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The history of Albany, New York, begins with the first interaction of Europeans with the native Indian tribes who had long inhabited the area. The area was originally inhabited by Algonquian Indian tribes, namely the Mohican and the Iroquois, five nations of whom the easternmost, the Mohawk, had the closest relations with traders and settlers in Albany. Henry Hudson first claimed this area for the Dutch in 1609. Fur traders established the first European settlement in 1614; Albany was officially chartered as a city in 1686. It became the capital of New York in 1797. It is one of the oldest surviving settlements from the original thirteen colonies, and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States. Modern Albany was founded as the Dutch trading posts of Fort Nassau in 1614 and Fort Orange in 1624; the fur trade brought in a population that settled around Fort Orange and founded a village called Beverwijck. The English took over and renamed the town Albany in 1664, in honor of the then Duke of Albany, the future James II of England and James VII of Scotland. The city was officially chartered in 1686 with the issuance of the ''Dongan Charter'', the oldest effective city charter in the nation and possibly the longest-running instrument of municipal government in the Western Hemisphere.〔 During the late 18th century and throughou of the 19th century, Albany was a center of transportation. It is located on the north end of the navigable Hudson River, was the original eastern terminus of the Erie Canal, and was home to some of the earliest railroad systems in the world. Albany's main exports at the time were beer, lumber, published works, and ironworks. Beginning in 1810, Albany was one of the ten most populous cities in the nation, a distinction that it held until the 1860 census. In the 20th century, the city opened one of the first commercial airports in the world, the precursor of today's Albany International Airport. The 1920s saw the rise of a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party. The city's skyline changed in the 1960s with the construction of the Empire State Plaza and the uptown campus of SUNY Albany, mainly under the direction of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. While Albany experienced a decline in its population due to urban sprawl, many of its historic neighborhoods were saved from destruction through the policies of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, the longest-serving mayor of any city in the United States. More recently, the city has experienced growth in the high-tech industry, with great strides in the nanotechnology sector. Albany has been a center of higher education for over a century, with much of the remainder of its economy dependent on state government and health care services. The city has experienced a rebound from the urban decline of the 1970s and 1980s, with noticeable development happening in the city's downtown and midtown neighborhoods. Albany is known for its extensive history, culture, architecture, and institutions of higher education. The city is home to the mother churches of two Christian dioceses as well as the oldest Christian congregation in Upstate New York. Albany has won the All-America City Award in both 1991 and 2009. ==Colonial times to 1800== Albany is one of the oldest surviving European settlements from the original thirteen colonies and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States. The area was originally inhabited by Algonquian Indian tribes and was given different names by the various peoples. The Mohican called it ''Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw'', meaning "the fireplace of the Mohican nation",〔McEneny (2006), p. 6〕 while the Iroquois called it ''Sche-negh-ta-da'', or "through the pine woods," referring to their trail to the city.〔(Howell and Tenney (1886, Vol. II), p. 460 )〕 Albany's first European structure was a primitive fort on Castle Island built by French traders in 1540. It was destroyed by flooding soon after construction.〔(Reynolds (1906), p. xxvii )〕 Permanent European claims began when Englishman Henry Hudson, exploring for the Dutch East India Company on the ''Half Moon'' ((オランダ語:Halve Maen)), reached the area in 1609, claiming it for the United Netherlands.〔(Henry Hudson ). (2010). ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved June 27, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.〕 In 1614, Hendrick Christiaensen rebuilt the French fort as Fort Nassau, the first Dutch fur trading post in present-day Albany.〔(Reynolds (1906), p. 17 )〕 Commencement of the fur trade provoked hostility from the French colony in Canada and among the natives, all of whom vied to control the trade. In 1618, a flood ruined the fort on Castle Island, but it was rebuilt in 1624 as Fort Orange.〔(Howell and Tenney (1886, Vol. II), p. 775 )〕 Both forts were named in honor of the royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau.〔Venema (2003), p. 13〕 Fort Orange and the surrounding area were incorporated as the village of Beverwijck ((英語:Beaver District)) in 1652.〔Rittner (2002), p. 7〕〔Venema (2003), p. 12〕 Over the next several decades, the Mohawk, Mohican and Dutch formed a different relationship "based on a sense of mutual opportunity, of seeing more advantage in cooperation than in conflict."