American Political Science Association
The American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes four academic journals. APSA Organized Sections are associated with 15 additional journals. APSA presidents serve one-year terms; the current president is Rogers Smith of the University of Pennsylvania. Woodrow Wilson, who became President of the United States, was APSA president in 1909. APSA has its headquarters at 1527 New Hampshire Avenue NW in Washington, D. C. in a historic building, owned by Admiral George Remy, labor leader Samuel Gompers, the American War Mothers, Harry Garfield, son of President James A. Garfield and president of the association from 1921 to 1922. APSA administers the Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs, which offers fellowships, research space, grants for scholars, administers Pi Sigma Alpha, the honor society for political science students. APSA periodically sponsors seminars and other events for political scientists, the media, the general public.
The association broadly aims to encourage scholarly understanding of political ideas, norms and institutions, to inform public choices about government and public policy. APSA's mission is to "support excellence in scholarship and teaching and informed discourse about politics and civic participation." APSA conducts several annual conferences, which provide an environment for scholars and other professionals to network and present their work, along with other pertinent and useful resources. The APSA Annual Meeting is among the world's largest gatherings of political scientists, it occurs on Labor Day weekend each summer. The 2019 Annual Meeting is scheduled for August 29 – September 1 in Washington, DC; the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference is a smaller working group conference hosting cutting-edge approaches and methodologies for the political science classroom. The conference provides a forum for scholars to share effective and innovative teaching and learning models and to discuss broad themes and values of political science education—especially the scholarship of teaching and learning.
With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, APSA has organized political science workshops in various locations in Africa, APSA Africa Workshops; the first workshop was convened in Dakar, Senegal in partnership with the West African Research Center from July 6–27, 2008. The annual residential workshops are led by a joint U. S. and African organizing team and aimed at mid-and junior-level scholars residing in Africa. They will enhance the capacities of political scientists and their resources in East and West Africa while providing a forum for supporting their ongoing research; each three week workshop brings together up to 30 scholars and cover substantive issues and reviews of research. See APSA International Programs. To recognize excellence in the profession, the Association offers the following awards: Dissertation Awards Paper and Article Awards Book Awards Career Awards Goodnow Award Teaching Award and Campus Teaching Award RecognitionIn addition to the APSA awards, the APSA organized sections present over 100 awards at every Annual Meeting to recognize important research and contributions to the profession.
These awards are presented at the Association's Annual Meeting. Through its facilities and endowed funding programs, APSA'S Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs supports political science teaching and public engagement. Opened in 2003, the centenary of APSA's establishment, the Centennial Center encourages individual research and writing in all fields of political science, facilitates collaboration among scholars working within the discipline and across the social and behavioral sciences and humanities, promotes communication between scholars and the public; the Centennial Center, its facilities, research support programs continue to be made possible in part through the generous donations of APSA members. The Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs assists APSA members with the costs of research, including travel, access to archives, or costs for a research assistant. Funds can be used to assist scholars in publishing their research. Grants can range in size depending upon the research fund.
See more centennial funding programs and grants. The APSA Congressional Fellowship Program is a selective, nonpartisan program devoted to expanding knowledge and awareness of Congress. Since 1953, it has brought select political scientists, federal employees, health specialists, other professionals to Capitol Hill to experience Congress at work through fellowship placements on congressional staffs; the nine-month program begins each November with an intensive one-month introduction to Congress taught by leading experts in the field. After orientation, fellows work in placements of their choosing and participate in ongoing seminars and enrichment programs. Through this unique opportunity, the American Political Science Association enhances public understanding of policymaking and improves the quality of scholarship and reporting on American national politics. One key component of APSA's mission is to support political science education and the professional development of its practitioners; the APSA publications program attempts to fill the diverse needs of political scientists in academic settings as well as practitioners working outside of academia, students at various stages of their education.
Journals
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber was a German sociologist, philosopher and political economist. His ideas profoundly influenced social research. Weber is cited, with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as among the three founders of sociology. Weber was a key proponent of methodological anti-positivism, arguing for the study of social action through interpretive means, based on understanding the purpose and meaning that individuals attach to their own actions. Unlike Durkheim, he did not believe in mono-causality and rather proposed that for any outcome there can be multiple causes. Weber's main intellectual concern was understanding the processes of rationalisation, "disenchantment" that he associated with the rise of capitalism and modernity, he saw these as the result of a new way of thinking about the world. Weber is best known for his thesis combining economic sociology and the sociology of religion, elaborated in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which he proposed that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise in the Western world of market-driven capitalism and the rational-legal nation-state.
