NEW YORK CITY - 9TH GRADE

The largest city in the U.S. and an important seaport, it consists of five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The site of a Dutch trading post on Manhattan Island, it was colonized as New Amsterdam by Dutch director general Peter Minuit, who bought it from the Indians in 1626. The colony surrendered to the British in 1664 and was renamed New York. It was the capital of the state (1784-90). The economy grew after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, and the city expanded rapidly after the American Civil War, developing tranportation and communications systems. In 1898 the five boroughs were merged into a single city. Long a magnet for immigrants to the U.S., it is the center of world trade and finance, media, art, entertaiment, and fashion...

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.Available at:www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9373410