New York, often called 

New York City[a] or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With

a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), New York City is
the most densely populated major city in the United States and more than twice as populous as Los
Angeles, the nation's second-largest city. New York City is located at the southern tip of New York
State. It constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and
the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population
and urban area. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in
its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities,
and over 58 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the city.[10] New York City is
a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on
commerce, health care and life sciences,[11] research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining,
art, fashion, and sports. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important
center for international diplomacy,[12][13] and is sometimes described as the capital of the world. [14][15]
Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors and extending into the Atlantic Ocean, New
York City comprises five boroughs, each of which is coextensive with a respective county of the
state of New York. The five boroughs, which were created in 1898 when local governments
were consolidated into a single municipal entity, are: Brooklyn (in Kings County), Queens (in Queens
County), Manhattan (in New York County), The Bronx (in Bronx County), and Staten Island (in
Richmond County).[16]
As of 2021, the New York metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan economy in the world with
a gross metropolitan product of over $2.4 trillion. If the New York metropolitan area were a sovereign
state, it would have the eighth-largest economy in the world. New York City is an established safe
haven for global investors.[17] New York is home to the highest number of billionaires,[18][19] individuals
of ultra-high net worth (greater than US$30 million),[20] and millionaires[21] of any city in the world.
The city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United
States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York,[22] making it the most linguistically
diverse city in the world. New York City is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the
U.S., the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world as of 2016. [23]
New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island
by Dutch colonists in approximately 1624. The settlement was named New
Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam) in 1626 and was chartered as a city in 1653. The city came
under British control in 1664 and was renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted
the lands to his brother, the Duke of York.[24][25] The city was regained by the Dutch in July 1673 and
was renamed New Orange for one year and three months; the city has been continuously named
New York since November 1674. New York City was the capital of the United States from 1785 until
1790,[26] and has been the largest U.S. city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of
immigrants as they came to the U.S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a
symbol of the U.S. and its ideals of liberty and peace. [27] In the 21st century, New York City has
emerged as a global node of creativity, entrepreneurship,[28] and as a symbol of freedom and cultural
diversity.[29] The New York Times has won the most Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and remains the
U.S. media's "newspaper of record".[30] In 2019, New York City was voted the greatest city in the
world in a survey of over 30,000 people from 48 cities worldwide, citing its cultural diversity. [31]
Many districts and monuments in New York City are major landmarks, including three of the world's
ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013. [32] A record 66.6 million tourists visited New York City in
2019. Times Square is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District,[33] one of the
world's busiest pedestrian intersections [32] and a major center of the world's entertainment industry.
[34]
 Many of the city's landmarks, skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world, and the city's
fast pace led to the phrase New York minute. The Empire State Building is a global standard of
reference to describe the height and length of other structures. [35]
Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world. [36][37] Providing continuous
24/7 service and contributing to the nickname The City That Never Sleeps, the New York City
Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system in the world with 472 passenger rail
stations, and Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan is the busiest transportation hub in the Western
Hemisphere.[38] The city has over 120 colleges and universities, including Columbia University, an Ivy
League university routinely ranked among the world's top universities, [39] New York University, and
the City University of New York system, the largest urban public university system in the nation.
Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called
both the world's leading financial center[40] and the most economically powerful city in the world,
[41]
 and is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New
York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.[42][43]
The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, part of the Stonewall National Monument, is considered the
historic epicenter of LGBTQ+ culture[44] and the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.[45]
[46]
 New York City is the headquarters of the global art market, with numerous art
galleries and auction houses collectively hosting half of the world’s art auctions, and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art is both the largest art museum and the most visited museum in the United States.
[47]
 Governors Island in New York Harbor is planned to host a US$1 billion research and education
center addressing the climate crisis.[48]

Etymology
See also: Nicknames of New York City
In 1664, New York was named in honor of the Duke of York, who would become King James II of
England.[49] James's elder brother, King Charles II, appointed the Duke as proprietor of the former
territory of New Netherland, including the city of New Amsterdam, when England seized it from
Dutch control.[50]

History
Main article: History of New York City
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of New York City.

