Crossword Dictionary
NEW Hampshire
New Hampshire is a constituent state of the United States of America. One of the 13 original U.S. states, it is located in New England at the extreme northeastern corner of the country. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Quebec, to the east by Maine and a 16-mile (25-km) stretch of the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by Massachusetts, and to the west by Vermont. The capital is Concord, located in the south-central part of the state.
The Granite State, as New Hampshire is popularly known, is a study in contrasts. Since the late 19th century it has been among the half-dozen most industrialized states in the Union, yet it is frequently portrayed as agricultural and pastoral. Vermont and New Hampshire supposedly constitute a “Yankee Kingdom†dominated by white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, yet the state has a large population of residents with French Canadian, German, Italian, Polish, and other non-English ancestors. Its political reputation is probusiness and conservative, yet the single largest internal source of state funds is a business profits tax; in addition, the state was among the first to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples. New Hampshire’s regional subdivisions are so distinct that numerous people have suggested it be divided in thirds, with roughly equal parts being added to Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
The region was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking peoples when the first English people settled near Portsmouth in 1623. The area came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts in 1641 and became a separate crown colony in 1679. It was the first colony to declare its independence from Britain in 1776. Following the nation’s establishment, the state grew rapidly. Agriculture flourished and manufacturing developed along the rivers. Portsmouth became a major shipbuilding center. The economy is now based primarily on manufacturing and tourism, although dairy farming and granite quarrying are also important. Because it holds the nation’s earliest presidential primary, it has furnished the first testing ground for many candidacies. Dartmouth and the University of New Hampshire are two of the state’s prominent educational institutions.