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Province of New York

The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783.

In 1664, the English under Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York raised a fleet to take the colony of New Netherland from the Dutch. The Governor surrendered to the English fleet without recognition from the Dutch West Indies Company that had authority over it. The province was renamed for the Duke of York, as its proprietor. England's rule was established de facto following military control in 1664, and became established de jure as sovereign rule in 1667 in the Treaty of Breda and the Treaty of Westminster (1674). It was not until 1674 that English common law was applied in the colony.

In the late 18th century, colonists in New York rebelled along with the other Thirteen Colonies, and supported the American Revolutionary War that led to independence and the founding of the United States. British claims in New York were ended by the Treaty of Paris of 1783, with New York establishing its independence from the crown. The final evacuation of New York City by the British Army was followed by the return of General George Washington's Continental Army on November 25, 1783, in a grand parade and celebration.

Geography
This British crown colony was established upon the former Iroquois nation and then Dutch colony of New Netherland, with its core being York Shire, in what today is typically known as Downstate New York.

New Amsterdam and Dutch Rule (1617-1664)
In 1617, officials of the Dutch West India Company in New Netherland created a settlement at present-day Albany, and in 1624 founded New Amsterdam, on Manhattan Island. The Dutch colony included claims to an area comprising all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine in addition to eastern Pennsylvania.

Proprietary government (1664–1685)
New Amsterdam surrendered to Colonel Richard Nicholls on August 27, 1664; he renamed it New York. On September 24 Sir George Carteret accepted the capitulation of the garrison at Fort Orange, which he called Albany, after another of the Duke of York's titles. The capture was confirmed by the Treaty of Breda in July 1667.

Easing the transition to British rule, the Articles of Capitulation guaranteed certain rights to the Dutch; among these were: liberty of conscience in divine worship and church discipline, the continuation of their own customs concerning inheritances, and the application of Dutch law to bargains and contracts made prior to the capitulation.

In 1664, James, Duke of York, was granted a proprietary colony which included New Netherland and present-day Maine. The New Netherland claim included western parts of present-day Massachusetts (to an extent that varied depending on whether the reference was the States General claim of all lands as far east as Narragansett Bay or the Treaty of Hartford negotiated by the English and Dutch colonies in 1650 but not recognized by either the Dutch or English governments) putting the new province in conflict with the Massachusetts charter. In general terms, the charter was equivalent to a conveyance of land conferring on him the right of possession, control, and government, subject only to the limitation that the government must be consistent with the laws of England. The Duke of York never visited his colony and exercised little direct control of it. He elected to administer his government through governors, councils, and other officers appointed by himself. No provision was made for an elected assembly.

Also in 1664, the Duke of York gave the part of his new possessions between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to Sir George Carteret in exchange for settlement of a debt. The territory was named after the Island of Jersey, Carteret's ancestral home. The other section of New Jersey was sold to Lord Berkeley of Stratton, who was a close friend of the Duke. As a result, Carteret and Berkeley became the two English Lords Proprietors of New Jersey. The Province of New Jersey was created, but the border was not finalized until 1765 (see New York-New Jersey Line War). In 1667, territories between the Byram River and Connecticut River were split off to become the western half of Connecticut.

The acquired territory land designations were reassigned by the crown, leaving the territory of the modern State of New York, including the valleys of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and future Vermont. The territory of western New York was disputed with the indigenous Iroquois Confederacy, and also disputed between the English and the French from their northern colonial province of New France (modern eastern Canada). The province remained an important military and economic link to Canada throughout its history. Vermont was disputed with the Province of New Hampshire to the east.

The first governor Richard Nicolls was known for writing "The Duke's Laws" which served as the first compilation of English laws in colonial New York. Nicholls returned to England after an administration of three years, much of which was taken up in confirming the ancient Dutch land grants. Francis Lovelace was next appointed Governor and held the position from May 1667 until the return of the Dutch in July 1673. A Dutch fleet recaptured New York and held it until it was traded to the English by the Treaty of Westminster. A second grant was obtained by the Duke of York in July 1674 to perfect his title.

Upon conclusion of the peace in 1674, the Duke of York appointed Sir Edmund Andros as Governor of his territories in America. Governor Edmund Andros in 1674 said "permit all persons of what religion soever, quietly to inhabit within the precincts of your jurisdiction" Nonetheless, he made the Quakers of West Jersey pay toll on the Delaware, but they applied to England and were redressed. He was followed by Colonel Thomas Dongan in 1682. Dongan was empowered, on the advice of William Penn, to summon "...a general assembly of all the freeholders, by such persons they should choose to represent them to consult with you and said council what laws are fit and necessary to be made..."

A colonial Assembly was created in October 1683. New York was the last of the English colonies to have an assembly. The assembly passed the Province of New York constitution on October 30, the first of its kind in the colonies. This constitution gave New Yorkers more rights than any other group of colonists including the protection from taxation without representation. On November 1, 1683, the government was reorganized, and the state was divided into twelve counties, each of which was subdivided into towns. Ten of those counties still exist (see above), but two (Cornwall and Dukes) were in territory purchased by the Duke of York from the Earl of Stirling, and are no longer within the territory of the State of New York, having been transferred by treaty to Massachusetts. While the number of counties has been increased to 62, the pattern still remains that a town in New York State is a subdivision of a county, similar to New England.

An act of the assembly in 1683 naturalized all those of foreign nations then in the colony professing Christianity. To encourage immigration, it also provided that foreigners professing Christianity may, after their arrival, be naturalized if they took the oath of allegiance as required.

The Duke's Laws established a non-denominational state church.

The British replaced the Dutch in their alliance with the Iroquois against New France, with an agreement called the Covenant Chain.

The colony was one of the Middle Colonies, and ruled at first directly from England. When the Duke of York ascended to the throne of England as James II in 1685, the province became a royal colony.

Royal province (1686–1775)
In 1664, after the Dutch ceded New Netherland to Britain, it became a proprietary colony under James, Duke of York. When James ascended the throne in February 1685 and became King James II, his personally owned colony became a royal province.

In May 1688, the Province of New York was made part of the Dominion of New England. However, in April 1689, when news arrived that King James had been overthrown in the Glorious Revolution, Bostonians overthrew their government and imprisoned Dominion Governor Edmund Andros. The province of New York rebelled in May in what is known as Leisler's Rebellion. King William's War with France began during which the French attacked Schenectady. In July, New York participated in an abortive attack on Montreal and Quebec. A new governor Henry Sloughter arrived in March 1691. He had Jacob Leisler arrested, tried, and executed.

New York's charter was re-enacted in 1691 and was the constitution of the province until the creation of the State of New York.

The first newspaper to appear in New York was the New-York Gazette, started November 8, 1725, by William Bradford. It was printed on a single sheet, published weekly.

During Queen Anne's War with France from 1702 to 1713, the province had little involvement with the military operations, but benefited from being a supplier to the British fleet. New York militia participated in two abortive attacks on Quebec in 1709 and 1711.

