Connecticut was originally inhabited by several Native American tribes like the Mohegan and Pequot. Early European settlers included the Dutch in 1614 and English colonists from Plymouth in 1633. In 1636, Reverend Thomas Hooker led a group from Massachusetts to found Hartford. The three settlements of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield united in 1639 to form the Connecticut colony with a set of basic laws called the Fundamental Orders, establishing one of the first democratic governments in North America. The economy was based around productive agriculture along the Connecticut River valley and trade of surplus crops, livestock, wood, and furs. Congregationalism became the official and dominant religion.

2. Location and Climate
Early Inhabitants
Early settlement
The Relation between the Natives
and the New Settlers
Religion
Economy
outlines
Government

4. Connecticut has lo
ng, hot summers
and cold winters.
The climate does
not vary greatly
from place to place,
although the
northwest corner
generally
experiences more
severe winters.
Location and Climate

5. 1614 1633 1636 1637 1638 1639
The Dutch navigator, Adriaen
Block, was the first European of
record to explore the area, sailing up
the Connecticut River
colonists from Plymouth built a
trading post and stockade near the
site of present-day Windsor. That
same year the Dutch, anxious to
protect their claim to the region,
erected their first and only fort in
Connecticut, at Hartford.
The largest migration occurred when
a well-known minister, Thomas
Hooker, led about 100 colonists from
Newtown (now Cambridge,
Massachusetts) to settle at Hartford
The Pequot people resisted
white settlement, but they were
defeated by the English in the
short Pequot War
representatives of Hartford, Windsor, and
Wethersfield, the three principal
settlements in the Connecticut River
valley, met at Hartford to discuss plans to
unite the settlements into a single colony
On January 14, 1639, the colony of
Connecticut was formed, and the colonists
formally adopted a basic set of laws known as
the Fundamental Orders

6. The name "Connecticut" is an Algonquian Indian
word It means "long river" and refers to the
Connecticut River.
There were originally many small American Indian
tribes in the Connecticut area, including the
Mohegan, Pequot, Niantic, Nipmuc, Mattabesic,
Schaghticoke, Paugussett, and others

7. Most powerful among the
Connecticut people were the
Pequot, who lived in the east
and along the shore of Long
Island Sound, an area they
had conquered from other
native groups at the end of the
1500s. Early in the 1600s, a
number of Pequots split off
from the main group. Led by a
chief named Uncas, they
called themselves Mohegan,
and controlled an area near
the Thames River.
Early Inhabitants

8. Most of the Native Americans were generally
friendly to the colonists. Some native groups
invited the English to settle nearby, hoping for
trade and for allies against the aggressive
Pequots, who dominated the area. Settlers
purchased land from the native people, and
though whites often encroached on native
territory, disputes were usually settled without
violence.

9. Connecticut is known as the constitution state and the name refers
to the fundamental order of 1638 – 1639 . these fundamental
represent the frame work for the first formal government written by
the representative body in Connecticut after the fundamental
orders Connecticut was granted governmental authority by king
Charles II of England through the Connecticut charter of 1662.
Separate brands of the government didn’t exist during the period and the
general assembley acted as the supreme authority .
In colony’s early years , the government could not serve Connecticut teams .
thus , for 20 years the governorship often rotated between John Hayurs and
Edward Hopkim both of them were from Hartford .
George Wyllys , Thomas Wells and John Wesster are Harford men , sat in the
governor chair for brief period in the 1640s and the 1650s .
The fundamental orders Framed by
Hooker, Ludlow, John Haynes, and
others, the laws provided for a self-
governing colony whose inhabitants
were to owe their allegiance to the
colony rather than to England

10. Congregationalism was established by
law as the official religion of the
Connecticut and New Haven colonies
when the colonies were founded in the
17th century. It remained the official
religion until the 1818 constitution was
adopted. The congregation of each
church was its own governing body,
and there was nearly complete
independence of all outside
ecclesiastical control.

11. The land in the Connecticut
River valley was especially
productive and soon
provided the colonists with
surplus crops and livestock
to trade with other
settlements on the eastern
seaboard. The forests
provided wood for fuel and
construction, as well as furs,
trapped and traded by the
Native Americans.