Early history
In the pre-Columbian era, the area of present-day New York City was inhabited
by Algonquian Native Americans, including the Lenape. Their homeland, known as Lenapehoking,
included the present-day areas of Staten Island, Manhattan, the Bronx, the western portion of Long
Island (including the areas that would later become the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens), and
the Lower Hudson Valley.[51]
The first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by Italian Giovanni
da Verrazzano, an explorer from Florence in the service of the French crown.[52] He claimed the area
for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême (New Angoulême).[53] A Spanish expedition, led by the
Portuguese captain Estêvão Gomes sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in
January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Río de San
Antonio ('Saint Anthony's River'). The Padrón Real of 1527, the first scientific map to show the East
Coast of North America continuously, was informed by Gomes' expedition and labeled
the northeastern United States as Tierra de Esteban Gómez in his honor.[54]
In 1609, the English explorer Henry Hudson rediscovered New York Harbor while searching for
the Northwest Passage to the Orient for the Dutch East India Company.[55] He proceeded to sail up
what the Dutch would name the North River (now the Hudson River), named first by Hudson as
the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange. Hudson's first mate described the harbor as "a very
good Harbour for all windes" and the river as "a mile broad" and "full of fish". [56] Hudson sailed
roughly 150 miles (240 km) north,[57] past the site of the present-day New York State capital
city of Albany, in the belief that it might be an oceanic tributary before the river became too shallow
to continue.[56] He made a ten-day exploration of the area and claimed the region for the Dutch East
India Company. In 1614, the area between Cape Cod and Delaware Bay was claimed by the
Netherlands and called Nieuw-Nederland ('New Netherland').
The first non–Native American inhabitant of what would eventually become New York City was Juan
Rodriguez (transliterated to the Dutch language as Jan Rodrigues), a merchant from Santo
Domingo. Born in Santo Domingo of Portuguese and African descent, he arrived in Manhattan
during the winter of 1613–14, trapping for pelts and trading with the local population as a
representative of the Dutch. Broadway, from 159th Street to 218th Street in Upper Manhattan, is
named Juan Rodriguez Way in his honor. [58][59]

Dutch rule

An illustration of New Amsterdam located in present-day Lower Manhattan in 1664, the year England took

control and renamed it New York

A permanent European presence near New York Harbor was established in 1624, making New York
the 12th-oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United
States[60]—with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625,
construction was started on a citadel and Fort Amsterdam, later called Nieuw Amsterdam (New
Amsterdam), on present-day Manhattan Island.[61][62] The colony of New Amsterdam was centered on
what would ultimately be known as Lower Manhattan. Its area extended from the southern tip of
Manhattan to modern day Wall Street, where a 12-foot wooden stockade was built in 1653 to protect
against Native American and British raids.[63] In 1626, the Dutch colonial Director-General Peter
Minuit, acting as charged by the Dutch West India Company, purchased the island of Manhattan
from the Canarsie, a small Lenape band,[64] for "the value of 60 guilders"[65] (about $900 in 2018).[66] A
disproved legend claims that Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of glass beads. [67][68]
Following the purchase, New Amsterdam grew slowly.[25] To attract settlers, the Dutch instituted
the patroon system in 1628, whereby wealthy Dutchmen (patroons, or patrons) who brought 50
colonists to New Netherland would be awarded swaths of land, along with local political autonomy
and rights to participate in the lucrative fur trade. This program had little success. [69]
Since 1621, the Dutch West India Company had operated as a monopoly in New Netherland, on
authority granted by the Dutch States General. In 1639–1640, in an effort to bolster economic
growth, the Dutch West India Company relinquished its monopoly over the fur trade, leading to
growth in the production and trade of food, timber, tobacco, and slaves (particularly with the Dutch
West Indies).[25][70]
In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant began his tenure as the last Director-General of New Netherland. During
his tenure, the population of New Netherland grew from 2,000 to 8,000. [71][72] Stuyvesant has been
credited with improving law and order in the colony; however, he also earned a reputation as
a despotic leader. He instituted regulations on liquor sales, attempted to assert control over
the Dutch Reformed Church, and blocked other religious groups (including Quakers, Jews,
and Lutherans) from establishing houses of worship. [73] The Dutch West India Company would
eventually attempt to ease tensions between Stuyvesant and residents of New Amsterdam. [74]

English rule

An illustration of Fort George and the City of New York c. 1731. Royal Navy ships of the line are seen guarding
what would become New York Harbor.

