Connecticut is one of the earliest places that was settled by European colonists, and its role as part of the larger North American society, as well as its population, and how its land gets used has changed over time. Here we will discuss some of the changes that have taken place in Connecticut over time.
This state, on the northeastern seaboard of the United States, was originally settled by people from the Massachusetts colony who wanted to flee from the oppressive regime instituted by the Puritans and their government, allowing for a state that had more personal freedoms. So, thus, the original European-based settlers to the area were British. Over time, as it eventually became part of the United States of America, they eventually started getting a large flow of Irish immigrants, and then a large flow of people from Eastern Europe and Italy. Eventually, even though British-American was the largest population group at first, the Italian-American population became the largest group within the state.
Although farming was the original mainstay of the early population, the fact that the soil was very rocky made it quite difficult to plow land. Over time, as industry developed, people started leaving their farming lifestyles behind for the cities, to work in the factories and other industry-based businesses that were becoming present in ever-increasing numbers. Eventually, by the time the twenty-first century rolled around, agriculture accounted for only about one percent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). During the twentieth century, an ever-increasing amount of the state’s economy and jobs was directly tied to the Military-Industrial complex, and during a part of that era, one of the state’s biggest employer being directly tied to the manufacture of submarines, and another good part of the employment coming from the manufacture of arms.
Things are continually and slowly changing, even now, for this state. Manufacturing and Industry continue to become an ever-decreasing share of the state’s GDP as the insurance business, tourism, art, and gambling take an ever-increasing roll in providing jobs, income, and contributing to the GDP.
There are other factors to also keep in mind concerning Connecticut and how it has changed over time. For one, since farming has taken less of a role in life and manufacturing, industry, and other city-jobs has taken a huge role, the population changed over time from being a highly rural population to being one that is highly urbanized. Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that not only does the population come from a British, Italian, or Eastern European background, but they also have a large number of people from German, Polish, and French backgrounds, as well as other nations in Europe, as well as African-Americans, Latino-Americans, and Asian-Americans, and an ever-increasing number of people from the Middle East or India. There, of course, is also small remnants of the original Native American Indian population, who, at present, seem to be doing quite well with their casinos, such as the Pequots, who have one of the largest casinos in the world.
A Few Other Changes
Here are a few other changes that have taken place in Connecticut over the centuries:
- The industrial base of America is no longer in Connecticut, or New England for that matter, but has moved farther west to our Midwest.
- From an agricultural standpoint, it is no longer a part of America’s breadbasket, with food production having moved farther west to the Midwest and the Great Plains.
- From a religious standpoint, although in the beginning a majority of the population was either Baptist or Episcopal (Anglican), eventually the Methodist church took an ever-increasing number of people away from those other two churches (after George Whitfield arrived on the scene in the 1700’s). Eventually, because of the large amount of immigrants coming from lands that were primarily Roman Catholic (suggesting that by this time people weren’t coming over as much to escape religious persecution because they were part of a breakaway sect, but came over instead to improve their personal well-being, even though they may have stuck with their previous country’s state church), the largest single sect in Connecticut became Roman Catholicism, with 32% of the population. Although protestant churches individually don’t account for even one-third of the amount of people as the Catholic church (the largest Protestant sect is the Baptist church with about 10% of state’s population count), together they account for a larger percentage of the entire religious population (40%). In other words, regional variation in terms of religion has changed over time.
- If creating a map that divided the continent into regions based on their ancestry, the area would have changed from being primarily English in colonial days (90+%) to having their largest ancestry pool being the Italians and Irish, who, together, only make up 37% of the total population.
These are just a few of the ways that Connecticut has changed over time. And, Connecticut continues to change. With immigration to the United States an ongoing endeavor, and with most immigrants coming from other parts of the world other than Europe, with different religious, philosophical and cultural backgrounds, the religious, ethnic and political cultures will continue to evolve and change, as well as the economy, becoming more complicated and diverse than ever before. Banking and insurance will also still continue to be important in the business sector, and so will manufacturing, into the foreseeable future.