He argued. Thus, it can be said. Against Marx's historical materialism, Weber emphasised the importance of cultural influences embedded in religion as a means for understanding the genesis of capitalism; the Protestant Ethic formed the earliest part in Weber's broader investigations into world religion. In another major work, "Politics as a Vocation", Weber defined the state as an entity that claims a "monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory", he was the first to categorise social authority into distinct forms, which he labelled as charismatic and rational-legal. His analysis of bureaucracy emphasised that modern state institutions are based on rational-legal authority. Weber made a variety of other contributions in economic history, as well as economic theory and methodology. Weber's analysis of modernity and rationalisation influenced the critical theory associated with the Frankfurt School. After the First World War, Max Weber was among the founders of the liberal German Democratic Party.
He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament and served as advisor to the committee that drafted the ill-fated democratic Weimar Constitution of 1919. After contracting Spanish flu, he died of pneumonia in 1920, aged 56. Karl Emil Maximilian Weber was born in Erfurt, Province of Saxony, Prussia, he was the oldest of the seven children of Max Weber Sr. a wealthy and prominent civil servant and member of the National Liberal Party, his wife Helene, who descended from French Huguenot immigrants and held strong moral absolutist ideas. Weber Sr.'s involvement in public life immersed his home in both politics and academia, as his salon welcomed many prominent scholars and public figures. The young Weber and his brother Alfred, who became a sociologist and economist, thrived in this intellectual atmosphere. Weber's 1876 Christmas presents to his parents, when he was thirteen years old, were two historical essays entitled "About the course of German history, with special reference to the positions of the Emperor and the Pope", "About the Roman Imperial period from Constantine to the migration of nations".
In class and unimpressed with the teachers—who in turn resented what they perceived as a disrespectful attitude—he secretly read all forty volumes of Goethe, it has been argued that this was an important influence on his thought and methodology. Before entering the university, he would read many other classical works. Over time, Weber would be affected by the marital tension between his father, "a man who enjoyed earthly pleasures", his mother, a devout Calvinist "who sought to lead an ascetic life". In 1882 Weber enrolled in the University of Heidelberg as a law student. After a year of military service, he transferred to the University of Berlin. After his first few years as a student, during which he spent much time "drinking beer and fencing", Weber would take his mother's side in family arguments and grew estranged from his father. With his studies, he worked as a junior lawyer. In 1886 Weber passed the examination for Referendar, comparable to the bar association examination in the British and American legal systems.
Throughout the late 1880s, Weber continued his study of history. He earned his law doctorate in 1889 by writing a dissertation on legal history titled The history of commercial partnerships in the Middle Ages; this work was used as part of a longer work On the History of Trading Companies in the Middle Ages, based on South-European Sources, published in the same year. Two years Weber completed his Habilitationsschrift, Roman Agrarian History and its Significance for Public and Private Law, working with August Meitzen. Having thus become a Privatdozent, Weber joined the University of Berlin's faculty and consulting for the government. In the years between the completion of his dissertation and habilitation, Weber took an interest in contemporary social policy. In 1888 he joined the Verein für Socialpolitik, a new professional association of German economists affiliated with the historical school, who saw the role of economic
Amartya Sen
Amartya Kumar Sen, is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in India, the United Kingdom, the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory and social justice, economic theories of famines, indices of the measure of well-being of citizens of developing countries, he is the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor at Harvard University and member of faculty at Harvard Law School, he is a Fellow and former Master of Trinity College and was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998 and India's Bharat Ratna in 1999 for his work in welfare economics. In 2017, Sen was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for most valuable contribution to Political Science. In 2004, Sen was ranked number 14 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time. Amartya Sen was born in a Hindu family in Bengal, British India, in the district of modern day Bangladesh, Manikganj. Rabindranath Tagore gave Amartya Sen his name.