In 1664, unable to summon any significant resistance, Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to
English troops, led by Colonel Richard Nicolls, without bloodshed.[73][74] The terms of the surrender
permitted Dutch residents to remain in the colony and allowed for religious freedom. [75] In 1667,
during negotiations leading to the Treaty of Breda after the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch
decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of what is now Suriname (on the northern South
American coast) they had gained from the English; and in return, the English kept New Amsterdam.
The fledgling settlement was promptly renamed "New York" after the Duke of York (the future King
James II and VII), who would eventually be deposed in the Glorious Revolution.[76] After the founding,
the duke gave part of the colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley. Fort Orange,
150 miles (240 km) north on the Hudson River, was renamed Albany after James's Scottish title.
[77]
 The transfer was confirmed in 1667 by the Treaty of Breda, which concluded the Second Anglo-
Dutch War.[78]
On August 24, 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Dutch captain Anthony Colve seized the
colony of New York from the English at the behest of Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and
rechristened it "New Orange" after William III, the Prince of Orange.[79] The Dutch would soon return
the island to England under the Treaty of Westminster of November 1674.[80][81]
Several intertribal wars among the Native Americans and some epidemics brought on by contact
with the Europeans caused sizeable population losses for the Lenape between the years 1660 and
1670.[82] By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200. [83] New York experienced
several yellow fever epidemics in the 18th century, losing ten percent of its population to the disease
in 1702 alone.[84][85]

Province of New York and slavery

An illustration of Columbia University, an Ivy League university today considered one of the world's top
academic institutions, was founded by royal charter in 1754 under the name King's College.
In the early 18th century, New York grew in importance as a trading port while as a part of the colony
of New York.[86] It also became a center of slavery, with 42% of households enslaving Africans by
1730, the highest percentage outside Charleston, South Carolina.[87] Most cases were that
of domestic slavery, as a New York household then commonly enslaved few or several people.
Others were hired out to work at labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York's economy
through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banking and shipping industries trading with
the American South. During construction in Foley Square in the 1990s, the African Burying
Ground was discovered; the cemetery included 10,000 to 20,000 of graves of colonial-era Africans,
some enslaved and some free.[88]
The 1735 trial and acquittal in Manhattan of John Peter Zenger, who had been accused of seditious
libel after criticizing colonial governor William Cosby, helped to establish the freedom of the press in
North America.[89] In 1754, Columbia University was founded under charter by King George II as
King's College in Lower Manhattan.[90]

American Revolution

An illustration of the Battle of Long Island, one of the largest battles of the American Revolutionary War, which
took place in Brooklyn on August 27, 1776.

The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765, as the Sons of Liberty organization

emerged in the city and skirmished over the next ten years with British troops stationed there.
[91]
 The Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War, was fought in
August 1776 within the modern-day borough of Brooklyn. [92] After the battle, in which the Americans
were defeated, the British made the city their military and political base of operations in North
America. The city was a haven for Loyalist refugees and escaped slaves who joined the British lines
for freedom newly promised by the Crown for all fighters. As many as 10,000 escaped slaves
crowded into the city during the British occupation. When the British forces evacuated at the close of
the war in 1783, they transported 3,000 freedmen for resettlement in Nova Scotia.[93] They resettled
other freedmen in England and the Caribbean.
The only attempt at a peaceful solution to the war took place at the Conference House on Staten
Island between American delegates, including Benjamin Franklin, and British general Lord Howe on
September 11, 1776. Shortly after the British occupation began, the Great Fire of New
York occurred, a large conflagration on the West Side of Lower Manhattan, which destroyed about a
quarter of the buildings in the city, including Trinity Church.[94]
In 1785, the assembly of the Congress of the Confederation made New York City the national capital
shortly after the war. New York was the last capital of the U.S. under the Articles of
Confederation and the first capital under the Constitution of the United States. New York City as the
U.S. capital hosted several events of national scope in 1789—the first President of the United
States, George Washington, was inaugurated; the first United States Congress and the Supreme
Court of the United States each assembled for the first time; and the United States Bill of Rights was
drafted, all at Federal Hall on Wall Street.[95] In 1790, New York surpassed Philadelphia as the
nation's largest city. At the end of that year, pursuant to the Residence Act, the national capital was
moved to Philadelphia.[96][97]