Before the state existed, the area was home to the Delaware,
Susquehanna, Iroquois, Shawnee, and other Native American tribes. In
1643, the southeastern portion of the state, in the vicinity of
Philadelphia, was settled by Sweden, but control later passed to the
Netherlands, and then to England.
On March 4, 1681, Charles II of England granted a land charter to
William Penn for the area that now includes Pennsylvania. Penn then
founded a colony there as a place of religious freedom for the Religious
Society of Friends (Quakers), and named it for the Latin phrase meaning
"Penn's woods". The western portions of Pennsylvania were among disputed
territory between the colonial British and French during the French and
Indian War. The French established numerous fortifications in the area,
including the pivotal Fort Duquesne on top of which the city of
Pittsburgh was built.
The colony's reputation of religious freedom also attracted significant
populations of German and Scots-Irish settlers who helped to shape
colonial Pennsylvania and later went on to populate the neighboring
states further west.
In 1704 the "three lower counties" of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex
gained a separate legislature, and in 1710 a separate executive council,
to form the new colony Delaware.
Pennsylvania and Delaware were two of the thirteen colonies that
revolted against British rule in the American Revolution of 1776.
Pennsylvania became the second state on 12 December 1787 (five days
after Delaware became the first).Pennsylvania is one of the U.S.'s most
historic states. Philadelphia is often called the cradle of the American
Nation. It was here that the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution were drawn up by the Founding Fathers.
Pennsylvania also saw the Battle of Gettysburg, near Gettysburg. Many
historians consider this battle the major turning point of the American
Civil War. Dead from this battle rest at Gettysburg National Cemetery,
site of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. oil (kerosene) industry
was born in western Pennsylvania, which supplied the vast majority of
U.S. kerosene for years thereafter, and saw the rise and fall of oil
boom towns.
The so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch" region in south-central Pennsylvania
is another favorite of sightseers. Pennsylvania Germans, including the
Amish and the Mennonites, dominate the area around the cities of
Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg, with smaller numbers extending
northeast to the Lehigh Valley and up the Susquehanna River valley.
During the 20th century Pennsylvania's existing iron industries expanded
into a major center of steel production. Shipbuilding and numerous other
forms of manufacturing flourished in the eastern part of the state, and
coal mining was also extremely important in many regions. In the late
1800s and early 1900s, Pennsylvania received very large numbers of
immigrants from Europe seeking work.
Today, two major cities dominate the state—Philadelphia, home of the
Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and a thriving metropolitan area, and
Pittsburgh, a busy inland river port and major center for educational
and technological advances.
