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Baltimore, Silver Spring, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Ridgely, Rockville, Annapolis, Bowie, Hagerstown, Hyattsville, Laurel, Frederick, Capitol Heights, Cumberland, Salisbury, Upper Marlboro, Waldorf, College Park, Columbia, Ellicott City, Germantown, Glen Burnie, Greenbelt, Bel Air, Beltsville, Chestertown, Chevy Chase, District Heights, Easton, Elkton
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Maryland was
inhabited by Indians as early as circa 10,000 B.C. Permanent
Indian villages were established by circa A.D. 1000.The
Paleo-Indians who came more than 10,000 years ago from other
parts of North America to hunt mammoth, great bison and
caribou. By 1,000 B.C., Maryland had more than 8,000 Native
Americans in about 40 different tribes. Most of them spoke
Algonquian languages. They grew corn, peas, squash and
tobacco. They also hunted, fished and traded with tribes as
far away as New York and Ohio.
We do not know what the Native Americans called the
Chesapeake Bay. That name came from the Native American word
"Chesepiuk," an Algonquian name for a village that the
Roanoke, Virginia colonists discovered in 1585 near the
mouth of the Bay. Later, mapmakers used the word to name the
Bay. People have said that Chesapeake means "great salt
water" or "great shellfish bay," but no records exist to
verify those definitions.
Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian explorer in the 1500s, was
the first European to visit the Chesapeake. Later came
English settlers, who left England for more economic
opportunities and to escape religious oppression. In 1608,
Capt. John Smith explored Chesapeake Bay.Fur trader William
Claiborne thought so, too, and set up a fur trading post on
Kent Island in 1631. This was the first English settlement
in the upper Chesapeake.
Maryland began as a colony when King Charles I promised
George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, a colony north of
Virginia. Before he could visit the colony, George Calvert
died. His son, Cecilius, became the second Lord Baltimore
and the Lord Proprietor of Maryland. He named his colony
"Terra Maria," or "Maryland" in honor of the king's wife,
Queen Henrietta Maria. Because Cecilius Calvert had to
remain in England, he sent his younger brother, Leonard, to
accompany the colonists and to be the first governor.
Colonists set sail on November 22, 1633 on the ships Ark and
Dove. The four month's voyage carried between 200 and 300
passengers. The leader of the colonists and first Governor
of Maryland was the brother of Cecil, Leonard Calvert.
The colonists landed first on an island in the Chesapeake
Bay which they named St. Clement's (now Blakistone) Island
on March 24, 1634. This gave Maryland a unique place in the
history of English colonization
In 1694, when the capital was moved from St. Mary's to
Annapolis, those were the only towns in the province, but
the next century saw the emergence of commercially oriented
Baltimore, which by 1800 had a population of more than
30,000 and a flourishing coastal trade. Tobacco became the
basis of the economy by 1730. In 1767 the demarcation of the
Mason-Dixon Line ended a long-standing boundary dispute with
Pennsylvania.
Trade restrictions and high taxes led to the Revolutionary
War in 1775. Marylanders opposed the Stamp Act, protested
the Boston Port Bill by burning a boat and the tea cargo,
and attended the First Continental Congress in 1774 in
Philadelphia. Baltimore served as the country's capital
until after the war when it was moved to Annapolis.
In 1788, the United States Constitution was signed. Maryland
became the 7th state to join the new country, with Annapolis
as the state capital. In 1791, Washington D.C. was created
from land donated by Maryland, and became the nation's
permanent capital.
Several battles from the War of 1812 were fought in
Maryland. British soldiers raided towns along the Chesapeake
Bay, defeated Americans in the Battle of Bladensburg, and
burned the Capitol and other government buildings in
Washington D.C. On Sept. 12, they attacked Baltimore and
fired on Fort McHenry. The American army defended the city
and drove them out of Maryland. This battle inspired the
writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The Civil War began in 1861. Although many plantation owners
in Maryland fought with the Confederacy, Maryland's
legislature sided with the United States and adopted a new
constitution that ended slavery. Again, many battles were
fought on Maryland soil.
At the beginning of the Civil War, President Lincoln
suspended habeas corpus and sent troops to Maryland who
imprisoned large numbers of secessionists. Nevertheless,
Marylanders fought on both sides, and families were often
split. General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia invaded
Maryland in 1862 and was repulsed by Union forces at
Antietam (see Antietam campaign). In 1863, Lee again invaded
the North and marched across Maryland on the way to and from
Gettysburg. Throughout the war Maryland was the scene of
many minor battles and skirmishes
With the end of the Civil War, industry quickly revived and
became a dominant force in Maryland, both economically and
politically. Senator Arthur P. Gorman, a Democrat and the
president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, ran the
controlling political machine from 1869 to 1895, when
two-party government was restored. New railroad lines
traversed the state, making it more than ever a crossing
point between North and South. Labor troubles hit Maryland
with the Panic of 1873, and four years later railroad wage
disputes resulted in large-scale rioting in Cumberland and
Baltimore. During the 20th cent., however, Maryland became a
leader in labor and other reform legislation. The
administrations of governors Austin L. Crowthers (1908–12)
and Albert C. Ritchie (1920–35) were noted for reform.
Ritchie, a Democrat, became nationally known for his efforts
to improve the efficiency and economy of state government.
In 1919, Congress passed the prohibition law, prohibiting
the manufacturing, selling and transporting of alcoholic
beverages. Maryland opposed the law, because it violated
their state's rights. Because of this, they were known as
the Free State.
After World War II, Maryland improved its transportation
systems. BWI Airport opened and many bridges, tunnels, and
highways were built. When the Supreme Court ruled
segregation in schools as unconstitutional in 1954, Maryland
changed the fastest of all the southern states by
integrating schools and neighborhoods. Several school
systems were expanded.
Maryland experienced tremendous suburban growth in the
1980s, especially in the metropolitan Washington, D.C.,
area. This growth occurred in spite of a decline in
government jobs, as service sector employment rose
dramatically. Suburban Baltimore grew as well although the
city proper lost 6.4% of its population during the 1980s.
Baltimore undertook major revitalization projects in the
1980s and the early 1990s, including the construction of
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the new home of the Baltimore
Orioles baseball team.
In 1985, Maryland began a government project to clean up the
waste from cities and factories flowing into Chesapeake Bay.
The waste was killing many of the fish and shellfish living
there. Since then, millions of oysters have been placed in
the bay.
Maryland has become increasingly popular as a vacation
area—Ocean City is a popular seashore resort, and both sides
of Chesapeake Bay are lined with beaches and small fishing
towns. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge has brought the culture of
the Eastern Shore, formerly quite distinctive, into a more
homogeneous unity with that of the rest of the state; the
area, however, is still noted for its unique rural beauty
and architecture, strongly reminiscent of the English
countryside left behind by early settlers.
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