Sen's family was from Wari and Manikganj, both in present-day Bangladesh. His father Ashutosh Sen was a professor of chemistry at Dhaka University who moved with his family to West Bengal in 1945 and worked at various government institutions, including the West Bengal Public Service Commission, the Union Public Service Commission. Sen's mother Amita Sen was the daughter of Kshiti Mohan Sen, a well-known scholar of ancient and medieval India and close associate of Rabindranath Tagore, he served as the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University for some years. Sen began his high-school education at St Gregory's School in Dhaka in 1940. In fall 1941, Sen was admitted to Patha Bhavana, where he completed his school education, in which he excelled, obtaining the highest ranks in his school board and I. A. examinations in the whole of Bengal. The school had many progressive features, such as distaste for competitive testing. In addition, the school stressed cultural diversity, embraced cultural influences from the rest of the world.
In 1951, he went to Presidency College, where he earned a B. A. in Economics with First in the First Class, with a minor in Mathematics, as a graduating student of the University of Calcutta. While at Presidency, Sen was diagnosed with oral cancer, given a 15% chance of living five years. With radiation treatment, he survived, in 1953 he moved to Trinity College, where he earned a second B. A. in Economics in 1955 with a First Class, topping the list as well. At this time, he was elected President of the Cambridge Majlis. While Sen was a Ph. D student at Cambridge, he was offered the position of First-Professor and First-Head of the Economics Department of the newly created Jadavpur University in Calcutta, he is still the youngest chairman. He served in that position, starting the new Economics Department, from 1956 to 1958. Meanwhile, Sen was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College, which gave him four years of freedom to do anything he liked. Sen explained: "The broadening of my studies into philosophy was important for me not just because some of my main areas of interest in economics relate quite to philosophical disciplines, but because I found philosophical studies rewarding on their own".
His interest in philosophy, dates back to his college days at Presidency, where he read books on philosophy and debated philosophical themes. One of the books he was most interested in was Individual Values. In Cambridge, there were major debates between supporters of Keynesian economics on the one hand, the "neo-classical" economists who were skeptical of Keynes, on the other. However, because of a lack of enthusiasm for social choice theory in both Trinity and Cambridge, Sen had to choose a different subject for his Ph. D. thesis, on "The Choice of Techniques" in 1959, though the work had been completed much earlier under the supervision of the "brilliant but vigorously intolerant" post-Keynesian, Joan Robinson. Quentin Skinner notes that Sen was a member of the secret society Cambridge Apostles during his time at Cambridge. During 1960-61, Amartya Sen visited M. I. T. on leave from Trinity College, found it a great relief to get away from the rather sterile debates that the contending armies were fighting in Cambridge.
Sen's work on'Choice of Techniques' complemented that of Maurice Dobb. In a Developing country, the Dobb-Sen strategy relied on maximising investible surpluses, maintaining constant real wages and using the entire increase in labour productivity, due to technological change, to raise the rate of accumulation. In other words, workers were expected to demand no improvement in their standard of living despite having become more productive. Sen's papers in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped develop the theory of social choice, which first came to prominence in the work by the American economist Kenneth Arrow. Arrow, while working at the RAND Corporation, had most famously shown that when voters have three or more distinct alternatives, any ranked order voting system will in at least some situations conflict with what many assume to be basic democratic norms. Sen's contribution
Trade union
A trade union called a labour union or labor union, is an association of workers in a particular trade, industry, or company created for the purpose of securing improvement in pay, working conditions or social and political status through collective bargaining and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by creation of a monopoly of the workers. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with employers; the most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment". This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring and promotion of workers, workplace safety and policies. Unions may organize a particular section of skilled workers, a cross-section of workers from various trades, or attempt to organize all workers within a particular industry; the agreements negotiated by a union are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers.
Trade unions traditionally have a constitution which details the governance of their bargaining unit and have governance at various levels of government depending on the industry that binds them to their negotiations and functioning. Originating in Great Britain, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions may be composed of individual workers, past workers, apprentices or the unemployed. Trade union density, or the percentage of workers belonging to a trade union, is highest in the Nordic countries. Since the publication of the History of Trade Unionism by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the predominant historical view is that a trade union "is a continuous association on wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment." Karl Marx described trade unions thus: "The value of labour-power constitutes the conscious and explicit foundation of the trade unions, whose importance for the working class can scarcely be overestimated.
