Massachusetts (Commonwealth of)

## Overview

Massachusetts, officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. Massachusetts is the broader location of Arkham County and is the state in which much of the Cthulhu mythos takes place.

## Brief History

### Early History

Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family, including: Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. The first English colonizers in Massachusetts, the Puritans, arrived on the *Mayflower* at Plymouth in 1620. This was the second permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, after the Jamestown Colony. The "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Puritans after their first harvest in the "New World" and lasted for three days. They were soon followed by other Puritans, who colonized the Massachusetts Bay Colony--now known as Boston--in 1630. During the early 1600s, European colonizers caused virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, measles, influenza, and perhaps leptospirosis in what is now known as the north-eastern region of the United States. Between 1617 and 1619, what was most likely smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans.

In 1641, Massachusetts expanded inland significantly. The Commonwealth acquired the Connecticut River Valley settlement of Springfield, which had recently disputed with—and defected from—its original administrators, the Connecticut Colony. This established Massachusetts's southern border in the west, though this became disputed territory until 1803–04 due to surveying problems.

In 1691, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth were united (along with present-day Maine, which had previously been divided between Massachusetts and New York) into the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Shortly after the arrival of the new province's first governor, William Phips, the Salem witch trials took place, where a number of men and women were hanged for alleged witchcraft.

The most destructive earthquake yet known in New England occurred in 1755, causing considerable damage across Massachusetts.

### Revolutionary War (1775-1783)

Massachusetts was a centre of the movement for independence from Great Britain; colonists in Massachusetts had long uneasy relations with the British monarchy, including open rebellion under the Dominion of New England in the 1680s. Protests against British attempts to tax the colonies after the French and Indian War ended in 1763 led to the Boston Massacre in 1770, and the 1773 Boston Tea Party escalated tensions. In 1774, the Intolerable Acts targeted Massachusetts with punishments for the Boston Tea Party and further decreased local autonomy, increasing local dissent. Anti-Parliamentary activity by men such as Samuel Adams and John Hancock, followed by reprisals by the British government, were a primary reason for the unity of the Thirteen Colonies and the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord initiated the American Revolutionary War and were fought in the eponymous Massachusetts towns. Future President George Washington took over what would become the Continental Army after the battle. His first victory was the Siege of Boston in the winter of 1775–76, after which the British were forced to evacuate the city. The event is still celebrated in Suffolk County as Evacuation Day. On the coast, Salem became a centre for privateering. Although the documentation is incomplete, about 1,700 letters of marque, issued on a per-voyage basis, were granted during the American Revolution. Nearly 800 vessels were commissioned as privateers and are credited with capturing or destroying about 600 British ships.

On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

### US Civil War (1861-1865)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts played a significant role in national events prior to and during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Although Massachusetts was the first slave-holding colony dating back to the early 1600s, in the years leading up to the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a centre of progressivist and abolitionist activity which included several historic figures in the anti-slavery movement.

Despite significant opposition to abolitionism existing early on in Massachusetts (resulting in anti-abolitionist riots between 1835 and 1837), opposition to slavery gradually increased throughout the next few decades. Abolitionists John Brown and Sojourner Truth lived in Springfield and Northampton, respectively, while Frederick Douglass lived in Boston and Susan B. Anthony in Adams, Massachusetts. The works of such abolitionists contributed to Massachusetts's actions during the Civil War. The state was dominated by the Republican Party and was also home to many Radical Republican leaders who promoted harsh treatment of slave owners and, later, the former civilian leaders of the Confederate States of America and the military officers in the Confederate States Army.

Once hostilities began, Massachusetts supported the war effort in several significant ways, sending 159,165 men to serve in the Union Army and the Union Navy for the loyal North. One of the best known Massachusetts units was the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first regiment of African American soldiers (led by white officers). Additionally, a number of important generals came from Massachusetts, including Benjamin F. Butler, Joseph Hooker, who commanded the Federal Army of the Potomac in early 1863, as well as Edwin V. Sumner and Darius N. Couch, who both successively commanded the II Corps of the Union Army.

In terms of war materiel, Massachusetts, as a leading centre of industry and manufacturing, was poised to become a major producer of munitions and supplies. The most important source of armaments in Massachusetts was the Springfield Armory of the United States Department of War.

The state also made important contributions to relief efforts. Many leaders of nursing and soldiers' aid organizations hailed from Massachusetts, including Dorothea Dix, founder of the Army Nurses Bureau, the Rev. Henry Whitney Bellows, founder of the United States Sanitary Commission, and independent nurse Clara Barton, future founder of the American Red Cross.