Dutch
When the British took over, the great majority of Dutch families remained, with the exception of government officials and soldiers. However, new Dutch arrivals became very few. While the Netherlands was a small country, the Dutch Empire was large, meaning that emigrants leaving the mother country had a wide variety of choices under full Dutch control. The major Dutch cities were centers of high culture, but they sent few immigrants. Most Dutch arrivals to the New World in the 17th century had been farmers from villages who on arrival in New Netherland scattered into widely separated villages that had little cross contact with each other. Even inside a settlement, different Dutch groups had minimal interaction.

With very few new arrivals, the result was an increasingly traditional system cut off from the forces for change. The folk maintained their popular culture, revolving around their language and their Calvinist religion. The Dutch brought along their own folklore, most famously Sinterklaas, which evolved into the modern day Santa Claus. They maintained their distinctive clothing and food preferences. They introduced some new foods to America, including beets, endive, spinach, parsley, and cookies. After the British takeover, rich Dutch families in Albany and New York City emulated the English elite, purchasing English furniture, silverware, crystal, and jewelry. They were proud of the Dutch language, which was strongly reinforced through the church, but were much slower than the Yankees in setting up schools for their children. They finally set up Queens College, which is now Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They published no newspapers, and published no books and only a handful of religious tracts annually.

Germans
Nearly 2,800 Palatine German emigrants were transported to New York by Queen Anne's government in ten ships in 1710, the largest single group of immigrants before the Revolutionary War. By comparison, Manhattan then had only 6,000 people. Initially, the Germans were employed in the production of naval stores and tar along the Hudson River near Peekskill. In 1723 they were allowed to settle in the central Mohawk Valley west of Schenectady as a buffer against the Native Americans and the French. They also settled in areas such as Schoharie and Cherry Valley. Many became tenant farmers or squatters. They kept to themselves, married their own, spoke German, attended Lutheran churches, and retained their own customs and foods. They emphasized farm ownership. Some mastered English to become conversant with local legal and business opportunities.

Black slaves
The first slaves were introduced to the colonies by the Dutch, and thereafter by the British, largely bought from African tribal chiefs who exploited prisoners taken during the numerous tribal wars of that period. In the 1690s, New York was the largest importer of the colonies of slaves and a supply port for pirates.

The black population became a major element in New York City, and on large upstate farms. With its shipping and trades, New York had use for skilled African labor as artisans and domestic servants. New York sold these slaves using slave markets, giving slaves to the highest bidder at an auction.

Two notable slave revolts occurred in New York in 1712 and 1741.

The numbers of slaves imported to New York increased dramatically from the 1720s through 1740s. By the 17th century, they established the African burial ground in Lower Manhattan, which was used through 1812. It was discovered nearly two centuries later during excavation before the construction of the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. Historians estimated 15,000–20,000 Africans and African Americans had been buried in the approximately 8 acres surrounding there. Because of the extraordinary find, the government commissioned a memorial at the site, where the National Park Service has an interpretive center. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark and National Monument. Excavation and study of the remains has been described as the "most important historic urban archaeological project undertaken in the United States."

King George's War
This province, as a British colony, fought against the French during King George's War. The assembly was determined to control expenditures for this war and only weak support was given. When the call came for New York to help raise an expeditionary force against Louisburg, the New York assembly refused to raise troops and only appropriated a token £3,000. The assembly was opposed to a significant war effort because it would interrupt trade with Quebec and would result in higher taxes. The French raid on Saratoga in 1745 destroyed that settlement, killing and capturing more than one hundred people. After this attack the assembly was more generous and raised 1,600 men and £40,000.

French and Indian War
Upstate New York was the scene of fighting during the French and Indian War, with British and French forces contesting control of Lake Champlain in association with Native American allies. Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, and other agents in upstate New York brought about the participation of the Iroquois. The French and their Indian allies laid siege to Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George in 1757. The British forces surrendered to the French, but many prisoners were then massacred by the Indians. Some prisoners had smallpox, and when Indians took the scalps to their home villages, they spread a disease that killed large numbers. In the end the British won the war and took over all of Canada, thereby ending French-sponsored Indian attacks.

One of the largest impressment operations occurred in New York in the spring of 1757 when three thousand British troops cordoned off the city and impressed nearly eight hundred persons they found in taverns and other gathering places of sailors. New York was the centre for privateering. Forty New York ships were commissioned as privateers in 1756 and in the spring of 1757 it was estimated the value of French prizes brought into New York was two hundred thousand pounds. By 1759, the seas had been cleaned of French vessels and the privateers were diverted into trading with the enemy. The ending of the war caused a severe recession in New York.

Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet, negotiated an end to Pontiac's Rebellion. He promoted the Proclamation of 1763 and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix to protect the Indians from further English settlement in their lands. The treaty established a boundary line along the West Branch Delaware River and the Unadilla River, with Iroquois lands to the west and colonial lands to the east.

Political parties
During the middle years of the 18th century, politics in New York revolved around the rivalry of two great families, the Livingstons and the De Lanceys. Both of these families had amassed considerable fortunes. New York City had an inordinate influence on New York province politics because several of the assembly members lived in New York City rather than in their district. In the 1752 election, De Lanceys' relatives and close friends controlled 12 of the 27 seats in the assembly. The De Lanceys lost control of the assembly in the election of 1761.

Governor Cadwallader Colden tried to organize a popular party to oppose the great families, thus earning the hatred of the city elite of both parties. The Livingstons looked to the imperial ties as a means of controlling the influence of James De Lancey. The De Lanceys regarded imperial ties to be a tool for personal advantage.

Stamp Act
Parliament passed the Stamp Act 1765 to raise money from the colonies. New York had previously passed its own stamp act from 1756 to 1760 to raise money for the French and Indian war. The extraordinary response to the Stamp Act can only be explained by the build-up of antagonisms on local issues. New York was experiencing a severe recession from the effects of the end of the French and Indian war. The colonies were experiencing the effects of a very tight monetary policy caused by the trade deficit with Britain, a fiscal crisis in Britain restricting credit, and the Currency Act, which prevented the issuing of paper currency to provide liquidity.

From the outset, New York led the protests in the colonies. Both New York political factions opposed the Stamp Act of 1765. In October, at what became Federal Hall in New York, representatives of several colonies met in the Stamp Act Congress to discuss their response. The New York assembly petitioned the British House of Commons on December 11, 1765, for the Americans' right of self taxation. In August, the intimidation and beating of stamp agents was widely reported. The New York stamp commissioner resigned his job.

The act went into effect on November 1. The day before, James De Lancey organized a meeting at Burns Tavern of New York merchants, where they agreed to boycott all British imports until the Stamp Act was repealed. A leading moderate group opposing the Stamp Act were the local Sons of Liberty headed by Isaac Sears, John Lamb and Alexander McDougall. Historian Gary B. Nash wrote of what was called the "General Terror of November 1–4":

"But New York's plebeian element was not yet satisfied. Going beyond the respectable leaders of the Sons of Liberty, the lower orders rampaged through the town for four days. Some two thousand strong, they threatened the homes of suspected sympathizers of British policy, attacked the house of the famously wealthy governor Cadwallader Colden, paraded his effigy around town, and built a monstrous bonfire in the Bowling Green into which the shouting crowd hurled the governor's luxurious two sleighs and horse-drawn coach."