〔(James Wesley Bradley, ''Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch Relations in the Capital Region 1660-1664'' ), Albany: University of the State of New York, 2007, pp. 2-6〕 They created a collaborative venture in the fur trade, in which each party gained something, and a measure of stability for the area. As an indicator of that, Beverwijck was never attacked by the Mohican or Mohawk, although it was in an isolated area. Like French traders before them, the Dutch often married or had unions with Mohawk and Mahican women; their descendants later intermarried with English settlers as well, leading to the area's cultural history being expressed in complex bloodlines. Many of the mixed-race children born to native women identified as Mohawk or Mahican; as these tribes had matrilineal kinship systems, the children were considered born into the mother's clan and derived all status and inheritance from her line. Some also achieved standing in the Dutch communities, becoming important interpreters and negotiators among the differing cultures. When New Netherland was captured by the English in 1664, they changed the name Beverwijck to Albany, in honor of the Duke of Albany (later James II of England and James VII of Scotland).〔(Brodhead (1874), p. 744 )〕 Duke of Albany was a Scottish title given since 1398, generally to the second son of the King of Scots. The name is ultimately derived from ''Alba'', the Gaelic name for Scotland. The Dutch briefly regained Albany in August 1673 and renamed the city Willemstadt; the English took permanent possession with the Treaty of Westminster (1674).〔(Reynolds (1906), p. 72 )〕 On November 1, 1683, the Province of New York was split into counties, with Albany County being the largest. At that time the county included all of present New York State north of Dutchess and Ulster Counties in addition to present-day Bennington County, Vermont, theoretically stretching west to the Pacific Ocean;〔Thorne, Kathryn Ford, Compiler & Long, John H., Editor: ''New York Atlas of Historical County Boundaries''; The Newbury Library; 1993.〕 the city of Albany became the county seat.〔(French (1860), p. 155 )〕 Albany was formally chartered as a municipality by provincial Governor Thomas Dongan on July 22, 1686. The ''Dongan Charter'' was virtually identical in content to the charter awarded to the city of New York three months earlier.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = New York State Museum )〕 ''Dongan'' created Albany as a strip of land wide and long.〔(Reynolds (1906), pp. 84–85 )〕 Over the years Albany would lose much of the land to the west and annex land to the north and south. At this point, Albany had a population of about 500 people.〔 In 1754, representatives of seven British North American colonies met in the ''Stadt Huys'', Albany's city hall, for the Albany Congress; Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania presented the Albany Plan of Union there, which was the first formal proposal to unite the colonies.〔Rittner (2002), p. 22〕 Although it was never adopted by Parliament, it was an important precursor to the United States Constitution.〔McEneny (2006), p. 12〕 The same year, the French and Indian War began; it was the North American front of the Seven Years War in Europe and the fourth in a series of North American wars between the colonial powers dating back to 1689, began. It ended in 1763 with French defeat by the British, resolving a situation that had been a constant threat to Albany and held back its growth.〔McEneny (2006), p. 56〕 In 1775, with the colonies in the midst of the Revolutionary War, the ''Stadt Huys'' became home to the Albany Committee of Correspondence (the political arm of the local revolutionary movement), which took over operation of Albany's government and eventually expanded its power to control all of Albany County. Tories and prisoners of war were often jailed in the ''Stadt Huys'' alongside common criminals. In 1776, Albany native Philip Livingston signed the Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. During and after the Revolutionary War, there was a great increase in real estate transactions in Albany County. After Horatio Gates' win over John Burgoyne at Saratoga in 1777, the upper Hudson Valley was generally at peace as the war raged on elsewhere. Upstate New York began to prosper as migrants from Vermont and Connecticut began flowing in, noting the advantages of living on the Hudson and trading at Albany, while being only a few days' sail from New York City.〔(Anderson (1897), p. 68 )〕 Albany reported a population of 3,498 in the first national census in 1790, an increase of almost 700% since its chartering about a century before.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = New York State Museum )〕 In 1797, the state capital of New York was moved permanently to Albany. From statehood to this date, the Legislature had frequently moved the state capital between Albany, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, and the city of New York. Albany is the second oldest state capital in the United States.〔Rittner (2002), back cover〕 As the state capital, Albany drew many visitors in the 1780s. As historian John Bach McMaster has explained, they did not enjoy their visit: :Travellers of every rank complained bitterly of the inhospitality of the Albanians, and the avarice and close-fistedness of the merchants. (environment had not ) modified one jot the cold, taciturn, stingy Dutchman. They admitted that Albany was a place where a man with a modest competence could, in time, acquire riches; where a man with money could, in a short space of time, amass a fortune. But nobody would ever go to Albany who could by any possibility stay away, nor, being there, would tarry one moment longer than necessary."〔John Bach McMaster, ''A History of the People of the United States, from the Revolution to the Civil War'' (1883) Vol. 1 pp 58-59〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Albany, New York」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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