Connecticut

Connecticut lies in the New England region. As of the 2010 census, it has the highest per-capita income, second-highest level of human development behind Massachusetts, and highest median household income in the United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capital city is Hartford, and Bridgeport is its most populous. The state is both part of New England and the [New York metropolitan region The state is named for the Connecticut River which approximately bisects the state. The word “Connecticut” is derived from various anglicized spellings of “Quononoquett” (Conanicut), a Mohegan-Pequot word for “long tidal river”.

The first European settlers to Connecticut were Dutchmen, who established a small settlement called Fort Hoop at Hartford’s confluence of Connecticut and Park Rivers. The Dutch colony New Netherland claimed half of Connecticut at first. It included a lot of land between the Connecticut River and Delaware Rivers. However, the English established the first major settlements in Connecticut in the 1630s. Thomas Hooker led a band of followers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded the Connecticut Colony; other settlers from Massachusetts founded the Saybrook Colony and the New Haven Colony. The Connecticut and New Haven colonies established documents of Fundamental Orders, considered the first constitutions in America. The three colonies were merged in 1662 under a royal charter. Connecticut became a crown colony. Connecticut was one the Thirteen Colonies that rejected British rule during the American Revolution.