Historian Fred Anderson contrasted the mob actions in New York with those in Boston. In Boston, after the initial unrest, local leaders such as the Loyal Nine (a precursor to the Sons of Liberty) were able to take control of the mob. In New York, however, the "mob was largely made up of seamen, most of whom lacked deep community ties and felt little need to submit to the authority of the city's shorebound radical leaders." The New York Sons of Liberty did not take control of the opposition until after November 1.

On November 1, the crowd destroyed a warehouse and the house of Thomas James, commander at Fort George. A few days later the stamps stored at Fort George were surrendered to the mob. Nash notes that, "whether the Sons of Liberty could control the mariners, lower artisans, and laborers remained in doubt," and "they came to fear the awful power of the assembled lower-class artisans and their maritime compatriots."

On January 7, 1766, the merchant ship Polly carrying stamps for Connecticut was boarded in New York Harbor and the stamps destroyed. Up to the end of 1765 the Stamp Act disturbances had largely been confined to New York City, but in January the Sons of Liberty also stopped the distribution of stamps in Albany.

In May 1766, when news arrived of the repeal of the Stamp Act the Sons of Liberty celebrated by the erection of a Liberty Pole. It became a rallying point for mass meetings and an emblem of the American cause. In June, two regiments of British regulars arrived in New York and were quartered in the upper barracks. These troops cut down the liberty pole on August 10. A second and third pole were erected and also cut down. A fourth pole was erected and encased in iron to prevent similar action.

In 1766, widespread tenant uprisings occurred in the countryside north of New York City centered on the Livingston estates. They marched on New York expecting the Sons of Liberty to support them. Instead, the Sons of Liberty blocked the roads and the leader of the tenants was convicted of treason.

Quartering Act
In the last years of the French and Indian War London approved a policy of keeping twenty regiments in the colonies to police and defend the back country. The enabling legislation took the form of the Quartering Act which required colonial legislatures to provide quarters and supplies for the troops. The Quartering Act stirred little controversy and New Yorkers were ambivalent about the presence of the troops. The assembly had provided barracks and provisions every year since 1761.

However, the tenant riots of 1766 showed the need for a police force in the colony. The Livingston-controlled New York assembly passed a quartering bill in 1766 to provide barracks and provisions in New York City and Albany which satisfied most, but not all of the requirements of the Quartering Act. London suspended the assembly for failure to comply fully, and Governor Moore dissolved the House of Assembly, February 6, 1768. The next month New Yorkers went to the polls for a new assembly. In this election, with the Sons of Liberty support, the De Lancey faction gained seats, but not enough for a majority.

Townshend Acts
In 1768, a letter issued by the Massachusetts assembly called for the universal boycott of British imports in opposition to the Townshend Acts. In October, the merchants of New York agreed on the condition that the merchants of Boston and Philadelphia also agreed. In December, the assembly passed a resolution which stated the colonies were entitled to self-taxation. Governor Moore declared the resolution repugnant to the laws of England and dissolved the assembly. The De Lancey faction, again with Sons of Liberty support, won a majority in the assembly.

In the spring of 1769, New York was in a depression from the recall of paper boycott and the British boycott. By the Currency Act New York was required to recall all paper money. London allowed the issuance of additional paper money, but the attached conditions were unsatisfactory. While New York was boycotting British imports, other colonies including Boston and Philadelphia were not. The De Lanceys tried to reach a compromise by passing a bill which allowed for the issuing of paper currency, of which half was for provisioning of the troops. Alexander McDougall, signed a 'Son of Liberty', issued a broadside entitled To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York which was an excellent piece of political propaganda denouncing the De Lanceys for betraying the liberties of the people by acknowledging the British power of taxation. The Sons of Liberty switched their allegiance from the De Lanceys to the Livingstons. Alexander McDougall was arrested for libel.

Conflict between the Sons of Liberty and the troops in New York erupted with the Battle of Golden Hill on January 19, 1770, where troops cut down the fourth Liberty Pole which had been erected in 1767.

In July 1770, the merchants of New York decided to resume trade with Britain when news arrived of Parliament's plan to repeal the Townshend Duties and to give permission for New York to issue some paper currency. The Sons of Liberty were strongly opposed to the resumption of trade. The merchants twice polled their members and went door to door polling residents of New York and all polls were overwhelming in support of resumption of trade. This was perhaps the first public opinion poll in American history.

Tea Act
New York was peaceful after the repeal of the Townshend Act, but the economy of New York was still in a slump. In May 1773 the Parliament passed the Tea Act cutting the duty on tea and enabling the East India company to sell tea in the colonies cheaper than the smugglers could. This act primarily hurt the New York merchants and smugglers. The Sons of Liberty were the organizers of the opposition and in November 1773 they published Association of the Sons of Liberty of New York in which anyone who assisted in support of the act would be an "enemy to the liberties of America". As a result, the New York East India agents resigned. The New York assembly took no action in regard to the Sons of Liberty assumption of extra-legal powers.

The New York City Sons of Liberty learned of Boston's plan to stop the unloading of any tea and resolved to also follow this policy. Since the Association had not obtained the support they had expected, the Sons of Liberty were afraid that if the tea was landed the population would demand its distribution for retail.

In December, news arrived of the Boston Tea Party strengthened opposition. In April 1774, The boat Nancy arrived in New York harbor for repairs. The captain admitted that he had 18 chests of tea on board and he agreed that he would not attempt to have the tea landed, but the Sons of Liberty boarded the ship regardless and destroyed the tea.

Intolerable Acts
In January 1774, the Assembly created a Committee of Correspondence to correspond with other colonies in regard to the Intolerable Acts.

In May 1774 news arrived of the Boston Port Act which closed the port of Boston. The Sons of Liberty were in favor of resumption of a trade boycott with Britain, but there was strong resistance from the large importers. In May, a meeting in New York was called in which members were selected for a Committee of Correspondence. The Committee of Fifty was formed which was dominated with moderates, the Sons of Liberty only obtained 15 members. Isaac Low was the chairman. Francis Lewis was added to create the Committee of Fifty-One. The group adopted a resolution which said Boston was "suffering in the defence of the rights of America" and proposed the formation of a Continental Congress. In July, the committee select five of their members as delegates to this congress. Some of the other counties also sent delegates to the First Continental Congress which was held in September. The New York delegates were unable to stop the adoption at the congress of the Continental Association. The association was generally ignored in New York.

