The Connecticut Portal

Connecticut (/kəˈnɛtɪkət/ ^ⓘkə-NET-ih-kət) is astate in theNew England region of theNortheastern United States. It bordersRhode Island to the east,Massachusetts to the north,New York to the west, andLong Island Sound to the south. Its capital isHartford, and its most populous city isBridgeport. Connecticut lies between the major hubs ofNew York City andBoston along theNortheast Corridor, where theNew York-Newark Combined Statistical Area, which includes four of Connecticut's seven largest cities, extends into the southwestern part of the state. Connecticut is thethird-smallest state by area afterRhode Island andDelaware, and the29th most populous with more than 3.6 million residents as of 2024, ranking it fourth among themost densely populated U.S. states.

The state is named after theConnecticut River, the longest in New England, which roughly bisects the state and drains into the Long Island Sound between the towns ofOld Saybrook andOld Lyme. The name of the river is in turn derived from anglicized spellings ofQuinnetuket, aMohegan-Pequot word for "long tidal river". Before the arrival of the first European settlers, the region was inhabited by variousAlgonquian tribes. In 1633, theDutch West India Company established a small, short-lived settlement calledHouse of Hope in Hartford. Half of Connecticut was initially claimed by the Dutch colonyNew Netherland, which included much of the land between the Connecticut andDelaware Rivers, although the first major settlements were established by the English around the same time.Thomas Hooker led a band of followers from theMassachusetts Bay Colony to form theConnecticut Colony, while other settlers from Massachusetts founded theSaybrook Colony and theNew Haven Colony; both had merged into the first by 1664.

Connecticut's official nickname, the "Constitution State", refers to theFundamental Orders adopted by the Connecticut Colony in 1639, which is considered by some to be the first written constitution in Western history. As one of theThirteen Colonies that rejected British rule during theAmerican Revolution, Connecticut was influential in the development of thefederal government of the United States. In 1787,Roger Sherman andOliver Ellsworth, state delegates to theConstitutional Convention, proposeda compromise between theVirginia andNew Jersey Plans; itsbicameral structure forCongress, with a respectively proportional and equal representation of the states in theHouse of Representatives andSenate, was adopted and remains to this day. In January 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify theConstitution. (Full article...)