History

History of Maine

The history of Maine begins with the descendants of the Indian Nations of the Micmac and Abnaki. The earliest inhabitants of these nations, dating back to around 3,000 B.C., were known as the “Red Paint” people because it was discovered that they used red clay as a protective lining on graves for their dead. Today you can find descendents from four major tribes: Micmacs, Maliseets, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddies.

One of the known Europeans to discover Maine was Leif Ericson who led 30 Vikings in search of land to the west of Greenland. Ericson made this voyage out of curiosity because he thought he saw land in this area after his ship had been blown off course. It is suspected that he possibility attempted to make a settlement off the Maine coast however not enough evidence exists to confirm this.

Other attempts to make settlements in the area were by John Cabot and the Plymouth Company. John Cabot was an Italian navigator commissioned by England’s King Henry VII and is credited as the first European to land and explore this North American region after the Vikings. It is believed that he may have explored the Maine Coastline around 1498. The Plymouth Company, an English joint venture with the purpose to build settlements in North America, attempted to establish a settlement in Maine in 1607. However, the harsh winters that were common in this area caused them to abandon their efforts.

During the first half of the 1700s, there were several land disputes in the region between France and England. This period was also known as the French and Indian Wars. It was the Treaty of Paris in 1763 that finally ended these disputes and gave England claim to the area. It also began a period when the area’s population began to grow due in part largely because of the absence of the Indian threat and the offering of 100-acre plots by Massachusetts to anyone wanting to settle here.

The Maine province also had its share of contributions and critical importance in the American Revolution. There are recorded events leading up to the war with the seizing of a sizeable quantity of tax stamps at Falmouth (modern day Portland) in 1765, several attacks on British customs agents,  and a tea party at York that mimicked the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Also, in 1775, Maine Patriots took part in the first naval battle when they captured the British cutter Margaretta in the vicinity of Machias.

Maine became a state in 1820, at the end of a separation movement spawned by settlers who no longer wanted to be ruled from Boston. At the time of statehood, Maine had a population of 300,000 spread across more than 200 cities.

The state went through periods of growth in several industries to include textiles, leather, and paper. Dairy and poultry farming have also been major players in the state’s prosperity. As with other states, the movement of the nation from a manufacturing to a service economy in the last half of the 20th century resulted in tourism being the top industry in the state to today.