Things to do / Travel Guide
The individual histories of western New York and the Finger Lakes, Niagara Falls, and Toronto, are both unique and interesting in their own right.
Western New York and the Finger Lakes
While the first Native Americans in this area were the Algonquians, they were replaced by the Iroquois around 1300 AD. In 1600, Hiawatha (of whom Longfellow would later write) organized what many historians have called North America's first democracy, when six Iroquois tribes formed the so-called League of Nations.
Europeans, the French and the British, began large-scale settling of western New York only in the mid-1700s. In this time the number of Iroquois was depleted during several bloody battles, the last of which took place in 1763. During the American Revolution, the Iroquois Confederacy diplomatically sided with the British. As a result, the Continental Army took revenge - killing many Iroquois and forcing large groups west.
In the late 1700s, pioneers from New England and Pennsylvania bought large plots of land in western New York and began farming and building flourmills. The construction of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the railroad in 1850 brought more settlers, and industry boomed. Steamboats transported gypsum and steel, among other raw materials and products. Buffalo, New York became the center of this commercialism.
The mid-1800s also saw the birth of the women's rights and suffrage movements, in Seneca Falls, where the first women's rights convention was held. Later, World War II meant further economic growth for Buffalo; however, ever since the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, Buffalo's economy has struggled. Today Buffalo's residents are largely employed in the service sector. Rochester, New York's third-largest city, is an important center for Eastman Kodak, Xerox, and the Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.
Niagara Falls
The word “Niagara” is derived from the word “Onguiaahra,” which means “The Strait” in Iroquois. The first inhabitants of the Niagara Falls area were members of the Iroquois Nation, who were endearingly called the Neutrals by the French settlers.
The 1814 Treat of Ghent drew the border of Canada and the United States right down the center of the Niagara River. During the 1800s, tourism flourished; however this was largely unsupervised, and poorly regulated. Also during this century the hydraulic power of the Niagara River began to be harnessed for mills and factories. In the late 1880s Niagara Falls was established as the Niagara Reservation State Park. Since then the tourism and hotel industries have continued to grow, making the area one of the biggest tourist attractions in eastern United States.
Toronto
“Toronto” is a Huron word that means “meeting place.” Throughout the city's history, it has been just that - though the meetings have not always been peaceful. During the 1600s, the mighty Iroquois Confederacy, which saw the area as the best place to establish their fur trade, drove out the original settlers, the Huron and Petun tribes.
In 1615, Etienne Brule, an emissary of French explorer and navigator Samuel de Champlain, came to the region around 1615 and established a fur trade, which lead to the displacement of the Iroquois. Not long after, the British arrived, and they too made claim to the land. In 1793, Colonel John Graves Simcoe identified the Toronto area (then called York) as the capital for what would be a large, British colony.
Nearly fifty years later, in 1837, William Lyon Mackenzie a Scottish journalist and politician, initiated a rebellion against the British Crown with the goal to establish Toronto's independence. Though from a military perspective the rebellion failed miserably, the British Parliament did create the Province of Canada as a “responsible government” in 1849.
Soon after Canada's independence, the advent of the railroad and steamboat brought thriving industry to Toronto. Later, World War II marked a significant change in Toronto, wartime jumpstarting-anew the city's economy. Electronic, aircraft, and precision industries grew exponentially, as did the city's population.
By 1951, Toronto's population was over a million, largely due to increased immigration from around the world. Today, Toronto is home to the largest stock exchange in Canada, and to an up-and-coming economy based on biotechnology, and film and television production.
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