One of the thirteen original states of the US Confederation. Granted with a charter (1632) by Charles I to G. Calvert in full ownership, the region was occupied starting from 1634 by several hundred settlers and named Terra Mariae by Charles I’s wife, Enrichetta Maria. After a few turbulent years, made even more agitated by the disputes between Catholics and Protestants, an act of tolerance was issued in 1649: but every concession was revoked again in 1654 following the victory of the Puritans. From this moment on, the history of Maryland is the history of the struggle between the owners (and the Crown) on the one hand and the voters on the other, for a greater or lesser extension of the suffrage. Taking advantage of this situation, W. Penn was able (1682) to wrest the territory of Delaware from Maryland thus opening the long dispute that ended only in 1763 with the definition of the “Mason-and-Dixon’s Line”. The years preceding the revolution saw the fall and expropriation of the Catholic owners, on whom, however, the crown continued to focus, and who therefore did not take long to convert to Protestantism. In June 1776, according to abbreviationfinder, Maryland also voted for its independence by adopting an aristocratic statute. On 28 apr. 1788 he signed the federal statute, and in apr. 1790 yielded 60 square miles for the formation of a federal capital in the “District of Columbia”. In the following years, the prosperity of the state grew rapidly. The war of 1812 caused little damage but the civil war found the country divided between unionists and secessionists, albeit with a moderate propensity for the former. The following period was for Maryland.
According to countryaah, Maryland has the following main cities:
Annapolis
City of the United States of America, capital of the state of Maryland and capital of the county Anne Arundel, at 390 of lat. N. ea at 76 ° 30 ′ long. OR.; it is located on the River Severn, approximately 3km. from the Chesapeake Bay, on which the city of Baltimore is also located, which is just over 40 km away. by rail. From Washington, it is approximately 50 km.; it is connected to both cities by means of electric railways. It was founded in 1649 by a company of Puritans who came from Virginia: first it was called Providence, later Proctor’s, The Town, Anne – Arundel Town, and finally Town of Annapolis, in honor of Queen Anne: in 1694 it was elevated to the capital of the province and then of the state. It took a keen part in the revolutionary movement for North American independence.
The city had only 11,214 inhabitants in 1920: it is assumed that in 1928 the figure had risen to about 14,000 (of which 2,500 Negroes). The increase, in the first decades of the century. XX, was 32%, on an average annual value of 1.6%, lower in any case than that of most urban centers in the United States: in 1910 it had 8609 inhabitants, in 1900, 8525. It has a discreet port and is connected by boats and steamers with Baltimore and with the other centers of the bay. The only profitable industry is that of oysters, which are widely exported.
Annapolis was for many years the center and outlet of the thriving tobacco plantations of the state of Maryland. It is still preserved intact in its eighteenth-century splendor: wide gravel roads shaded by centuries-old trees; stately homes, in the grand South American colonial style, surrounded by prairies and gardens. In Maryland, a Catholic colony established with pacts of absolute religious tolerance (although mostly Protestant population), in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in the face of Boston’s puritanism, a highly cultivated intellectual, literary, critical and even dramatic amateurism developed Annapolis its center. In the nineteenth century, the economic fortune of Annapolis went largely to Baltimore, and the worldly fortune in preference to Washington. Annapolis, however, remained the capital of the state of Maryland, with its related bureaucracy; and luck smiled at her again with the foundation, which took place there in 1845, of the Federal Naval Academy (which today has 361 teachers and 1976 pupils). It successfully defended itself in 1812 from the same British invasion that burned Washington and failed to occupy Baltimore. Of the ancient institutes, Saint John’s College still exists, a secular school that is now reorganizing itself as a university with a distinctly liberal tendency.
Baltimore
City of the USA (637,455 residents In 2007), in Maryland, on the estuary of the Patapsco River. Initially a commercial port for agricultural products in Maryland, it also quickly developed as an industrial center, favored by the nearby coalfields of the Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is one of the most highly rated US cities for quality of life; numerous parks and gardens; the central area has been renovated and the peri-urban area has efficient infrastructures. The economy continues to benefit from its proximity to Washington, with multiple research and development activities; headquarters of industries active in the steel (Sparrows Point), mechanical, aeronautical, shipbuilding, metallurgical, petrochemical, textile, clothing (one of the main American centers), food, publishing and tobacco sectors. The most recent growth has mainly affected the advanced services sector and, in particular, that of biotechnologies, especially in the marine sector. Furthermore, port activity remains very intense. Noteworthy is the cultural tradition of B., which is the seat of the Johns Hopkins University (founded 1876), with the school of medicine and hospital outbuildings which enjoy world fame.
Founded (1729) by decision of the provincial government of Maryland, of which it was to constitute the new commercial port beyond Annapolis, derived the name from GC lord Baltimore). In 1814 he stood out for his heroic resistance to the blockade and naval bombardment by the English; during the Secession war (1861-65) it remained with the feds, but the Catholic majority of the population held for the southerners. Catholicism promoted a liberal literary culture, and also found a heterodox expression in so-called Americanism, condemned (1899) with a letter from Pope Leo XIII addressed to the Archbishop of Baltimore.
