Nueva Inglaterra

"Nueva Inglaterra (en inglés: New England) es el denominativo de una región de los Estados Unidos localizada en el noreste del país. Consiste en los seis estados de Maine, Nuevo Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island y Connecticut. Nueva Inglaterra está bordeada por el océano Atlántico, Canadá, y el Estado de Nueva York. Su nombre deriva de haber sido el lugar geográfico en el que se alojaron los primeros colonos británicos (Padres Peregrinos o Pilgrim Fathers) que llegaron a América del Norte, a partir del desembarco del buque Mayflower en 1620. Nueva Inglaterra produjo las primeras piezas de literatura y filosofía estadounidense y fue el hogar de los inicios de la educación pública y gratuita. En el siglo XIX, desempeñó un papel prominente en el movimiento para abolir la esclavitud en los Estados Unidos. Fue la primera región del país en ser transformada por la Revolución Industrial. En la actualidad, Nueva Inglaterra es un importante centro de educación, alta tecnología, seguros, medicina y turismo. Es conocida por sus universidades, ciudades históricas y monumentos y la belleza natural. Políticamente, los estados de Nueva Inglaterra en su mayoría están divididos en pequeños municipios, que incluyen las ciudades, y que a menudo utilizan para su autogobierno, una asamblea popular, o reunión de los votantes de la ciudad. Los electores han votado con más frecuencia por los candidatos liberales a nivel estatal y federal que los de cualquier otra región en los Estados Unidos. Nueva Inglaterra es la única región del país que tiene un nombre histórico, más que geográfico, reconocido como tal por el gobierno federal. Mantiene un fuerte sentido de identidad cultural que la distingue del resto de la nación, aunque los términos de esta identidad se han impugnado, paradójicamente, la combinación de puritanismo con el liberalismo, la vida agraria con la industria, y el aislamiento con la inmigración."

"New England is a geographical region which comprises six states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and south, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north, respectively. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Puritan Separatist Pilgrims from England first settled in the region in 1620, forming the Plymouth Colony, the first successful English settlement in the Americas. Ten years later, more Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquin allies in North America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts and surrounding areas experienced one of the most infamous cases of mass hysteria in the history of the Western Hemisphere, the Salem witch trials. In the late 18th century, political leaders from the New England Colonies known as the Sons of Liberty initiated the resistance to Britain's efforts to impose new taxes without the consent of the colonists. The Boston Tea Party was a protest to which Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government, which were termed the "Intolerable Acts" by the colonists. The confrontation led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. The region played a prominent role in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States, and was the first region of the U.S. transformed by the Industrial Revolution, centered on the Blackstone and Merrimack river valleys. The physical geography of New England is diverse for such a small area; southeastern New England is covered by a narrow coastal plain, while the western and northern regions are dominated by the rolling hills and worn-down peaks of the northern end of the Appalachian Mountains. With the Atlantic fall line lying so close to the coast, numerous industrial cities were able to take advantage of water power along the numerous rivers, such as the Connecticut River, which bisects the region from north to south. Each state is principally subdivided into small incorporated municipalities known as towns, which are often governed by town meetings. The only unincorporated areas in the region exist in the sparsely populated northern regions of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The region is one of the U.S. Census Bureau's nine regional divisions and the only multi-state region with clear, consistent boundaries. It maintains a strong sense of cultural identity, although the terms of this identity are often contrasted, combining Puritanism with liberalism, agrarian life with industry, and isolation with immigration."