In January and February 1775, of the New York Assembly voted down successive resolutions approving the proceedings of the First Continental Congress and refused to send delegates to the Second Continental Congress. New York was the only colonial assembly which did not approve the proceeds of the First Continental Congress. Opposition to the Congress revolved around the opinion that the provincial houses of assembly were the proper agencies to solicit redress for grievances. In March, the Assembly broke with the rest of the colonies and wrote a petition to London, but London rejected the petition because it contained claims about a lack of authority of the "parent state" to tax colonists, "which made it impossible" to accept. The Assembly last met on April 3, 1775.

Provincial Congress
The revolutionary New York Provincial Congress of local representatives assumed the government on May 22, 1775, declared the province the State of New York in 1776, and ratified the first New York Constitution in 1777. During the ensuing American Revolutionary War the British regained and occupied the strategic port and harbor of New York Town in September 1776, using it as its military and political base of operations in British North America; though a British governor was technically in office, much of the remainder of the upper part of the colony was held by the rebel Patriots.

In April 1775, the rebels formed the New York Provincial Congress as a replacement for the New York Assembly. News of the battle of Lexington and Concord reached New York on April 23, which stunned the city since there was a widely believed rumor that Parliament was to grant the colonies self-taxation. The Sons of Liberty led by Marinus Willett broke into the Arsenal at City Hall and removed 1,000 stand of arms. The armed citizens formed a voluntary corps to govern the city with Isaac Sears's house the de facto seat of government and militia headquarters. The crown-appointed New York executive council met on April 24 and concluded that "we were unanimously of the opinion that we had no power to do anything." The British troops in New York never left their barracks.

On October 19, 1775, Governor William Tryon was forced to leave New York for a British warship offshore, ending any appearances of British rule of the colony as the Continental Congress ordered the arrest of anyone endangering the safety of the colony. In April 1776 Tryon officially dissolved the New York assembly.

New York was located in the Northern theatre of the American Revolutionary War. New York served as the launching point for the failed Invasion of Canada in 1775, the first major military operation of the newly formed Continental Army. General George Washington took the Continental Army from Boston after the British withdrew following the Fortification of Dorchester Heights, and brought it to New York in 1776, correctly anticipating the British would return there. The Battle of Saratoga in 1777 was a turning point in the war. West Point on the Hudson was a strategic asset. And New York played a central role for the British in their attempt to divide New England from the rest of the colonies.

The Fourth Provincial Congress convened in White Plains on July 9, 1776, and became known as the New York First Constitutional Convention. New York endorsed the Declaration of Independence the same day, and declared the independent state of New York. New York celebrated by tearing down the statue of George III in Bowling Green. On July 10, 1776, the Fourth Provincial Congress changed its name to the Convention of Representatives of the State of New York, and "acts as legislature without an executive." While adjourned it left a Committee of Safety in charge. The New York state constitution was framed by a convention which assembled at White Plains on July 10, 1776, and after repeated adjournments and changes of venue, it concluded in Kingston, New York on Sunday evening, April 20, 1777, when the new constitution was adopted with one dissenting vote. It had been drafted by John Jay and was not submitted to the people for ratification. Under its provisions, the governor would be elected not appointed, voting restrictions were reduced, secret ballots were introduced, and civil rights were guaranteed. On July 30, 1777, George Clinton was inaugurated as the first Governor of New York at Kingston. On July 9, 1778, the State of New York signed the Articles of Confederation and officially became a part of the government of the United States of America, though it had been a part of the nation since it was declared in 1776 with signatories from New York.

The province was the scene of the largest battle of the entire war, and the first after the Declaration of Independence was signed. The British recaptured the city in September 1776 in the New York and New Jersey campaign, cut down the Liberty Pole in the common, and placed the province under martial law under the command of James Robertson, though his effective authority did not extend far beyond the southern tip of Manhattan (then the extent of New York City). Tryon retained his title of governor, but with little power. David Mathews was Mayor for the duration of British occupation of New York until Evacuation Day in 1783. After its reoccupation, New York became the headquarters for the British army in America, and the British political center of operations in North America. Loyalist refugees flooded into the city raising its population to 33,000. Prison ships in Wallabout Bay held a large proportion of American soldiers and sailors being held prisoner by the British, and was where more Americans died than in all of the battles of the war, combined. The British retained control of New York until Evacuation Day in November 1783, which was commemorated long afterward.

Structure of government
The governor of New York was royally appointed. The governor selected his Executive Council which served as the upper house. The governor and king had veto power over the assembly's bills. However, all bills were effective until royal disapproval had occurred which could take up to a year. During King George's War, the governor approved two assembly initiatives; that the colony's revenue be approved annually rather than every five years and that the assembly must approve the purpose of each allocation. Elections to the house of assembly were initially held whenever the governor pleased, but eventually a law was passed requiring an election at least once every seven years. The city of New York was the seat of government and where the New York provincial assembly met.

Between 1692 and 1694 the governor of New York was also the governor of Pennsylvania. From 1698 to 1701 the governor was also the governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. From 1702 to 1738 he was also the governor of New Jersey.

Representation in the assembly in 1683 was six for Long Island, four for New York City, two for Kingston, two for Albany, one for each of Staten Island, Schenectady, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and one for Pemequid on the Maine coast. In 1737, the assembly was expanded to 27 and in 1773 to 31.

Voters were required to have a £40 freehold, in addition to requirements related to age, sex, and religion. The £40 freehold requirement was often ignored. Jews were not allowed to vote between 1737 and 1747. In rural counties slightly more than half the males could vote. No secret ballot safeguarded the independence of the voters. The elections were held at the county town, under the supervision of the sheriff and sometimes at such short notice that many of the voting population could not get to the polls. The candidates were usually at the polls and the vote was taken by a show of hands unless this vote did not result in a clear winner.

David Osborn notes, "The election for an open seat in the New York assembly, held on the Village Green in Eastchester, Westchester County on October 29, 1733, is one of the better known political events in colonial America. Two hundred and seventy-five years after the contest, historians continue to cite the election to advance various arguments about colonial life. One recent student used the election to argue for the persistent importance of monarchy in the outlook of colonists, while another scholar treated the voting as an important point in the development of political awareness among New York artisans. Many writers address the election, held at what is today St. Paul's Church National Historic Site, in Mt. Vernon, as part of the story of the printer John Peter Zenger, whose acquittal in a seditious libel case in 1735 is seen as a foundation of the free press in America. The first issue of Zenger's New York Weekly Journal carried a lengthy report on the famous election, producing one of the few complete accounts of a colonial election available to historians.'"

