Wikipedia:WikiProject United States regions/ Official Region Article Prototype

This is part of a WikiProject, WikiProject U.S. Regions This page is intended to become the ideal or example article for a Census Region, please feel free to contribute to it.

The U.S. Northeast is a region of the United States of America defined by the US Census Bureau. The Northeast is bordered to the north by Canada, to the west by the Midwest, to the south by the South, and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean.

As defined by the Census Bureau, the Northeast region of the United States covers 9 states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Geography
Main article: Geography of the U.S. Northeast

The Northeast has a landscape varying from the rocky coast of New England to the fertile farmland of the Ohio River Valley behind the Allegheny Front in Pennsylvania. The Isles of Shoals near the Maine/New Brunswick, Canada border begins the rocky Atlantic coastline of the Northeast. Jagged cliffs rise up to a hundred feet above the ocean on Maine’s northern coast; south of West Quoddy Head Peninsula in Maine, the easternmost point in the United States, the coastline subsides to sandy beaches which extend through the rest of the Northeast’s Atlantic coastline. Between Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Cape May in New Jersey are a series of large islands, including Block Island, Long Island, Manhattan, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and Staten Island.

Four major river mouths pierce the coastline to empty into the Atlantic: the  Kennebec in Maine, the  Connecticut in Connecticut, the  Hudson in New York, and the  Delaware on the New Jersey/Delaware border. The Kennebec River extends for over one hundred kilometers, beginning in the thick pine forests of Maine and flowing south past the state capital of Augusta.

The Connecticut River flows south along the border of New Hampshire and Vermont between the Green Mountains and White Mountains, before passing Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire is Mt. Washington, the tallest mountain in the Northeast and the windiest location in the United States. The White Mountains were also the location of the famous geologic formation the Old Man of the Mountain, that collapsed in 2003. To the west of the Green Mountains, on the New York/Vermont border, is the glacier-formed Lake Champlain, where Vermont's largest city, Burlington, is located.

The Hudson River begins in Upstate New York in the Adirondack Mountains and flows south between the Berkshires and the Catskill Mountains before it empties into New York Harbor in the New York Metropolitan Area. The Mohawk River flows eastward from its source near Syracuse, New York between the Catskills and the Adirondacks before merging with the Hudson north of Albany.

The Delaware River flows from its source between the Pocono Mountains and the Catskills down through the Northeastern megalopolis including the Bethlehem/Allentown,  Trenton, and  Philadelphia areas before emptying into Delaware Bay on the Delaware/New Jersey border.



The Susquehanna River begins in the Allegheny Plateau of New York and winds down a valley past the Pocono Mountains and through the ridges and valleys of Pennsylvania before crossing the border into Maryland in the U.S. South and emptying into Chesapeake Bay.

To the north and west of the Susquehanna are the Finger Lakes of New York, so called because they resemble human fingers. Beyond the Finger Lakes, the Northeast borders with the Great Lakes of Lake Ontario in New York and Lake Erie in both Pennsylvania and New York. On an isthmus between the two Great Lakes, on the New York/Ontario, Canada border near Buffalo is one of the most famous waterfall in the world, Niagara Falls. To the south, flowing out of the Allegheny Plateau, is the Ohio River, which flows through Pittsburgh and on into the U.S. Midwest, where it ultimately merges with the Mississippi River.

See also: Geography of the United States

History
History of the U.S. Northeast

For thousands of years what is now the U.S. Northeast was inhabited by the nations of the Eastern Woodlands cultures of Native Americans. Under the leadership of Hiawatha in the 1500s the Iroquois Confederacy was formed as a confederation of the five nations of Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Mohawks. Many other tribes of the Eastern Woodlands cultures banded together in confederacies. Other confederacies included the Mohicans in the Hudson River Valley and the Wampanoag in southeastern Massachusetts. In 1620, English  colonists, known as the Pilgrims came to the Northeast in search of religious freedom arrived on the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock Massachusetts and founded Plymouth Colony. The Pilgrims created the first form of a constitution style of government in the New World by signing the Mayflower Compact before they made landfall. Many died of disease and starvation but members of the Pawtucket tribe of the Wampanoag Confederacy helped them to survive. Under the leadership of William Bradford Plymouth would sign peace treaties with both the of the Wampanoags and continue to flourish as an independent colony until its incorporation into the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.

