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Philadelphia (pronounced /ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/)
is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth most
populous city in the United States. It is the county seat
of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. It
is colloquially referred to as "the City of Brotherly
Love" (from Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια,
[pʰi.la.ˈdel.pʰeː.a], Modern Greek:
[fi.la'ðɛl.fi.a], "brotherly love" from
philos "love" and adelphos "brother").
Residents often informally call the city "Philly." The
city is recognized as a strong candidate global city.
In 2005, the population of the city proper was estimated
to be over 1.4 million,[1] while the Delaware Valley metropolitan
area, with a population of 5.8 million, was the fourth-largest
in the United States. A commercial, educational, and cultural
center, the city was once the second-largest in the British
Empire,[2] (after London) and the social and geographical
center of the original 13 American colonies. During the
18th century, it eclipsed New York City in political and
social importance, with Benjamin Franklin taking a large
role in Philadelphia's early rise to prominence. It was
in this city that some of the ideas, and subsequent actions,
gave birth to the American Revolution and American independence,
making Philadelphia a centerpiece of early American history.
It was the most populous city of the young United States
and served as the the nation's first capital in the 1790s.
History
Prior to the arrival of Europeans the Philadelphia area
was the location of the Lenape (Delaware) Indians village
Shackamaxon. Europeans arrived in the Delaware Valley in
the early 1600s, with the first settlements being founded
by the Dutch, British and Swedish.
The Swedes sought to expand their influence by creating
an agricultural (tobacco) and fur-trading colony to bypass
French and British merchants. The New Sweden Company was
chartered and included Swedish, Dutch and German stockholders.
The first Swedish expedition to North America embarked
from the port of Gothenburg in late 1637. It was organized
and overseen by Clas Fleming, a Swedish Admiral from Finland.
Part of this colony, called New Sweden or Nya Sverige eventually
included land on the west side of the Delaware River from
just below the Schuylkill River; in other words, today's
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and Maryland.
In 1644, New Sweden supported the
Susquehannocks in their victory in a war against the
English Province of Maryland. A series of events led
the Dutch — led by governor
Peter Stuyvesant — to move an army to the Delaware
River in the late summer of 1655. Though New Netherland
now nominally controlled the colony, the Swedish and Finnish
settlers continued to enjoy a degree of local autonomy,
having their own militia, religion, court, and lands. This
status lasted officially until the English conquest of
the New Netherland colony, in October 1663-1664, and continued
unofficially until the area was included in William Penn's
charter for Pennsylvania, in 1682.
In 1681, as part of a repayment of
a debt, Charles II of England granted William Penn a
charter for what would become the Pennsylvania colony.
Part of Penn's plan for the colony was to create a city
on the Delaware River to serve as a port and place for
government. Despite already having been given the land
by Charles II, Penn bought the land from the local Lenape
to be on good terms with the Native Americans and ensure
peace for his colony.[3] According to legend Penn made
a treaty of friendship with Lenape chief Tammany under
an elm tree at Shackamaxon, in what is now the city's
Kensington section.[4] Having been a Quaker, Penn had
experienced religious persecution and wanted his colony
to be a place where anyone could worship freely despite
their religion. Penn named the city Philadelphia, which
is Greek for brotherly love (philos, "love" or "friendship",
and adelphos, "brother").[5]
"Penn's Treaty with the Indians" by Benjamin
West.Penn's plan was that Philadelphia would be like an
English rural town instead of a city. The city's roads
were designed with a grid plan with the idea that houses
and businesses would be spread far apart and surrounded
by gardens and orchards. The city's inhabitants didn't
follow Penn's plans and crowded by the Delaware River and
subdivided and resold their lots.[6] Before Penn left Philadelphia
for the last time, he issued the Charter of 1701 establishing
Philadelphia as a city. The city soon grew and established
itself as an important trading center. Conditions in the
city were poor at first, but by the 1750s living conditions
had improved. A significant contributor to Philadelphia
at the time was Benjamin Franklin. Franklin helped improve
city services and founded new ones, such as the American
Colonies' first hospital.[7] Due to Philadelphia's central
location in the colonies, during the American Revolution
the city was used as the location for the First Continental
Congress before the war, the Second Continental Congress,
which signed the United States Declaration of Independence,
during the war, and the Constitutional Convention after
the war. A number of battles during the war were fought
in Philadelphia and its environs as well. Unsuccessful
lobbying after the war to make Philadelphia the United
States capital helped make the city the temporary U.S.
