Editing Maine (section)

==History==

{{Main|History of Maine}}
[[File:The_Maine_State_Capitol_building_in_Augusta.jpg|thumb|[[Maine State House]], designed by [[Charles Bulfinch]], built 1829–1832]]
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Misty Morning, Coast of Maine - Arthur Parton - overall.jpg|thumb|''Misty Morning, Coast of Maine''{{br}}Arthur Parton (1842–1914). Between 1865 and 1870, [[Brooklyn Museum]].]]

The earliest known inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the [[Passamaquoddy]], [[Maliseet]], [[Penobscot people|Penobscot]], [[Androscoggin people|Androscoggin]], and Kennebec. During the later [[King Philip's War]], many of these peoples would merge in one form or another to become the [[Wabanaki Confederacy]], aiding the [[Wampanoag]] of [[Massachusetts]] and the [[Mahican]] of [[New York (state)|New York]]. Afterwards, many of these people were driven from their natural territories, but most of Maine's tribes continued, unchanged, until the [[American Revolution]]. Before this point, however, most of these people were considered separate nations. Many had adapted to living in permanent, [[Iroquois]]-inspired settlements, while those along the coast tended to move from summer villages to winter villages on a yearly cycle. They would usually winter inland and head to the coasts by summer.<ref>{{cite web|archive-date=March 3, 2013|url-status=live|url=http://www.celebrateboston.com/history/native-americans.htm|title=Native Americans or Indians in the Eastern United States in 1600|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303052614/http://www.celebrateboston.com/history/native-americans.htm|website=CelebrateBoston.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://tolatsga.org/aben.html|title=Abenaki|website=tolatsga.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100411025556/http://www.tolatsga.org/aben.html|archive-date=April 11, 2010}}</ref>

[[European exploration of North America|European contact]] with what is now called Maine may have started around 1000 CE when [[Norse colonization of North America|Vikings]] are believed to have interacted with the native [[Penobscot]] in present-day [[Hancock County, Maine|Hancock County]], most likely through trade. If confirmed, this would make Maine the site of the earliest European discovery in the entire US. About 200 years earlier, from the settlements in [[Iceland]] and [[Greenland]], the Norse [[Norse colonization of the Americas|first identified America]] and [[L'Anse aux Meadows|attempted to settle]] areas such as [[Newfoundland]], but failed to establish a permanent settlement. Archeological evidence suggests that [[Vikings in Greenland]] returned to North America for several [[Century|centuries]] after the initial discovery to trade and collect timber, with the most relevant evidence being the [[Maine penny|Maine Penny]], an 11th-century Norwegian coin found at a Native American dig site in 1954.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,919916,00.html|title=Science: Bye, Columbus|date=December 11, 1978|magazine=Time|url-status=live|archive-date=September 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925062930/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,919916,00.html}}</ref>

The first European confirmed settlement in modern-day Maine was in 1604 on [[Saint Croix Island, Maine|Saint Croix Island]], led by French explorer [[Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons]]. His party included [[Samuel de Champlain]], noted as an explorer. The French named the entire area [[Acadia]], including the portion that later became the state of Maine. (It is possible that they named the region Maine after the [[Maine (province)|French province]]; however, the origin of the name is uncertain.) The [[Plymouth Company]] established the first English settlement in Maine at the [[Popham Colony]] in 1607, the same year as the settlement at [[Jamestown, Virginia]]. The Popham colonists returned to [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]] after 14 months.<ref>[http://www.mpbn.net/homestom/p9pophamcolony.html MPBN, "Rolling Back the Frontier"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110704053256/http://www.mpbn.net/homestom/p9pophamcolony.html |date=July 4, 2011 }}, ''The Story of Maine''; accessed January 3, 2011</ref>

The French established two [[Jesuit]] missions: one on [[Penobscot Bay]] in 1609, and the other on [[Mount Desert Island]] in 1613. The same year, [[Claude de Saint-Étienne de la Tour|Claude de La Tour]] established [[Castine, Maine|Castine]]. In 1625, [[Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour]] erected [[Fort Pentagouet]] to protect Castine. The coastal areas of eastern Maine first became the [[Province of Maine]] in a 1622 land patent. The part of western Maine north of the [[Kennebec River]] was more sparsely settled and was known in the 17th century as the [[Territory of Sagadahock]]. A second settlement was attempted in 1623 by English explorer and naval Captain [[Christopher Levett]] at a place called [[York, Maine|York]], where he had been granted {{convert|6000|acre|km2}} by [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]] of England.<ref name="Society1884">{{cite book|author=Massachusetts Historical Society|title=Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bx4XAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA339|year=1884|publisher=The Society|pages=339–}}</ref> It also failed.

The 1622 patent of the Province of Maine was split at the [[Piscataqua River]] into the [[Province of New Hampshire]] to the south and [[New Somersetshire]] to the north. A disputed 1630 patent split off the area around present-day [[Saco, Maine|Saco]] as [[Lygonia]]. Justifying its actions with a 1652 geographic survey that showed an overlapping patent, the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] had seized New Somersetshire and Lygonia by force by 1658. The [[Territory of Sagadahock]] between the [[Kennebec River]] and [[St. Croix River (Maine–New Brunswick)|St. Croix River]] notionally became [[Cornwall County, Province of New York]] under a 1664 grant from [[Charles II of England]] to his [[James II of England|brother James]], at the time the [[Duke of York]]. Some of this land was claimed by [[New France]] as part of [[Acadia]]. All of the English settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Province of New York became part of the [[Dominion of New England]] in 1686. All of present-day Maine was unified as [[York County, Massachusetts]] under a 1691 royal patent for the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]].