Over the next century England would secure its grip on the Northeast, with the establishment of Bay Colony (1629), New Hampshire (1623),  Rhode Island (1636), and the colonies of Connecticut. Native Americans who resisted colonization either fled west or were subjugated in brutal conflicts such as the Pequot War of 1637. From Europe, the Dutch  West India Company, especially the colony of New Amsterdam, posed the greatest threat to English hegemony in the Northeast. In August 1664, England attacked New Amsterdam and the Dutch surrendered. The establishment of New Jersey in 1664 secured England sovereignty over the area and except for a brief return in 1673, the Netherlands were no longer a threat to English rule in the Northeast. On March 4, 1681, England granted a land charter to William Penn for the area that now includes Pennsylvania. Penn then founded a colony there as a place of religious freedom for Quakers, and named it for the Latin phrase meaning "Penn's woods". In 1688, New Amsterdam, renamed New York, was incorporated into the Dominion of New England. The incorporation of the colony of New York would be the last English colony founded in the Northeast.

For all intents and purposes the American Revolution began in the Northeast; from the first rumblings Massacre and Tea Party in Boston, to the opening shots at Lexington, Massachusetts, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 by the Continental Congress, in Philadelphia.

See also: History of the United States

Culture
Culture of the U.S. Northeast

Education is another of the region's strongest legacies. The cluster of top-ranking universities and colleges in New England&#151;including Harvard, Yale, MIT, Brown, Dartmouth, Wellesley, Smith, Williams, Amherst, and Wesleyan&#151;is unequaled by any other region. America's first college, Harvard, was founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1636. A number of the graduates from these schools end up settling in the region after school, providing the area with a well educated populace and its most valuable resource, the area being relatively lacking in natural resources, besides "ice, rocks, and fish". True to their enterprising nature, New Englanders have used their brains to make up the gap, for instance, in the 19th century, they made money off their frozen pond water, by shipping ice in fast clipper ships to tropical locations before refrigeration was invented. New England is also important for the cultural contribution it has made to the nation. As the oldest of the American regions, this area developed its own distinctive cuisine, dialect, architecture and government. New England cuisine is known for its emphasis on seafood and dairy, and clam chowder, lobster, fish and chips (battered codfish), boiled dinner, and ice cream are among some of the region's most popular foods.

As some of the original New England settlers migrated westward, immigrants from Canada, Ireland, Italy, and eastern Europe moved into the region. Despite a changing population, much of the original spirit of New England 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, its crisp chill, and vibrant colored foliage in autumn. The region is a popular tourist destination. As a whole, the area of New England tends to be progressive in its politics, albeit restrained in its personal mores. Due to the fact that the area is the closest in the United States to England, the region often shows a greater receptivity to European ideas and culture in relation to the rest of the country.

See also: Culture of the United States

Economy
Economy of the U.S. Northeast

These areas provided the young United States with heavy industry and served as the "melting pot" of new immigrants from Europe. Cities grew along major shipping routes and waterways. Such flourishing cities included New York City on the Hudson River and Philadelphia on the Delaware River.

In the 20th 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. The gap has been partly filled by the microelectronics, computer and biotech industries, fed by those same educational institutions.

Like New England, the Mid-Atlantic region has seen much of its heavy industry relocate elsewhere. Other industries, such as drug manufacturing and communications, have taken up the slack.

See also: Economy of the United States

Famous Northeasterners
Politics: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt

Literature: Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Cotton Mather, Stephen King, Phillis Wheatley

Arts: Winslow Homer, Bruce Springsteen, Rudy Vallee, Andy Warhol

Science: Jonas Salk

Misc: Abigail Adams, John D. Rockefeller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Al Sharpton

Related Articles
U.S. Midwest U.S. South U.S. West