### Early 20th century and the Great Depression (1900-1950)

Even before the Great Depression struck the United States, Massachusetts was experiencing economic problems. The crash of the Commonwealth's major industries led to declining population in factory towns. The Boston metropolitan area became one of the slowest-growing areas in the United States between 1920 and 1950. Internal migration within the Commonwealth, however, was altered by the Great Depression. In the wake of economic woes, people moved to the metropolitan area of Boston looking for jobs, only to find high unemployment and dismal conditions. In the depressed situation that predominated in Boston during this era, racial tension sometimes manifested itself in gang warfare, notably with clashes between the Irish and Italians.

Massachusetts also endured class conflict during this period. In the 1912 general strike in Lawrence, almost all of the town's mills were forced to shut down as a result of strife over wages that sustained only poverty. The Commonwealth was confronted with issues of worker conditions and wages. For example, when the legislature decreed that women and children could work only 50 hours per week, employers cut wages proportionally. Eventually, the demands of the Lawrence strikers were heeded, and a pay increase was made.

World War II precipitated great changes in the economy of Massachusetts, which led to changes in society. The aftermath of WWII created a global economy that was focused upon the interests of the United States, both militarily and in relation to business. The domestic economy in the United States was altered by government procurement policies focused on defines. During WWII, the U.S. government had built facilities that they leased, and in the post-war years sold, to defence contractors. Such facilities contributed to an economy focused on creating specialized defence goods.

The post-war economic and social turmoil in Massachusetts marked the beginning of a change in the Commonwealth's way of functioning. Massachusetts manufactured 3.4 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking tenth among the 48 states. However, the two major industries of Massachusetts - shoes and textiles - had declined in a way that even the post-World War II economic boom could not reverse. Thus, the Commonwealth's economy was ripe for change as the post-war years dawned.

## Timeline of Massachusetts 20th century key events (1900-1947)

Below is a timeline of key events from Massachusetts history between 1900 and 1947, which is considered the current gameplay year.

**1903** - First Trans-Atlantic Radio Broadcast made by from Marconi Station at Wellfleet when President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII of Great Britain exchanged greetings.

**1905** - Typhoid outbreak sweeps Arkham County.

**1907** - World's first motorized fire wagon developed by Knox Manufacturing Company.

**1912** - Textile workers go on strike in Lawrence.

**1914** - Canal links Cape Cod Bay with Buzzards Bay.

**1914-1918** - Great War. Massachusetts provides thousands of troops to the war effort, particularly within the 26th Infantry Division of the American Expeditionary Force.

**1920** - Governor Calvin Coolidge elected vice-president; becomes 30th president of United States in 1923.

**1924** - L. Sherman Adams introduced the world's first mutual fund.

**1925** - Edith Nourse Rogers (Republican - Massachusetts) was the first woman to serve in the U. S. House of Representatives. She was the longest serving women in House and introduced the GI Bill of Rights among other major initiatives.

**1920-27** - Sacco-Vanzetti case gains world attention.

**1926** - The first successful liquid fuel rocket launched by Dr. Robert Goddard in Auburn.

**1927-1928** - Large federal task force lays siege to Innsmouth in Arkham County as part of the wider Prohibition-era crackdown on alcohol smugglers.

**1928** - The first computer, a non-electronic "differential analyzer," developed by Dr. Vannevar Bush of M.I.T. in Cambridge.

**1930 -** Clarence Birdseye conducted first test of his quick-freezing process, including twenty-six different vegetables, fruits, fish, and meats.

**1930-1939** - Economic depression; internal migration of population to major cities in search of work; high levels of unemployment and gang violence between immigrant groups.

**1939-1945** - World War 2. Massachusetts manufactures 3.4 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking tenth among the 48 states. Goods manufactured are principally in relation to shoes, textiles; however, substantial production of armaments for the United States military is undertaken at the Springfield Armory in Springfield and the Barchester Armory in Arkham.

**1944** - Howard Aiken of Harvard develops the first automatic digital computer.

**1947** - Percy Spencer of Raytheon Corp. invented the microwave oven, the Radarange. The first oven was 750 lb and 5-1/2 feet tall. Today over 200 million microwaves are in use. Edwin Land demonstrates "one-step photography system" - the first Polaroid Land Camera. Dr. Sidney Farber introduced chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer, achieving the first cases of remission of acute childhood leukaemia.