The history of New York City (prehistory-1664) began with the geological formation of the peculiar territory of what is today New York City. The area was long inhabited by the Lenape; after initial European exploration, the Dutch established New Amsterdam and New Netherland. In 1664, the British conquered the area and renamed it New York.
The history of New York City (1665-1783) began with the establishment of English rule over formerly Dutch New Amsterdam and New Netherland. As the newly renamed City of New York and surrounding areas developed, there was a growing independent feeling among some, but the area was decidedly split in its loyalties. The site of modern New York City was the theatre of the New York Campaign, a series of major battles in the early American Revolutionary War.
The history of New York City (1784-1854) started with the establishment of the city as the temporary capital of the new United States in 1785. The city grew as an economic center with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825; the growth of its railroads would complete its dominance. Tammany Hall began to grow in influence with the support of many of the immigrant Irish, culminating in the election of the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1854.
The history of New York City (1855-1897) started with the inauguration in 1855 of Fernando Wood as the first mayor from Tammany Hall, an institution that would dominate the city throughout this period. There was chaos during the American Civil War, with major rioting in the New York Draft Riots. Later years saw the rise of the Gilded Age which saw prosperity for the city's upper classes amid the further growth of a poor immigrant working class, and an increasing consolidation, both economic and municipal, of what would become the five boroughs in 1898.
The history of New York City (1898-1945) began with the formation of the consolidated city of the five boroughs in 1898. A series of new transportation links, most notably the New York City Subway, first opened 1904, helped bind the new city together. The height of European immigration brought social upheaval.
The history of New York City (1978-present) has seen a modest boom and a bust in the 1980s, followed by a major boom in the 1990s, with mixed prospects since then. This period has seen serious racial tension with more calm in very recent years, the dramatic rise and fall of crime rates and a major reinvigoration of immigration and growth taking the city population for the first time past the eight million mark. The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center had a huge (and rather mixed) impact on the city.
