Connecticut

On the territory of the modern state of Connecticut, by the time the first European colonists appeared, the Indians of the Algonquian people, the Mohegans, lived. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Pequot Indians broke away from the Mohegan and occupied a dominant position.

In 1611 - 1614 the coast of Connecticut (as well as New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts) was studied by the Dutch navigator Adrian Block. He was also the first European to explore Long Island Bay and climb up the Connecticut River.

The first British arrived in Connecticut from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Boston) and the Plymouth Colony. In 1633, the first English trading post was built, and in 1635, the colony of Saybrook was founded at the mouth of the Connecticut River. In 1636, the Connecticut Colony (also known as the "River Colony") was established on the site of present-day Hartford. In 1637, the New Haven Colony was founded on the coast.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, industry rapidly developed in Connecticut. From 1790, when the US Congress passed the "Patents Act" until 1930, more patents were issued per inhabitant in Connecticut than in any other state. The most famous Connecticut inventor was Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin in 1794. The use of his invention dramatically increased cotton production and ensured the prosperity of the states of the US South. In addition, Whitney went down in history thanks to the successful use of the principle of interchangeability (spare parts) in the arms industry and as one of the creators of the milling machine.

In the 1890s, Connecticut became a center for furniture production, numerous textile factories were built in the state, and in the 19th century, weapons production began to grow rapidly. In 1810, the first pistol factory in the United States was launched in Middletown, in the fifties, the production of the world's first Smith and Wesson repeating rifles was launched in New Haven, and in 1855, the Samuel Colt Armory ("Colt Arsenal") opened in Hartford. In the 19th century, Connecticut was nicknamed the "Arsenal of the Nation".

National Historic Landmarks in Connecticut

The 19th-century whaling ship Charles W. Morgan at Port Mystic is the only vessel of its type still in existence in the United States.

The Coltsville Historic District in Hartford, which includes a factory and other facilities associated with the famous inventor and weapons manufacturer Samuel Colt.

Connecticut Hall in New Haven is Yale University's oldest building.

Built in the 1970s, the State Capitol building in Hartford.

Located in Wethersfield, the home of Silas Dean, a member of the Continental Congress and the first American diplomat.

The archaeological site of Fort Shantok in the city of Montville, where the remains of the settlement of the Mohegan Indians have been preserved.

Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven (on the Yale campus) where many famous Americans are buried.

The world's first nuclear submarine "Nautilus" in Groton, which has become one of the official symbols of the state.

House of the famous writer Mark Twain in Hartford.

Connecticut State Symbols

 Tree - "Charter Oak" (associated with Connecticut history, Quercus Alba, white oak)

 Flower - Kalmia broadleaf (Kalmia latifolia, mountain laurel)

 Beast - sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)

 Bird - wandering thrush (Turdus migratorius)

 Fish - American shad (Alosa sapidissima)

 Mantis insect (Mantis religiosa)

 Mollusk - Eastern (Atlantic) oyster (Crassostrea virginica)

 Naval ship - submarine "Nautilus" (USS Nautilus SSN-571)

 Song - "Yankee Doodle" and "Beautiful Connecticut Waltz"

 Dance - square dance

 Mineral - pomegranate

 Fossil - dilophosaurus (Dilophosaurus) and prints (traces) of dinosaurs

The basis of the state's economy is industry, although other industries are also well developed: finance and insurance (Hartford is the historical center of the insurance business in the United States), education, agriculture, and tourism.

In 2010, Connecticut ranked twenty-third among the US states in terms of gross domestic product, while in terms of GDP per capita, the state ranked fourth in America (after the District of Columbia, Delaware and Alaska).

The population of Connecticut is very unevenly distributed in terms of wealth, the capital of the state of Hartford is one of the ten most "poor" cities in the United States, and residents of the "Gold Coast" in southwestern Connecticut have some of the highest incomes in the United States.

The largest ethnic (national) groups among the population of the state of Connecticut:

 Italians - 19.3%

 Irish - 17.9%

 English - 10.7%

 Germans - 10.4%

 French (and French Canadians) - 9.6%

 Poles - 8.6%

 Russians - 2.1%

 Scots - 2.0%

 Swedes - 2.0%

Connecticut is home to the famous Yale University, a member of the prestigious Ivy League. Founded in New Haven back in 1701, Yale has more than ten thousand undergraduate and graduate students, among its graduates are forty-nine Nobel Prize winners and five US Presidents.

The "State of Constitution" does not have any significant mineral reserves, only sand, gravel and other building materials are mined here.