Central Maine was formerly inhabited by the [[Androscoggin tribe]] of the [[Abenaki|Abenaki nation]], also known as Arosaguntacook. They were driven out of the area in 1690 during [[King William's War]]. They were relocated to [[Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec|St. Francis]], Canada, which was destroyed by [[Rogers' Rangers]] in 1759, and is now [[Odanak]]. The other Abenaki tribes suffered several severe defeats, particularly during [[Dummer's War]], with the capture of [[Norridgewock]] in 1724 and the defeat of the [[Pequawket]] in 1725, which significantly reduced their numbers. They finally withdrew to [[Canada]], where they were settled at [[Bécancour, Quebec|Bécancour]] and [[Sillery, Quebec City|Sillery]], and later at St. Francis, along with other refugee tribes from the south.<ref>Bruce G. Trigger (ed.): ''[[Handbook of North American Indians]]. Vol. 15. Northeast''. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1978 {{ISBN|0-16-004575-4}}</ref>

Maine was much fought over by the [[French colonial empire|French]], English, and allied natives during the 17th and 18th centuries. These natives conducted raids against settlers and each other, taking captives for ransom or, in some cases, kidnapped for adoption by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes. A notable example was the early 1692 [[Abenaki]] [[Raid on York (1692)|raid on York]], where about 100 English settlers were killed and another estimated 80 taken hostage.<ref>"[http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010201/NEWS/302019986 York commemorates Candlemas Raid] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202070544/http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20010201%2FNEWS%2F302019986 |date=December 2, 2018 }}". ''[[The Portsmouth Herald]]''. February 1, 2001.</ref> The [[Abenaki]] took captives taken during raids of [[Massachusetts]] in [[Queen Anne's War]] of the early 1700s to [[Kahnewake]], a Catholic [[Mohawk nation|Mohawk]] village near [[Montreal]], where some were adopted and others ransomed.<ref>John Demos, ''The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, pp. 186 and 224</ref><ref>[http://www.wampumchronicles.com/history.html Darren Bonaparte, "The History of Akwesasne"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008101830/http://www.wampumchronicles.com/history.html |date=October 8, 2011 }}, ''The Wampum Chronicles'', accessed February 1, 2010</ref>

After the British defeated the French in Acadia in the 1740s, the territory from the [[Penobscot River]] east fell under the nominal authority of the [[Nova Scotia|Province of Nova Scotia]], and together with present-day New Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia county of [[Sunbury County, Nova Scotia|Sunbury]], with its court of general sessions at Campobello. American and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812, with the British occupying eastern Maine in both conflicts via the [[New Ireland (Maine)|Colony of New Ireland]].<ref>{{cite news|title=New Ireland: How Maine almost became part of Canada at the end of the War of 1812|url=https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/new-ireland-how-maine-almost-became-part-of-canada-at-the-end-of-the-war-of-1812|newspaper=[[National Post]]|date=September 3, 2014}}</ref><ref>Woodard, Colin. [http://www.colinwoodard.com/lobstercoast ''The Lobster Coast''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219044647/http://www.colinwoodard.com/lobstercoast |date=February 19, 2012 }}. New York. Viking/Penguin, {{ISBN|0-670-03324-3}}, 2004, pp. 139–140, 150–151</ref> The territory of Maine was confirmed as part of Massachusetts when the United States was formed following the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] ending the revolution, although the final border with [[British North America]] was not established until the [[Webster–Ashburton Treaty]] of 1842.

Maine was physically separate from the rest of Massachusetts. Longstanding disagreements over land speculation and settlements led to Maine residents and their allies in Massachusetts proper forcing an 1807 vote in the Massachusetts Assembly on permitting Maine to secede; the vote failed. Secessionist sentiment in Maine was stoked during the [[War of 1812]] when Massachusetts pro-British merchants opposed the war and refused to defend Maine from British invaders. In 1819, Massachusetts agreed to permit secession, sanctioned by voters of the rapidly growing region the following year.

{{Anchor|Statehood}}<!-- Link from Missouri Compromise -->

===Statehood and Missouri Compromise===

Formal secession from Massachusetts and admission of Maine as the 23rd state occurred on March 15, 1820, as part of the [[Missouri Compromise]], which geographically restricted the spread of [[slavery]] and enabled the admission to statehood of [[Missouri]] the following year, keeping a balance between [[slave state|slave]] and free states.<ref>Woodard, Colin. "Parallel 44: Origins of the Mass Effect", ''The Working Waterfront'', August 31, 2010. [http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Parallel-44-Origins-of-the-Mass-Effect/14024/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523025705/http://www.workingwaterfront.com/columns/Parallel-44-Origins-of-the-Mass-Effect/14024/|date=May 23, 2011}}</ref><ref>Woodard, Colin. ''The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators and the Forgotten Frontier'' (2004) Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-670-03324-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maine.gov/legis/senate/statehouse/history/hstry5.htm|title=Maine History (Statehood)|publisher=www.maine.gov|access-date=April 13, 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504060335/http://www.maine.gov/legis/senate/statehouse/history/hstry5.htm|archive-date=May 4, 2008}}</ref>

Maine's original state capital was Portland, Maine's largest city, until it was moved to the more central Augusta in 1832. The principal office of the [[Maine Supreme Judicial Court]] remains in Portland.

The [[20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment]], under the command of Colonel [[Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain]], prevented the [[Union Army]] from being flanked at [[Little Round Top]] by the [[Confederate Army]] during the [[Battle of Gettysburg]].

Four [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] ships have been named [[USS Maine|USS ''Maine'']], most famously the [[armored cruiser]] {{USS|Maine|ACR-1}}, whose sinking by an explosion on February 15, 1898, precipitated the [[Spanish–American War]].