The trade unions aim at nothing less than to prevent the reduction of wages below the level, traditionally maintained in the various branches of industry. That is to say, they wish to prevent the price of labour-power from falling below its value". A modern definition by the Australian Bureau of Statistics states that a trade union is "an organization consisting predominantly of employees, the principal activities of which include the negotiation of rates of pay and conditions of employment for its members."Yet historian R. A. Leeson, in United we Stand, said: Two conflicting views of the trade-union movement strove for ascendancy in the nineteenth century: one the defensive-restrictive guild-craft tradition passed down through journeymen's clubs and friendly societies... the other the aggressive-expansionist drive to unite all'labouring men and women' for a'different order of things'. Recent historical research by Bob James in Craft, Trade or Mystery puts forward the view that trade unions are part of a broader movement of benefit societies, which includes medieval guilds, Oddfellows, friendly societies, other fraternal organizations.
The 18th century economist Adam Smith noted the imbalance in the rights of workers in regards to owners. In The Wealth of Nations, Book I, chapter 8, Smith wrote: We hear, it has been said, of the combination of masters, though of those of workmen, but whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate When workers combine, masters... never cease to call aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate, the rigorous execution of those laws which have been enacted with so much severity against the combination of servants and journeymen. As Smith noted, unions were illegal for many years in most countries, although Smith argued that it should remain illegal to fix wages or prices by employees or employers. There were severe penalties for including execution. Despite this, unions were formed and began to acquire political power resulting in a body of labour law that not only legalized organizing efforts, but codified the relationship between employers and those employees organized into unions.
The origins of trade unions can be traced back to 18th century Britain, where the rapid expansion of industrial society taking place drew women, rural workers and immigrants into the work force in large numbers and in new roles. They encountered a large hostility in their early existence from employers and government groups; this pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour spontaneously organized in fits and starts throughout its beginnings, would be an important arena for the development of trade unions. Trade unions have sometimes been seen as successors to the guilds of medieval Europe, though the relationship between the two is disputed, as the masters of the guilds employed workers who were not allowed to organize. Trade unions and collective bargaining were outlawed from no than the middle of the 14th century when the Ordinance of Labourers was enacted in the Kingdom of England but their way of thinking was the one that endured dur
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism is a political movement born in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party, the growing New Left and counterculture, in particular the Vietnam protests. Some began to question their liberal beliefs regarding domestic policies such as the Great Society. Neoconservatives advocate the promotion of democracy and American national interest in international affairs, including peace through strength, are known for espousing disdain for communism and for political radicalism. Many of its adherents became politically famous during the Republican presidential administrations of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s as neoconservatives peaked in influence during the administration of George W. Bush, when they played a major role in promoting and planning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prominent neoconservatives in the George W. Bush administration included Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, Paul Bremer.
While not identifying as neoconservatives, senior officials Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld listened to neoconservative advisers regarding foreign policy the defense of Israel and the promotion of American influence in the Middle East. Speaking, the term "neoconservative" refers to those who made the ideological journey from the anti-Stalinist left to the camp of American conservatism during the 1960s and 1970s; the movement had its intellectual roots in the Jewish monthly review magazine Commentary, edited by Norman Podhoretz and published by the American Jewish Committee. They spoke out in that way helped define the movement; the term "neoconservative" was popularized in the United States during 1973 by the socialist leader Michael Harrington, who used the term to define Daniel Bell, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Irving Kristol, whose ideologies differed from Harrington's. The "neoconservative" label was used by Irving Kristol in his 1979 article "Confessions of a True, Self-Confessed'Neoconservative'".
His ideas have been influential since the 1950s, when he co-founded and edited the magazine Encounter. Another source was Norman Podhoretz, editor of the magazine Commentary from 1960 to 1995. By 1982, Podhoretz was terming himself a neoconservative in The New York Times Magazine article titled "The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagan's Foreign Policy". During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the neoconservatives considered that liberalism had failed and "no longer knew what it was talking about", according to E. J. Dionne. Seymour Lipset asserts that the term "neoconservative" was used by socialists to criticize the politics of Social Democrats, USA. Jonah Goldberg argues that the term is ideological criticism against proponents of modern American liberalism who had become more conservative. In a book-length study for Harvard University Press, historian Justin Vaisse writes that Lipset and Goldberg are in error, as "neoconservative" was used by socialist Michael Harrington to describe three men – noted above – who were not in SDUSA, neoconservatism is a definable political movement.