See List of colonial governors of New York
 * List of governors

See List of attorneys general of the Province of New York
 * List of attorneys general

Counties
The Province of New York was divided into twelve counties on November 1, 1683, by New York Governor Thomas Dongan:
 * Albany County: all of the region that is now northern and western New York. Also claimed the area, later disputed, that is now Vermont. In addition, as there was no fixed western border to the colony (a sea-to-sea grant), Albany County technically extended to the Pacific Ocean. Most of this land, which was Indian land for most of the province's history, has now been ceded to other states and most of the land within New York has been divided into new counties.
 * Cornwall County: that part of Maine between the Kennebec River and the St. Croix River from the Atlantic Ocean to the St. Lawrence River. Ceded to the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1692.
 * Dukes County: the Elizabeth Islands, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island east of Long Island. Ceded to Massachusetts in 1692.
 * Dutchess County: now Dutchess and Putnam counties.
 * Kings County: the current Kings County; Brooklyn.
 * New York County: the current New York County; Manhattan.
 * Orange County: now Orange and Rockland counties.
 * Queens County: now Queens and Nassau counties.
 * Richmond County: the current Richmond County; Staten Island.
 * Suffolk County: the current Suffolk County.
 * Ulster County: now Ulster and Sullivan counties and part of what is now Delaware and Greene counties.
 * Westchester County: now Westchester and Bronx counties.

On March 24, 1772:
 * Tryon County was formed out of Albany County. It was renamed Montgomery County in 1784, with a later division to Herkimer County around Little Falls.
 * Charlotte County was formed out of Albany County. It was renamed Washington County in 1784.

Legal profession
The British governors were upper class aristocrats not trained in the law, and felt unduly constrained by the legalistic demands of the Americans. In the period from the 1680s to about 1715 numerous efforts were made to strengthen royal control and diminish legal constraints on the power of the governors. Colonial lawyers fought back successfully. An important technique that developed especially in Boston, Philadelphia and New York in the 1720s and 1730s was to mobilize public opinion by using the new availability of weekly newspapers and print shops that produced inexpensive pamphlets. The lawyers used the publicity medium to disseminate ideas about American legal rights as Englishmen. By the 1750s and 1760s, however, there was a counterattack ridiculing and demeaning the lawyers as pettifoggers. Their image and influence declined.

The lawyers of colonial New York organized a bar association, but it fell apart in 1768 during the bitter political dispute between the factions based in the Delancey and Livingston families. For the next century, various attempts were made, and failed, in New York state to build an effective organization of lawyers. The American Revolution saw the departure of many leading lawyers who were Loyalists; their clientele was often tied to royal authority or British merchants and financiers. They were not allowed to practice law unless they took a loyalty oath to the new United States of America. Many went to Britain or Canada after losing the war. Finally a Bar Association emerged in 1869 that proved successful and continues to operate.

Judiciary
Initially the Province of New York started with the system of courts it had had in its earlier period of English rule: the Court of Assizes, the Court of Sessions, and a series of town courts such as the Mayor's Court of the City of New York.

In 1683 the Court of Assizes was abolished, with its jurisdiction being transferred to a new Court of Oyer and Terminer and Court of Chancery.

The Supreme Court of Judicature of the Province of New York was established by the New York Assembly on 6 May 1691, replacing the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Jurisdiction was based on the English Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer but excluded cases of equity which continued to be dealt with by the Court of Chancery. The Supreme Court continued in being under the Constitution of 1777, becoming the New York Supreme Court under the 1846 Constitution.

 * Chief Justices of the Supreme Court

Demographics
Upstate New York (as well as parts of present Ontario, Quebec, Pennsylvania and Ohio) were occupied by the Five Nations (after 1720 becoming Six Nations, when joined by Tuscarora) of the Iroquois Confederacy for at least a half millennium before the Europeans came.

 * In 1664, one-quarter of the population of New York was African American.
 * In 1690, the population of the province was 20,000, of which 6,000 were in New York.
 * In 1698, the population of the province was 18,607. 14% of the population of New York was black.
 * The slave population grew after Queen Anne's war. The percentage of blacks in New York in 1731 and 1746 was 18% and 21% respectively.
 * In 1756, the population of the province was about 100,000 of which about 14,000 were blacks. Most of the blacks in New York at this time were slaves.

Economy
The fur trade established under Dutch rule continued to grow. As the merchant port of New York became more important, the economy expanded and diversified and the agricultural areas of Long Island and the regions further up the Hudson River developed. Fishermen also made a decent living because New York was next to the ocean, making it a port/fishing state. Inland, farming crops made farmers a lot of money in the colony. Tradesmen made a fortune selling their wares.

title: Province of New York


text:
Ibrahim al Qosi

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi (إبراهيم أحمد محمود القوصي) (born July 1960) is a Sudanese militant and paymaster for al-Qaeda. Qosi was held from January 2002 in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 54.

Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was held at Guantanamo for approximately ten years and six months; he was charged with low-level support of al-Qaeda. After pleading guilty in a plea bargain in 2010, in the first trial under the military commissions, and serving a short sentence, Qosi was transferred to Sudan by the Obama administration in July 2012. He was to be held in custody and participate in Sudan's re-integration program for former detainees before being allowed to return to his hometown.

Some years after his release, Al Qosi moved to Yemen and joined Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), appearing in video releases by the group and reportedly taking a leadership role in it.

In November 2019, the Rewards for Justice Program offered $4 million for information leading to the identification or location of Al Qosi.

Background

Ibrahim Al Qosi was born in 1960 in Atbara, Sudan. He has a brother named Abdullah. He is married to one of Abdullah Tabarak's daughters and has two daughters.

In 1990, Qosi was recruited by Sudanese jihadists and later traveled to Afghanistan via the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, where he trained at a training camp outside of Khost. Two years later, he returned to Khartoum and worked in currency trading. In 1995, he went to Chechnya via Syria, Azerbaijan and Dagestan, where he fought in the First Chechen War as a mortar operator. A year later, he went back to Afghanistan where he aided in the fight against the Northern Alliance from 1998 to 2001. However, he was captured by the Pakistani authorities while trying to cross the Afghan-Pakistani borders on 15 December 2001 near Parachinar, Pakistan. Then he was detained in a prison in Peshawar until 27 December, before being held in US custody at a Kandahar detention facility. Later on, he was transferred to Guantanamo on 13 January 2002.

Qosi was the first captive to face charges before a Guantanamo military commission. He was not accused of being a member of al Qaeda's leadership, only of simple support tasks, like cooking. After pleading guilty in a plea bargain, he was sentenced in July 2010. He was transferred to Sudan in July 2012 after completing a shortened sentence, and was to participate in Sudan's re-integration program for former detainees.

Official status reviews
Originally the Bush presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention. In 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants
Following the Supreme Court's ruling the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants. A summary of evidence memo listing allegations justifying his detention was prepared for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal on September 4, 2004.

Scholars at the Brookings Institution, led by Benjamin Wittes, listed the captives still held in Guantanamo in December 2008, according to whether their detention was justified by certain common allegations:

 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the captives who had faced charges before a military commission.
 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... are members of Al Qaeda."
 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... traveled to Afghanistan for jihad."
 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... took military or terrorist training in Afghanistan."
 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... fought for the Taliban."
 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the captives who "The military alleges ... were at Tora Bora."
 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the captives who was an "al Qaeda operative".
 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the captives "who have been charged before military commissions and are alleged Al Qaeda operatives."
 * Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was listed as one of the "82 detainees [who] made no statement to CSRT or ARB tribunals or made statements that do not bear materially on the military's allegations against them."

