owner Robert Kraft if he failed to sell out premium seats as well as $200 million or more over 30 years for stadium improvements and renovations. The state further offered to waive property taxes on the stadium and adjacent hotel and entertainment pavilion, which Kraft would have built. The deal fell through after Massachusetts offered a far less generous offer of $70 million for infrastructure work. Many in Connecticut felt this was a deliberate ploy on the part of Mr. Kraft, a ruse to find public funds in Massachusetts, enabling the Patriots to remain in Foxboro. Fallout from Kraft's backpedaling on the deal resulted in a few Hartford area media outlets dropping coverage of Patriots football for several years and many lost fans from Connecticut. Below is a list of the major professional sports teams in New England:
- Baseball: Boston Red Sox
- Football: New England Patriots
- Basketball:
- Boston Celtics
- Connecticut Sun
- Hockey: Boston Bruins
- Soccer: New England Revolution

References

U.S. Census Bureau. [http://www.census.gov/geo/www/us_regdiv.pdf "Census Regions and Divisions of the United States"] (PDF). Retrieved May 11, 2005.

External links

- [http://newenglandtowns.org/ Historic Descriptions of New England Cities and Towns]
- [http://docs.unh.edu/nhtopos/nhtopos.htm Historic USGS Maps of New England & NY]
- [http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/colonies_of_ne_1643.html New England Articles of Confederation]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/mass01.htm Charter of New England]
- [http://www.discovernewengland.org/ Discover New England]
- [http://www.negc.org/ New England Governors Conference]
- [http://www.midcoast.com/~martucci/flags/NEFlag.html Flag of New England]
- [http://www.boston.com Boston.com]
- [http://www.newengland.com NewEngland.com]
- [http://www.newenglandpride.blogspot.com/ New England Pride] Category:Regions of the United States Category:Thirteen Colonies ko:뉴잉글랜드 ja:ニューイングランド

Maritime provinces

The Maritime Provinces, or simply the Maritimes, constitute a region of Canada on the Atlantic coast, consisting of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes are located northeast of New England, southeast of Quebec's Gaspé peninsula, and southwest of Newfoundland. Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is sometimes mistakenly identified as a Maritime Province, however it can only be properly called part of Atlantic Canada and thus an Atlantic Province. Although it is located on the Atlantic coast, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence physically separates this province from the Maritimes. It also has a uniquely different history, as the colony joined Canada eight decades after the three Maritime provinces. There was talk of a Maritime Union of the three provinces to have a greater say in national affairs, however, the first discussions on the subject in 1864 at the Charlottetown Conference led to the larger Canadian Confederation instead.

Major Population Centres

Populations are for census agglomerations or census divisions, whichever are larger, and may include smaller surrounding communities. Not all geographic areas listed below are urban areas, as much of the landmass for counties and regional municipalities is predominantly rural. # Halifax Regional Municipality (Nova Scotia) – 359 183 # Saint John (New Brunswick) – 122 678 # Moncton (New Brunswick) – 117 727 # Cape Breton Regional Municipality (Nova Scotia) – 109 300 # Fredericton (New Brunswick) – 78 950 # Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island) – 58 358 # Lunenburg County (Nova Scotia) – 47,591 # Truro (Nova Scotia) – 44,276 # New Glasgow (Nova Scotia) – 36,735 # Cumberland County (Nova Scotia) – 32, 605 # Yarmouth County (Nova Scotia) – 26,843 # Kentville (Nova Scotia) – 25,172 # Bathurst (New Brunswick) – 23,935 # Edmundston (New Brunswick) – 22,173 # East Hants Municipal District (Nova Scotia) – 20, 821 # Antigonish County (Nova Scotia) – 19,578 # Miramichi (New Brunswick) – 18,508 # Campbellton (New Brunswick) – 16,265 (note part of this CA population is located in Quebec) # Summerside (Prince Edward Island) – 16,200 # West Hants Municipal District (Nova Scotia) – 13,780 # Oromocto (New Brunswick) – 8,843 This is only a list of selected populated areas and is incomplete. There are more extensive lists at List of communities in Nova Scotia, List of communities in New Brunswick and List of communities in Prince Edward Island.

