New york city - Research Paper Example

Early Development New York prior to the arrival of Europeans was home to Native American communities particularly the Lenape people. The Lenape were a community that resided there with their main economic activities being subsistence farming; the men would hunt and fish while agriculture was left as an economic activity mainly for the women. The arrival of Europeans can be traced back to the era when the Dutch arrived into America. Many believe that the Native Americans traded what is now the most valuable piece of real estate in the world for twenty-four dollars either in cash or for beads and trinkets whose value amounted to twenty-four dollars (Burrows & Wallace 15).

This story has not been proved true and is perhaps an origin myth that is common to all cities such as that of Romulus and Remus in Rome. The arrival of Dutch settlers began in 1624 when they made the area to be a trading post for the colonists and they named it New Amsterdam. Arrival of the British With the expansion of the British Empire, the British took control of New Amsterdam and renamed it to New York as the then king and incumbent Prince of Wales Charles II decided to give it as a present to his brother the Duke of York.

The British conquest of New York changed it from a small trading colony to a rapidly expanding urban center as many immigrants came from Britain, Germany and Netherlands with their families as well as slaves from Africa and servants. As more immigrants arrived from Europe, New York City became a crucial point for the American Revolution since it was where Anti-British sentiment began. It is imperative to note that when the British government passed the Stamp Act of 1765, New York closed its ports and protests against the government erupted with effigies of the ruling class being burnt.

As America went into its struggle for independence, New York City was taken over by the British due to its administrative and economic importance, in order to cut the revolutionaries from the rest of the world, and so the city functioned as a military base from 1776 until 1783 when the British handed it over to the Americans. New York After Independence After America won the state from the British Empire, it developed quickly as an international trading port due to its geographical location and with the growth of the cotton industry, it was an important port for textile manufacturers to set up their factories as they exported the cloth to Manchester and other parts of the world.

The city of New York did not however grow without facing some hindrances such as sanitation and insecurity. A large portion of the city was also uneducated and so problems would arise when searching for highly skilled labor. The presence of the large uneducated masses that could not access the same opportunities as the wealthy led to the doctors riots of 1788 due to people’s disapproval at the display and dissection of a dead body. In 1798, a Yellow Fever outbreak resulted in the death of over three thousand people in that year alone showing the cities inability to cope with an epidemic outbreak (Belden 21).

With such problems facing the city, the government in place had to increase the number of the police and with the fame of New York Police Department spread for its efficiency and knowledge in crime management (Belden 47). Due to its location as a business hub and the constant entry of immigrants from New York, it soon developed as a