Habeas petition
A petition of habeas corpus was filed on Al Qosi's behalf. Following the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Rasul v. Bush (2004) that detainees had the right under habeas corpus to an impartial tribunal to challenge their detention, more than 200 captives had habeas corpus petitions filed on their behalf. Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) at the request of the Bush administration, which suspend their access to the US civilian justice system and shift all responsibility to military tribunals.

In September 2007, the Department of Defense published the unclassified dossiers arising from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals of 179 captives. The Department of Defense withheld the unclassified documents from Al Qosi's tribunal without explanation.

On June 12, 2008, in its landmark ruling in the Boumediene v. Bush habeas corpus petition, the United States Supreme Court determined that the MCA was unconstitutional for attempting to deprive the captives' of their constitutional right to habeas corpus. It ruled that detainees could access the US federal courts directly.

Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment
On April 25, 2011, whistleblower organization WikiLeaks published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. Al-Qosi's assessment was eleven pages long, and was drafted on November 15, 2007. It was signed by camp commandant Mark H. Buzby. The report noted that al-Qosi had been "compliant and non-hostile to the guard force and staff."

Charged before military commissions

On February 24, 2004, al Qosi was named in documents for the first military commissions to be held for detainees. The United States alleged that he joined al-Qaeda in 1989 and worked as a driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, as well as working as a quartermaster for al-Qaeda. He was also alleged to have been the treasurer of a business which was an al-Qaida front.

He was indicted along with Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul. The indictment allowed the detainees to consult with military defense lawyers assigned by the government to prepare their defenses. Al Qosi was charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians, murder, destruction of property, and terrorism.

Lieutenant Colonel Sharon Shaffer USAF (Judge Advocates Group) was appointed al Qosi's defense lawyer on February 6, 2004.

On August 27, 2004, Shaffer complained that the prosecution was not providing her with the information she needed for her defense of al Qosi. She said that al Qosi had informed her that the quality of translation at his military commission was insufficient for him to understand what was happening. She told the tribunal that she had to resign as al Qosi's attorney.

According to the Voice of America, Chief Prosecutor Colonel Robert L. Swann assured the commission that: "...all resources will be devoted to obtaining the most accurate translations possible."

On November 9, 2004, legal action against Qosi was suspended, The US District Court Justice James Robertson had ruled, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, that the military commissions violated international agreements to which the United States was a signatory, including part of the Geneva Conventions. This ruling applied to all four of the detainees who had been charged by the military commission.

In 2005, a three-judge appeals panel overturned Robertson's ruling, setting the commissions back in motion. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president lacked the constitutional authority to establish military the military commissions, and that only Congress could do so. Congress subsequently passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which included provisions to suspend the access of detainees to habeas corpus in the US courts.

On February 9, 2008, al Qosi and Ali Hamza Suleiman Al Bahlul were charged before the congressionally authorized Guantanamo military commissions authorized by the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Phoning home
Ibrahim al Qosi was among those who was granted access to telephone privileges. On May 22, 2008, Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Paul, the presiding officer of his commission ordered that Ibrahim al Qosi be permitted his first phone call home. While it was reported that the phone call was made, this was in error. Qosi had declined to leave his cell to meet with Commander Suzanne Lachelier, his assigned legal counsel, and the Camp's security rules do not permit her going to his cell to talk to him—so they have never discussed his case. During a preliminary hearing, Ibrahim Al Qosi told Paul he does not want to be represented by an American lawyer. He said that he had been unable to hire the lawyer of his choice because he had been isolated in Guantanamo, and had been unable to contact his family since his detention.

Later that day, Commander Pauline Storum, a Guantanamo spokesman, reported that the call had been completed, and that he had spoken with his family for an hour.

On May 23, 2008, Storum sent an apology by e-mail to reporters to retract her claim the phone call had been completed.

I misspoke when I confirmed that al Qosi's call was complete. In clarifying the current status of the detainee phone program, I misunderstood the information I was given, and inaccurately conveyed that al Qosi's call was completed.

I apologize for the error.

Ibrahim al-Qosi's appointed counsel, Suzanne Lachelier, told Carol Rosenberg, of the Miami Herald, that she was surprised to learn, through press reports, that the call had been completed. She said she had only begun to initiate the co-ordination with the Red Cross to arrange for his family to be set up to receive the call when she learned the call had already been completed. According to Rosenberg:

"The original statement Thursday struck some observers as extraordinary -- for both its speed and the coordination between the separate bureaucracies of the prison camp and the war court."

The Department of Defense had until July 1, 2008, to arrange the phone call.

The US Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush (2008) that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was unconstitutional, as it suspended the right of habeas corpus of detainees. Military commissions were suspended.

July 2009 hearing

On July 15, 2009, al Qosi had his first hearing that year. According to Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Lakeland Ledger, the electronic audio management equipment the court had been supplied with in 2008 initially failed to function properly. Rosenberg reported that al Qosi's defense team was concerned that the prosecution was imposing improper delays, and noted they had told the presiding officer.

Continuance
The Barack Obama presidency was granted a continuance on October 21, 2009. Congress had amended the MCA, passing the Military Commissions Act of 2009, and the Department of Defense needed to create regulations to implement it. The military commissions for five other captives were granted continuances, until November 16, 2009. Ibrahim al Qosi did not attend this hearing.

New charges rejected, status determination scheduled
On December 3, 2009, Paul ruled that the charges against Al Qosi should be limited to crimes he was alleged to have committed in Afghanistan. She ruled that crimes he was alleged to have committed when al Qaeda was based in Sudan were beyond the mandate of the military commission system.

Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Paul scheduled hearings for January 6, 2010, to determine whether Al Qosi met the eligibility criteria as an illegal enemy combatant as laid out in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Only if he was classified under that status would the military commission have jurisdiction to try him. Rosenberg described Paul as the first presiding officer of a military commission to address the changes that US Congress set in place when passing the Military Commissions Act of 2009.

Andrea Prasow, a senior counsel with Human Rights Watch, was critical of Paul for proceeding with the commission, although the government had not completed drafting the rules of procedure under the act.

Guilty Plea
On July 7, 2010, al Qosi entered a guilty plea under a plea bargain deal, the details of which have not been publicly released. His sentencing was set for August 9, 2010. On August 11, 2010, a military jury at Guantanamo recommended that al-Qosi serve 14 years in prison.

Appeal dismissed
Other individuals who, like al-Qosi, had pleaded guilty to "providing material support for terrorism", had their convictions overturned on appeal. Appeals courts ruled that the charge was not a crime at the time the acts were committed. In 2014, Al-Qosi's military-appointed lawyer, Mary McCormick, attempted to have al-Qosi's conviction overturned, following the precedent of the over-turning the convictions of other men convicted of the same charge. The United States Court of Military Commission Review first declined to provide funds for McCormick to travel to Sudan to consult with al-Qosi, and then ruled that she could not prove she had an attorney–client relationship, on his behalf. Finally, the USCMCR ruled that since McCormick could not prove she had an attorney–client relationship she was not authorized to file motions on al-Qosi's behalf. On May 1, 2015, three judges of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that McCormick could not prove she had an attorney–client relationship.

