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Massachusetts [mæsətʃu: itssits], abbreviated MA, State of New
England, Northeastern United States; 20,300 km2, 6.9 million
inhabitants (2018).The capital is Boston.
Massachusetts. State Map.
Nature
The coastal plain of eastern Massachusetts, with the Cape Cod peninsula, has
large marshlands but also washed-out rocks and moraine ridges, which testify to
past icing and land elevation.
Massachusetts. Woods Hole on southwest Cape Cod.
The central plateau area is divided into an eastern and a western area by the
fertile valley of the Connecticut River. The highlands at the far west are
largely occupied by deciduous forests with a north-south direction, which in
Mount Greylock reaches 1,064 m above sea level. Massachusetts is a very murky
state. Many of the waters are now heavily polluted.
Massachusetts has a humid but continental climate. Boston has an average
temperature in January of −3 °C and in July of 22 ° C. The annual rainfall in
the city is 1 100 mm.
Population
Massachusetts is the most populous of the states of New England. The
urbanization rate is high; over 90 percent live in metropolitan areas. The
largest of these is Boston, which has a total of 4.8 million inhabitants (2016).
Massachusetts. Central parts of Boston's
metropolitan area with the Charles River.
Only 8 percent of Massachusetts's population is black and approximately 11
percent have Hispanic ties.
Business
Massachusetts business is dominated by industry and service
industries. Agriculture and fishing, as well as the forest industry, have a
limited importance. The formerly prevailing textile and shoe industries have
been replaced by a versatile manufacturing, which is now gaining a strong
high-tech feel (for example, biotechnology, instruments, electronic
components). Extensive research and development work takes place in this
connection with Harvard University and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology) in Cambridge. Boston is an important financial, commercial and
communications center with an international airport and port, both of which are
among the largest in the United States.
Tourism and gastronomy
The tourism industry plays a major role in the state's
business. Massachusetts is visited annually by large crowds of Americans, who
come to see the sites reminiscent of the country's history. A reconstruction of
the Pilgrim Fathers' first community can be studied in Plimoth Plantation.
Massachusetts. Plimoth Plantation, founded in 1947,
is an open-air museum that brings to life the 16th-century Plymouth Colony.
Several memorials are linked to the 1770s Liberty War, which began in
Massachusetts. Many towns in the state played a role during the war; one of the
most visited is Lexington, where the first acts of war took place in April 1775.
The focus of tourism is the large city of Boston with its meticulously restored
old city center, its many museums and cultural institutions. Nature also
attracts many tourists. The Cape Cod Peninsula receives many visitors
annually. Other parts of the Atlantic coast as well as the islands of Martha's
Vineyard and Nantucket also have nice beaches and popular recreational resorts
as well as large areas with recreational buildings.
The range of traditional dishes is characterized by the fact that the
Englishmen who arrived were strongly Puritan and hard working people. Boston
baked beans (white beans cooked with a pork chop and flavored with molasses
syrup) are the most notable example, usually served with Boston brown bread,
steamed round buns of rye and wheat flour flavored with rennel syrup. The rich
catches from the sea resulted in clam chowder, scared mussel soup, but
the contact with fishing fleets from, for example, Portugal, made the cabling
popular because it could be stored inland, and codfish balls cooked on
cod is a legacy from this time. Apples are a common accessory to most things,
such as chicken.Boston cream pie is the standard for dessert or for
coffee.
History
The first European settlement took place in 1620, when pilgrims from the
Mayflower ship founded the Plymouth Colony. Later, numerous Puritans arrived and
founded the Massachusetts Bay colony, which in 1691 merged with Plymouth and
Maine. The Puritans created a strict theocratic society, which was secularized
and liberalized during the 18th century, and they developed a diversified
business sector with agriculture, fishing, shipbuilding and trade. When the
contradictions to Britain intensified in the 1760s, Massachusetts was at the
forefront of the liberation struggle, and here (in Lexington 1775) the first
shots of the North American Freedom War fell. Massachusetts was among the
leaders of the 13 colonies that formed the United States. In 1820, Maine became
its own state, and Massachusetts was given its present limits. Massachusetts was
also at the forefront of industrialization in the United States, with the
textile industry as the main industry. During the 20th century, this moved to
the southern states, which created financial difficulties. After World War II,
Massachusetts has found new areas, especially in high technology, that have
created economic prosperity. Politically, Republicans dominated until the 1930s,
but since the 1960s, Democrats have usually been the largest party.
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