The term "neoconservative" was the subject of increased media coverage during the presidency of George W. Bush, with particular emphasis on a perceived neoconservative influence on American foreign policy, as part of the Bush Doctrine. Through the 1950s and early 1960s, the future neoconservatives had endorsed the civil rights movement, racial integration and Martin Luther King Jr. From the 1950s to the 1960s, there was general endorsement among liberals for military action to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam. Neoconservatism was initiated by the repudiation of the Cold War and the "new politics" of the American New Left, which Norman Podhoretz said was too close to the counterculture and too alienated from the majority of the population. Many were alarmed by what they claimed were antisemitic sentiments from Black Power advocates. Irving Kristol edited the journal The Public Interest, featuring economists and political scientists, which emphasized ways that government planning in the liberal state had produced unintended harmful consequences.
Many early neoconservative political figures were disillusioned Democratic politicians and intellectuals, such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations, Jeane Kirkpatrick, who served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the Reagan administration. A substantial number of neoconservatives were moderate socialists associated with the right-wing of the Socialist Party of America and its successor, Social Democrats, USA. Max Shachtman, a former Trotskyist theorist who developed a strong antipathy towards the New Left, had numerous devotees among SDUSA with strong links to George Meany's AFL-CIO. Following Shachtman and Meany, this faction led the SP to oppose immediate withdrawal from the Vietnam War, oppose George McGovern in the Democratic primary race and, to some extent, the general election, they chose to cease their own party-building and concentrated on working within the Democratic Party influencing it through the Democratic Leadership Council.
Thus the Socialist Party dissolved in 1972, SDUSA emerged that year. (Most of the left-wing of the pa
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the mid-20th century. The origins to the conflict can be traced back to Jewish immigration and sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine between Jews and Arabs, it has been referred to as the world's "most intractable conflict", with the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip reaching 52 years. Despite a long-term peace process and the general reconciliation of Israel with Egypt and Jordan and Palestinians have failed to reach a final peace agreement; the key issues are: mutual recognition, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement, Palestinian right of return. The violence of the conflict, in a region rich in sites of historic and religious interest worldwide, has been the object of numerous international conferences dealing with historic rights, security issues and human rights, has been a factor hampering tourism in and general access to areas that are hotly contested.
Many attempts have been made to broker a two-state solution, involving the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. In 2007, the majority of both Israelis and Palestinians, according to a number of polls, preferred the two-state solution over any other solution as a means of resolving the conflict. Moreover, a majority of Jews see the Palestinians' demand for an independent state as just, thinks Israel can agree to the establishment of such a state; the majority of Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have expressed a preference for a two-state solution. Mutual distrust and significant disagreements are deep over basic issues, as is the reciprocal scepticism about the other side's commitment to upholding obligations in an eventual agreement. Within Israeli and Palestinian society, the conflict generates a wide variety of opinions; this highlights the deep divisions which exist not only between Israelis and Palestinians, but within each society.
A hallmark of the conflict has been the level of violence witnessed for its entire duration. Fighting has been conducted by regular armies, paramilitary groups, terror cells, individuals. Casualties have not been restricted to the military, with a large number of fatalities in civilian population on both sides. There are prominent international actors involved in the conflict; the two parties engaged in direct negotiation are the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Palestine Liberation Organization headed by Mahmoud Abbas. The official negotiations are mediated by an international contingent known as the Quartet on the Middle East represented by a special envoy, that consists of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations; the Arab League is another important actor. Egypt, a founding member of the Arab League, has been a key participant. Jordan, having relinquished its claim to the West Bank in 1988 and holding a special role in the Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem, has been a key participant.
Since 2006, the Palestinian side has been fractured by conflict between the two major factions: Fatah, the traditionally dominant party, its electoral challenger, Hamas. After Hamas's electoral victory in 2006, the Quartet conditioned future foreign assistance to the Palestinian National Authority on the future government's commitment to non-violence, recognition of the State of Israel, acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas rejected these demands, which resulted in the Quartet's suspension of its foreign assistance program, the imposition of economic sanctions by the Israelis. A year following Hamas's seizure of power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the territory recognized as the PA was split between Fatah in the West Bank, Hamas in the Gaza Strip; the division of governance between the parties had resulted in the collapse of bipartisan governance of the PA. However, in 2014, a Palestinian Unity Government, composed of both Fatah and Hamas, was formed; the latest round of peace negotiations began in July 2013 and was suspended in 2014.