Steve Vladeck, a professor of law who specializes in security matters, described the decision by the USCMCR to withhold funds from McCormick so she could renew contact with al-Qosi because she could not document that she remained in contact with him as "somewhat circular"''.

Repatriation
When al Qosi was transferred to Sudan by the Obama administration on July 11, 2012, his lawyer Paul Reichler said al Qosi will enter a Sudan government "re-integration program:"

al Qosi was held in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, during the initial period of his re-integration. He was eventually transferred to his home town of Afbara. Nine other former Guantanamo detainees went through the reintegration program with no sign of recidivism.

Recidivism
In December 2015, al Qosi (as Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani) was featured in a video released by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which he reportedly joined in 2014. The footage showed him and other al-Qaeda veterans encouraging "individual jihad".

He gave a 12-page interview on the life and legacy of Osama bin Laden in the AQAP magazine "Inspire" Spring 2016 issue (#15).

In October 2021, Qosi threatened the United States with attacks and praised Nidal Hasan.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Ibrahim al Qosi


text:
Berlin-to-Kitchener name change

The city of Berlin, Ontario, Canada, changed its name to Kitchener by referendum in May and June 1916. Named in 1833 after the capital of Prussia and later the German Empire, the name Berlin became unsavoury for residents after Britain and Canada's entry into the First World War.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, most residents of Berlin and neighbouring Waterloo were of German origin. The towns and their citizens lived peacefully and enjoyed a unique blend of German and British culture. Following Britain and Canada's entry into war against Germany in August 1914, German Canadians experienced increasing anti-German sentiment. In early 1916, business and community leaders began pushing for Berlin to either seek a new name or amalgamate with Waterloo. Rising tension in the community culminated in soldiers of the local 118th Battalion ransacking German social clubs and attacking an outspoken German Lutheran preacher.

In a vote characterized by intimidation, the 19 May 1916 referendum on whether to change the city name decided "yes" by a slim margin. A vote held the following month to determine a replacement name saw lower voter turnout. The vote settled on Kitchener, named for the recently deceased British Army officer Horatio Herbert Kitchener. Kitchener prevailed in a tight race over the only serious competitor, Brock – for Isaac Brock, a British military leader in the War of 1812. The city officially changed names on 1 September 1916.

Towns across the English-speaking world retreated from their German culture during the First World War, with similar cases seen in the United States and Australia. The Berlin–Kitchener change distinguished itself by the levels of violence and protest. The name change failed to assuage outside suspicion of the city and its German population, propelled partly by opponents unsuccessfully petitioning the Ontario Government to stop the change from proceeding as well as the election of an anti-conscription candidate in Waterloo North in the 1917 federal election. After the war, the city experienced a decline in its German culture with German Canadians being culturally assimilated into the broader Canadian identity.

A German and British town
Originally known as Eby's Town, Ebytown, Ben Eby's or Sandhills by the first Pennsylvania Mennonites to settle in the area, an influx of European German-speaking immigrants beginning in the 1820s pushed local community leaders Benjamin Eby and Joseph Schneider to change the Upper Canadian hamlet’s name to Berlin in 1833. In the 1870s, most residents of Berlin and neighbouring Waterloo, Ontario, were of German origin, comprising 73 and 80 per cent of each population, respectively. Many Germans immigrated to Canada to escape the conflicts of Europe and were inclusive of the town's Anglo-Saxon population. Most immigrants arrived before the Völkisch movement spawned in the late 19th century, resulting in a German community less concerned with German nationalism than those who immigrated to western Canada after the 1870s. Historians John English and Kenneth McLaughlin write that the common background of both employers and employees in Berlin allowed for a softening of racial and social animosity.

Berliners displayed a simultaneous loyalty to both the British Empire and to their German heritage. Germans pointed to the relationship between the British and German royal families, such as the marriage of the English Queen Victoria to the German Prince Albert, as a source of pride. In May 1871, the towns held a joint German heritage celebration, attracting around 12,000 participants. The Friedensfest, or "Peace Festival", marked the end of the Franco-Prussian War, resulting in the unification of Germany. The strength of the British-German relationship was such that the German festival closed with "God Save the Queen". Historian Geoffrey Hayes writes that the festival – and subsequent Sängerfeste, or song festivals – served as a way for German-speaking residents to develop their German-Canadian identity in a way acceptable to other Canadians. The nine Sängerfeste held from 1874 to 1912 in Berlin and Waterloo generated positive national press coverage and large crowds of visitors.

Berlin residents often displayed both the Union Jack and the German flag next to one another. Visiting royalty and politicians – including the Governor General, the Marquis of Lorne; Princess Louise; the Duke of Connaught; and the former Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia – praised the bonds displayed between the British and German populations of Berlin and Waterloo. Based on a model by sculptor Reinhold Begas, the community leaders George Rumpel and John Motz dedicated a bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Victoria Park in August 1897. Residents saw the bust as symbolically representing the bond between Germany and Britain. Government support for the project was strong, Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier ensuring the bust entered Canada duty-free. By the early 20th century, few residents considered themselves wholly German, instead identifying as German-Canadian. The 1911 census listed 76 per cent of people in the community as being of German origin, most of whom had never been to Germany. Among Waterloo's residents, 90 per cent were born in Canada. Berliners avidly embraced their German heritage, with celebrations commemorating the birthdays of Otto von Bismarck and the Kaiser typical. In February 1914, while celebrating Kaiser Wilhelm II's 55th birthday, W. H. Schmalz addressed Waterloo's Concordia Club:

"We Germans, even if we are also Canadians, remember this occasion from year to year in order to demonstrate our love and respect for a monarch of whom the world may be proud. We are British subjects... but while we proclaim this truth, I might add, to ourselves, we are also prepared to continue to cultivate our beautiful German customs."

Outbreak
Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. As a Dominion of the British Empire, Canada automatically entered the war following Britain's declaration. On 12 August, the Berliner Journal, a local German-language weekly, implored Germans in Ontario: "Don't allow yourselves to be driven to demonstrations of any kind, avoid arguments... Be silent, bear this difficult time with dignity, and show that you are true Germans grateful to the country that accommodated you." British policy allowed Germans across the Dominion four days to leave, while the German government encouraged the German diaspora to return. The 1911 census counted 393,320 people of German origin living across Canada. Because the war was being fought in Europe, Berlin residents expected the fighting to have little direct impact on their lives. German social clubs continued to meet and found their proceedings unaffected. Ministers holding religious services in German declared their loyalty to the Canadian war effort.