Society and culture

Maritime society is based upon a mixture of traditions and class backgrounds. Predominantly rural until recent decades, the region traces many of its cultural activities to those rural resource-based economies of fishing, farming, forestry, and coal mining. While Maritimers are predominantly of west European heritage (Scottish, Irish, English, French (also called Acadians), immigration to industrial Cape Breton during the hey-day of coal mining and steel manufacturing brought people from eastern Europe as well as Newfoundland. The Maritimes also has a black population of Loyalist ancestry, largely concentrated in Nova Scotia, but also in various communities throughout southern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The Mi'kmaq Nation's reserves throughout Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and eastern New Brunswick dominate aboriginal culture in the region, compared to the much smaller population of the Maliseet Nation in western New Brunswick. Cultural activities are fairly diverse throughout the region with music, theatre, and literatary art forms tending to follow the particular cultural heritage of specific locales. Notable Nova Scotian folklorist and cultural historian Helen Creighton spent the majority of her lifetime recording the various Celtic musical and folk traditions of rural Nova Scotia during the mid-20th century, prior to this knowledge being wiped out by mass media assimilation with the rest of North America. A fragment of Gaelic culture remains in Nova Scotia but primarily on Cape Breton Island. A trend in Canada has witnessed a "Celtic revival" which saw many Maritime musicians and songs rise to prominence in recent decades. Some companies, particularly breweries such as Alexander Keith's and Moosehead have played up a connection between folklore with alcohol consumption during their marketing campaigns. Ironically some Maritime communities were among the strongest supporters of prohibition (Prince Edward Island lasting until 1949) and many rural communities throughout Nova Scotia remain "dry" to this day.

Economy

Present status

Unlike the rest of Canada, the Maritime region's population of 2.1 million is geographically distributed throughout the three provinces. Halifax, Saint John, Moncton, Sydney-Glace Bay, Fredericton, and Charlottetown are the largest population centres in the region, with the Halifax, Saint John, Moncton, and Sydney conurbations all having populations exceeding 100,000. Given the relatively small population of the region (compared with the Central Canadian provinces, or the New England states), the regional economy is a net exporter of natural resources, manufactured goods, and services. The regional economy has long been tied to natural resources such as fishing, logging, farming, and mining activities. Significant industrialisation in second half of the 19th century saw the first steel poured in Canada in Trenton, Nova Scotia, and creation of a widespread industrial base. After Confederation, however, this industrial base withered as trading links to Europe and the USA were reduced in favour of those with Ontario and Quebec. In recent years, however, the Maritime regional economy has seen increased contributions from manufacturing again, and the steady transition to a service economy. Important manufacturing centres in the region, in addition to the previously-mentioned population centres, include Pictou County, Truro, the Annapolis Valley and the South Shore, and the Strait of Canso area in Nova Scotia, as well as Summerside in Prince Edward Island, and the Miramichi area, the North Shore and the upper Saint John River valley of New Brunswick. Some predominantly coastal areas have become major tourist centres, such as parts of Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, the South Shore of Nova Scotia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Bay of Fundy coasts of New Brunswick. Additional service-related industries in information technology, pharmaceuticals, insurance and financial sectors, as well as research-related spin-offs from the region's numerous universities and colleges are significant economic contributors. Another important contribution to Nova Scotia's provincial economy is through spin-offs and royalties relating to off-shore petroleum exploration and development. Mostly concentrated on the continental shelf of the province's Atlantic coast in the vicinity of Sable Island, exploration activities began in the 1960s and resulted in the first commercial production field for oil beginning in the 1980s. Natural gas was also discovered in the 1980s during exploration work and this is being commercially recovered, beginning in the late 1990s. Initial optimism in Nova Scotia about the potential of off-shore resources appears to have diminished with the lack of new discoveries, although exploration work continues unabated and is moving farther off-shore into waters on the continental margin. Regional transportation networks have also changed significantly in recent decades with port modernizations, new expressways and ongoing arterial highway construction, the abandonment of various railways (including the entire railway system of Prince Edward Island), the construction of the Canso Causeway and the Confederation Bridge, as well as airport improvements at various centres providing improved connections to markets and destinations in the rest of North America and overseas. Improvements in infrastructure and the regional economy notwithstanding, the three provinces remain one of the poorer regions of Canada. While urban areas are growing and thriving, economic adjustments have been harsh in rural and resource-dependent communities and out-migration has been an ongoing problem for some parts of the region. Another problem is seen in the lower average wages and family incomes within the region, and depressed property values, resulting in a smaller tax base for these three provinces, particularly when compared with the national average which benefits from central and western Canadian economic growth. This has been particularly problematic with the growth of the welfare state in Canada since the 1950s, resulting in the need to draw upon equalization payments to provide nationally-mandated social services. Since the 1990s the region has experienced an exceptionally tumultuous period in its regional economy with the collapse of large portions of the ground fishery throughout Atlantic Canada, the closing of coal mines and a steel mill on Cape Breton Island, and the closure of military bases in all three provinces.