capital in the 1790s.[8]
Benjamin FranklinThe state government left Philadelphia
in 1799 and the federal government left soon after in
1800. However Philadelphia was still the largest city
in the United States and a financial and cultural center.
New York City soon surpassed Philadelphia in population,
but construction of roads, canals, and railroads helped
turn Philadelphia into the United States' first major
industrial city. Throughout the 19th century Philadelphia
had a large variety of industries and businesses, the
largest being textiles. Major corporations in the 19th
and early 20th centuries included the Baldwin Locomotive
Works, William Cramp and Sons Ship and Engine Building
Company, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.[9] Industry,
along with the U.S. Centennial, was celebrated in 1876
with the Centennial Exposition, the first official World's
Fair in the United States. Immigrants, mostly German
and Irish, settled in Philadelphia and the surrounding
districts. The rise in population of the surrounding
districts helped lead to the Act of Consolidation of
1854 which extended the city of Philadelphia to include
all of Philadelphia County.[10] In the later half of
the century immigrants from Russia, Eastern Europe and
Italy and African Americans from the southern U.S. settled
in the city.[11]
8th and Market Street, showing the Strawbridge and Clothier
department store, 1910s.By the 20th century Philadelphia
had become known as "corrupt and contented." Philadelphians
were content with the city's lack of change or excitement,
and single-party politics, centered around the city's
entrenched Republican political machine, allowed corruption
to flourish. The machine and corruption permeated in
all parts of city government and reformers had little
success.[12] The first major success in reform came in
1917 when outrage over the murder of a police officer
during that year's election led to the shrinking of the
Philadelphia City Council from two houses to just one.[13]
In the 1920s the public flouting of Prohibition laws,
mob violence, and police involvement in illegal activities
led to the appointment of Brigadier General Smedley Butler
of the U.S. Marine Corps as director of public safety,
but political pressure prevented any long term success
in fighting crime and corruption.[14]
After struggling through the Great Depression, World War
II created jobs and brought the city out of the Depression.
However, after the war there was a severe housing shortage
with about half the city's housing being built in the 19th
century, many of which lacked proper facilities. Adding
to housing problem was white flight, as African Americans
and Puerto Ricans moved into new neighborhoods resulting
in racial tension.[15] After a population peak of over
two million residents in 1950 the city's population declined
while the suburban neighboring counties grew. After a five
year investigation into corruption into city government,
the outcry with what the investigation found led the drafting
of a new city charter in 1950. The city charter strengthened
the position of the mayor and weakened the city council
among other changes to help prevent the corruption of the
past. The first Democratic mayor since the first half of
the 19th century was elected in 1951. However, after two
early reform mayors, a Democratic political organization
had established itself replacing the old Republican one.[16]
Protests, riots and racial tensions were common in the
1960s and 70s. Mostly drug related gang violence plagued
the city and crack houses invaded the city's slums. Confrontations
between police and the radical group MOVE culminated when
the police dropped a satchel bomb on their headquarters
starting a fire that killed eleven MOVE members and destroyed
sixty-two neighboring houses. Revitalization and gentrification
of neighborhoods began in the 1960s and continues into
the 21st century, with much of the development in the Center
City and University City areas of the city. After many
of the old manufacturers and businesses had left Philadelphia
or shut down, the city started attracting service businesses
and began to more aggressively market itself as a tourist
destination. Glass and granite skyscrapers were built in
Center City and historic areas such as Independence National
Historical Park were improved. This has slowed the city's
forty-year population decline after losing nearly a quarter
of its population
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