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major nationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards attaining sovereignty for their people in the Middle East. The collision between those two forces in southern Levant and the emergence of Palestinian nationalism in the 1920s escalated into the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 1947, expanded into the wider Arab–Israeli conflict on; the return of several hard-line Palestinian Arab nationalists, under the emerging leadership of Haj Amin al-Husseini, from Damascus to Mandatory Palestine marked the beginning of Palestinian Arab nationalist struggle towards establishment of a national home for Arabs of Palestine. Amin al-Husseini, the architect of the Palestinian Arab national movement marked Jewish national movement and Jewish immigration to Palestine as the sole enemy to his cause, initiating large-scale riots against the Jews as early as 1920 in Jerusalem and in 1921 in Jaffa.
Among the results of the violence was the establishment of the Jewish paramilitary force Haganah. In 1929, a series of violent anti-Jewish riots was initiated by the Arab leadership; the riots resulted in massive Jewish casualties in Hebron and Safed, the evacuation of Jews from Hebron and Gaza. In the earl
New York (state)
New York is a state in the Northeastern United States. New York was one of the original thirteen colonies. With an estimated 19.54 million residents in 2018, it is the fourth most populous state. To distinguish the state from the city with the same name, it is sometimes called New York State; the state's most populous city, New York City, makes up over 40% of the state's population. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in the New York metropolitan area, nearly 40% lives on Long Island; the state and city were both named for the 17th century Duke of York, the future King James II of England. With an estimated population of 8.62 million in 2017, New York City is the most populous city in the United States and the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. The New York metropolitan area is one of the most populous in the world. New York City is a global city, home to the United Nations Headquarters and has been described as the cultural and media capital of the world, as well as the world's most economically powerful city.
The next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. The 27th largest U. S. state in land area, New York has a diverse geography. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut and Vermont to the east; the state has a maritime border with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the northwest. The southern part of the state is in the Atlantic coastal plain and includes Long Island and several smaller associated islands, as well as New York City and the lower Hudson River Valley; the large Upstate New York region comprises several ranges of the wider Appalachian Mountains, the Adirondack Mountains in the Northeastern lobe of the state. Two major river valleys – the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley – bisect these more mountainous regions. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes region and borders Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Niagara Falls.
The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, a popular vacation and tourist destination. New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. French colonists and Jesuit missionaries arrived southward from Montreal for trade and proselytizing. In 1609, the region was visited by Henry Hudson sailing for the Dutch East India Company; the Dutch built Fort Nassau in 1614 at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, where the present-day capital of Albany developed. The Dutch soon settled New Amsterdam and parts of the Hudson Valley, establishing the multicultural colony of New Netherland, a center of trade and immigration. England seized the colony from the Dutch in 1664. During the American Revolutionary War, a group of colonists of the Province of New York attempted to take control of the British colony and succeeded in establishing independence. In the 19th century, New York's development of access to the interior beginning with the Erie Canal, gave it incomparable advantages over other regions of the U.
S. built its political and cultural ascendancy. Many landmarks in New York are well known, including four of the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions in 2013: Times Square, Central Park, Niagara Falls, Grand Central Terminal. New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance, environmental sustainability. New York's higher education network comprises 200 colleges and universities, including Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, the United States Military Academy, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, University of Rochester, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rockefeller University, which have been ranked among the top 40 in the nation and world; the tribes in what is now New York were predominantly Algonquian. Long Island was divided in half between the Wampanoag and Lenape; the Lenape controlled most of the region surrounding New York Harbor.
North of the Lenape was the Mohicans. Starting north of them, from east to west, were three Iroquoian nations: the Mohawk, the original Iroquois and the Petun. South of them, divided along Appalachia, were the Susquehannock and the Erie. Many of the Wampanoag and Mohican peoples were caught up in King Philip's War, a joint effort of many New England tribes to push Europeans off their land. After the death of their leader, Chief Philip Metacomet, most of those peoples fled inland, splitting into the Abenaki and the Schaghticoke. Many of the Mohicans remained in the region until the 1800s, however, a small group known as the Ouabano migrated southwest into West Virginia at an earlier time, they may have merged with the Shawnee. The Mohawk and Susquehannock were the most militaristic. Trying to corner trade with the Europeans, they targeted other tribes; the Mohawk were known for refusing white settlement on their land and banishing any of their people who converted to Christianity. They posed a major threat to the Abenaki and Mohicans, while the Susquehannock conquered the Lenape in the 1600s.
The most devastating event of the century, was the Beaver Wars. From 1640–1680, Iroquoian peoples waged campaigns which extended from modern-day Michigan to Virginia against Algonquian and Siouan tribes, as well as each other; the ai