Growth

While the relative economic underperformance of the Maritime economy has been long lasting, it has not always been present. The mid-19th century, especially the 1850s and 1860s has long been seen as a "Golden Age" in the Maritimes. Growth was strong and the region had one of British North America's most extensive manufacturing sectors. The question of why the Maritimes fell from being a centre of Canadian manufacturing to being an economic hinterland is thus a central one to the study of the regions pecuniary difficulties. The period in which the decline occurred had a great many potential culprits. 1867 saw Nova Scotia and New Brunswick merged with the Canadas in Confederation with Prince Edward Island joining them six years later in 1873. Canada was formed only a year after free trade in the form of the Reciprocity Agreement had ended with the United States. As a result, the 1870s saw the introduction and implementation of John A. Macdonald's National Policy creating a system of protective tariffs around the new nation. Throughout the period there was also significant technological change both in the production and transportation of goods.

Decline

The cause of economic malaise in the Maritimes is an issue of great debate and controversy among historians, economists, and geographers. The differing opinions can approximately be divided into the "structuralists," who argue that poor policy decisions are to blame, and the others, who argue that unavoidable technological and geographical factors caused the decline. The exact date that the Maritimes began to fall behind the rest of Canada is difficult to determine. Historian Kris Inwood places the date very early, at least in Nova Scotia, finding clear signs that the Maritimes "Golden Age" of the mid-nineteenth century was over by 1870, before Confederation or the National Policy could have had any significant impact. Richard Caves places the date closer to 1885, however. T.W. Acheson takes a similar view and provides considerable evidence that the early 1880s were in fact a booming period in Nova Scotia and this growth was only undermined towards the end of that decade. David Alexander argues that any earlier declines were simply part of the global Long Depression, and that the Maritimes first fell behind the rest of Canada when the great boom period of the early twentieth century had little effect on the region. E.R. Forbes, however, emphasizes that the precipitous decline did not occur until after the First World War during the 1920s when new railway policies were implemented. Forbes also contends that significant Canadian defence spending during the Second World War favoured powerful political interests in Central Canada such as C.D. Howe, when major Maritime shipyards and factories, as well as Canada's largest steel mill, located in Cape Breton Island, fared poorly. One of the most important changes, and one that almost certainly had an effect, was the revolution in transportation that occurred at this time. The Maritimes were connected to central Canada by the Intercolonial Railway in the 1870s, removing a longstanding barrier to trade. For the first time this placed the Maritime manufacturers in direct competition with those of Central Canada. Maritime trading patterns shifted considerably from mainly trading with New England, Britain, and the Caribbean, to being focused on commerce with the Canadian interior, enforced by the federal government's tariff policies. Simultaneously with the construction of railways in the region, the age of the wooden sailing ship began to come to an end, being replaced by larger and faster steel steam ships. The Maritimes had long been a centre for shipbuilding and this industry was hurt by the change. The larger ships were also less likely to call on the smaller population centres such as Saint John and Halifax, preferring to travel to cities like New York and Montreal. Even the Cunard Line, founded by Haligonian Samuel Cunard, stopped making more than a single ceremonial voyage to Halifax each year. More controversial than the role of technology is the argument over the role of politics in the origins of the region's decline. Confederation and the tariff and railway freight policies that followed have often been blamed for having a deleterious effect on the Maritime economies. Arguments have been made that the Maritimes' poverty was caused by control over policy by Central Canada which used the national structures for its own enrichment. This was the central view of the Maritime Rights movement of the 1920s, which advocated greater local control over the region's finances. T.W. Acheson is one of the main proponents of this theory. He notes the growth that was occurring during the early years of the National Policy in Nova Scotia demonstrates how the effects of railway fares and the tariff structure helped undermine this growth. Capitalists from Central Canada purchased the factories and industries of the Maritimes from their bankrupt local owners and proceeded to close down many of them, consolidating the industry in Central Canada. The policies in the early years of Confederation were designed by Central Canadian interests, and they reflected the needs of that region. The unified Canadian market and the introduction of railroads created a relative weakness in the Maritime economies. Central to this concept, according to Acheson, was the lack of metropolises in the Maritimes. Montreal and Toronto were well suited to benefit from the development of large-scale manufacturing and extensive railway systems in Quebec and Ontario, these being the goals of the Macdonald and Laurier governments. In the Maritimes the situation was very different. Today New Brunswick has a number of mid-sized centres in Saint John, Moncton, and Fredericton but no significant population centre. Nova Scotia has a growing metropolitan area surrounding Halifax, but a contracting population in industrial Cape Breton, and several smaller centres in Bridgewater, Kentville, Yarmouth, and Pictou County. Prince Edward Island's only significant population centres are in Charlottetown and Summerside. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, just the opposite was the case with little to no population concentration in major industrial centres as the predomoniantly- rural resource-dependent Maritime economy continued on the same path as it had since European settlement on the region's shores. Despite the region's absence of economic growth on the same scale as other parts of the nation, the Maritimes has changed markedly throughout the 20th century, partly as a result of global and national economic trends, and partly as a result of government intervention. Each sub-region within the Maritimes has developed over time to exploit different resources and expertise.