Maryland: Difference between revisions

Maryland's coastline was first explored by Europeans in the 16th century. Prior to that, it was inhabited by several [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes, mostly the [[Algonquian peoples]].<ref>{{cite web |title=People, Tribes and Bands |url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/native/html/01native.html |website=Maryland Manual On-line: A Guide to Maryland and its Government |publisher=Maryland State Archives |access-date=August 25, 2019 |archive-date=July 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717013734/https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/native/html/01native.html |url-status=live }}</ref> As one of the original [[Thirteen Colonies]], Maryland was founded by [[George Calvert]], 1st Baron Baltimore, a [[Catholic Church in England and Wales|Catholic]] convert<ref name="Cecilius Calvert 2010">"George Calvert and Cecilius Calvert, Barons Baltimore" William Hand Browne, Nabu Press (August 1, 2010), {{ISBN|117662539X}} {{ISBN|978-1176625396}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=English and Catholic : the Lords Baltimore in the seventeenth century|author=Krugler, John D.|date=2004|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-0801879630|location=Baltimore|oclc=53967315}}</ref> who sought to provide a religious haven for Catholics persecuted in England.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=History of Maryland: Province and State|last=Andrews|first=Matthew Page|publisher=Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc|year=1929|location=Garden City, New York|pages=3–5}}</ref> In 1632, [[Charles I of England]] granted Lord Baltimore a [[colonial charter]], naming the colony after his wife, [[Henrietta Maria of France|Henrietta Maria]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ma01.asp|title=The Charter of Maryland : 1632|date=December 18, 1998|website=avalon.law.yale.edu|access-date=May 2, 2018|archive-date=March 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325164510/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ma01.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1649, the Maryland General Assembly passed an [[Maryland Toleration Act|Act Concerning Religion]], which enshrined the principle of [[toleration]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/maryland_toleration.asp|title=Avalon Project—Maryland Toleration Act; September 21, 1649|website=avalon.law.yale.edu|access-date=May 3, 2018|archive-date=November 25, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091125140850/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/maryland_toleration.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> Religious strife was common in Maryland's early years, and Catholics remained a minority, albeit in greater numbers than in any other English colony. Maryland's early settlements and population centers clustered around waterways that empty into the [[Chesapeake Bay]]. Its economy was heavily [[Plantation economy|plantation-based]] and centered mostly on the cultivation of [[tobacco]]. Demand for cheap labor from Maryland colonists led to the importation of numerous [[Indentured servitude in British America|indentured servants]] and [[History of slavery in Maryland|enslaved Africans]]. In 1760, Maryland's current boundaries took form following the [[Mason–Dixon line|settlement]] of a long-running border dispute with Pennsylvania. Many of its citizens played [[Maryland in the American Revolution|key political and military roles]] in the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Although it was a [[Slave states and free states|slave state]], Maryland [[Border states (American Civil War)|remained in the Union]] during the [[American Civil War]], and its proximity to Washington D.C. and Virginia made it [[Maryland in the American Civil War|a significant strategic location]]. After the Civil War ended, Maryland took part in the [[Industrial Revolution in the United States|Industrial Revolution]], driven by its seaports, railroad networks, and mass immigration from Europe.

After England's [[Glorious Revolution]] in 1688, Maryland outlawed Catholicism. In 1704, the Maryland General Assembly prohibited Catholics from operating schools, limited the corporate ownership of property to hamper religious orders from expanding or supporting themselves, and encouraged the conversion of Catholic children.<ref name=":0" /> The celebration of the Catholic sacraments was also officially restricted. This state of affairs lasted until after the [[American Revolutionary War]] (1775–1783). Wealthy Catholic planters built chapels on their land to practice their religion in relative secrecy.

Maryland was one of the [[Thirteen Colonies|thirteen colonies]] that revolted against British rule in the [[American Revolution]]. Near the end of the [[American Revolutionary War]] (1775–1783), on February 2, 1781, Maryland became the last and 13th state to approve the ratification of the [[Articles of Confederation|Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union]], first proposed in 1776 and adopted by the [[Second Continental Congress]] in 1778, which brought into being the United States as a united, [[sovereignty|sovereign]] and [[nation state|national state]]. It also became the seventh state admitted to the Union after ratifying the new federal Constitution in 1788. In December 1790, prior to the move of the national capital from [[Philadelphia]] in 1800, Maryland donated land selected by first President [[George Washington]] to the [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]] for its creation. The land was provided along the north shore of the [[Potomac River]] from [[Montgomery County, Maryland|Montgomery]] and [[Prince George's County, Maryland|Prince George's]] counties, as well as from [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]] and [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]] on the south shore of the Potomac in [[Virginia]]; however, the land donated by the Commonwealth of Virginia was later returned to that state by the [[District of Columbia retrocession]] in 1846.