Three weeks after Canada's entry into the war, vandals toppled Victoria Park's bust of Kaiser Wilhelm and threw it into the park's lake. Residents retrieved the bust and apprehended the three youths responsible. In the months following the outbreak of the war, Berlin's Board of Education voted to end the use of German in schools. Respected Berlin citizens, including businessman and politician Louis Jacob Breithaupt, held public meetings opposed to the decision. In his reply to the speech from the throne on 19 August 1914, Conservative MP Donald Sutherland expressed sympathy to the German people for "the dangers brought upon them by their ruling classes, by their oligarchic, insane, military government." The same day, Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden stated that people born in Germany and Austria-Hungary and who came to Canada "as adopted citizens of this country, whether they are naturalized or not, are entitled to the protection of the law in Canada and shall receive it", adding that an exception would be made for those aiding and abetting the enemy.

In early 1915, Waterloo North MP William George Weichel expressed in Canada's House of Commons that German-speaking Canadians could be proud of their cultural heritage while remaining loyal to the Canadian war effort. The year before, Waterloo and Berlin, measured on a per capita basis, were first and second in Canada, respectively, in individual contributions to the Canadian Patriotic Fund. Of the 60 members of Waterloo's German social club, the Acadian Club, half enlisted in Canada's armed forces. The club hosted events supporting the Canadian Red Cross and the Patriotic Fund. Local Professor F. V. Riecthdorf proclaimed, "I am a native German and former soldier... My loyalty is to the British flag... let our response to the Empire be immediate and sufficient!" Trying to lessen signs of disloyalty, in May 1915 the Berlin City Council asked for the appointment of a local Registrar of Enemy Aliens, though this request was denied after being deemed unnecessary.

Increasing anti-German sentiment
The war led to condemnation of the German tradition in Canada and rising anti-German sentiments. Actions by the German Empire contributed to anti-German feelings, including the violation of Belgium's neutrality, their use of poison gas, the execution of Edith Cavell, the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, and an apocryphal story of German troops crucifying a Canadian soldier. In a 1 March 1916 letter to the Berlin News Record, the chair of the North Waterloo recruiting committee stated: "The fact remains that Berlin was named after the capital of Prussia and is to-day the capital of the German Empire, whence have emanated the most diabolical crimes and atrocities that have marred the pages of history." A fire at Parliament Hill in February 1916 was falsely assumed to have been set by German arsonists. Although many accounts of wartime atrocities were later shown to be fabrications and British propaganda, most Canadian citizens took them to be true.

The use of the German language or the display of German flags became seen as signs of Canadian disloyalty. Young men, many of them German, were harassed in the street if they had not signed up for military service. Newspapers in Toronto like The Globe and Toronto News made frequent attacks on German-Canadians. A Globe editorial warned that Berliners should be kept under observation, warning of espionage. To guard against the perceived threat of sabotage and attacks by German-Canadians, 16,000 Canadian soldiers were stationed in Canada; between October 1915 and September 1916, 50,000 Canadian Expeditionary Force volunteers were kept home to protect against any eventualities. Beginning in 1914, those Germans deemed a threat to national security were interned; the Canadian government held discretionary power to intern any civilian they considered either an "agent" or of potential service to an enemy power. In 1916, roughly 2,000 Germans were interned across Canada, totalling 2,009 by war's end. Though none were interned or jailed in Ontario, Germans across the province experienced a curtailing of their rights and freedoms. In a February 1916 diary entry, L. J. Breithaupt lamented, "Public sentiment in Canada is very anti-German & so to some extent against anything connected with or reminding one of Germany." Canadian military leaders also espoused anti-German sentiments. In an April 1916 letter to the Berlin News Record, Sergeant-Major Granville Blood warned Berliners: "Be British. Do your duty or be despised... Be British or be dead." In a printed address to Canada, Lieutenant Stanley Nelson Dacey wrote:

"You have creatures in your midst who say success to the Kaiser, and to hell with the King; all I can say is, round up this element into the detention camps, for they are unworthy of British citizenship and should be placed where they belong... the showing that the physically fit young men of North Waterloo have made is so rotten that I have heard an outside businessman say to a traveller from a Berlin wholesale house, 'I'll not buy another damned article manufactured in that German town. So you think I'm going to give money to support a pack of Germans? If I did, I'd be as bad as they.'"

In January 1916, members of the local 118th Battalion campaigned for new recruits but – like most battalions in Canada – found little success. Recruiters resorted to harassing men in the streets who had not signed up for service and forcing them into the recruiting office. Berlin's local police force found it difficult to control the battalion. When Constable Blevins, a Berlin police officer, attempted to arrest soldier Joseph Meinzinger for harassing citizens, Meinzinger broke Blevins' jaw. On 15 February, a group of Canadian soldiers from the Battalion broke into the Concordia Club, stole memorabilia and destroyed the interior. An inquiry from Camp Borden led to no charges and instead justified the raid.

In early 1916, Canada's Militia Minister, Sam Hughes, made a speech in the House of Commons attacking the Reverend C. R. Tappert, a Berlin Lutheran minister. Tappert became a controversial figure locally for several actions, including his continued use of German in religious services, telling his children to avoid saluting the Union Jack and to not sing "God Save the King", his refusal to contribute to the Patriotic Fund and his public doubting of anti-German propaganda. In an early 1915 letter to the Berlin News Record, he wrote that while he was loyal to Canada his heart remained German. Hughes accused Tappert of being a "[semi-apologist] for German atrocities and Kaiserism." Tappert ignored threats to leave the country by 1 March; on 4 or 5 March a group of 60 soldiers broke into Tappert's parsonage and seized him. A witness recalled: "Within minutes, Tappert was being dragged behind horses through the streets, his face bloodied, his body twisting as he fell into unconsciousness while the pavement scraped off his flesh." Magistrate John J. A. Weir warned the two soldiers responsible – Private Schaefer and Sergeant-Major Granville Blood – that he remembered Schaefer being connected to the throwing of the Kaiser Wilhelm bust in the Victoria Park lake in 1914 and he knew Blood had further plans to attack other citizens. Both received suspended sentences of $100 fines and/or six months in prison for the assault. Hughes blamed Tappert for instigating them with his anti-British sentiments. Tappert and his family left Berlin on 8 March.

Organization of the referendum
The first suggestion of a name change appeared in a letter to the Berlin News Record on 4 February 1916. The author, identified only as "A Ratepayer", suggested the Berlin City Council adopt a resolution changing the name of the city. The initial impetus for changing the city name was borne out of monetary rather than patriotic interests. The start of war brought many contracts to the city's manufacturers, but business leaders worried the "made in Berlin" label on their products would hurt sales. On 8 February 1916, the Berlin Board of Trade proposed changing the city's name, hoping that doing so would serve to indicate the city's patriotism to the rest of the Dominion and thereby help local business. On 11 February, the Berlin City Council resolved:

"Whereas it would appear that a strong prejudice has been created throughout the British Empire against the name 'Berlin' and all that the name implies,And whereas, the citizens of this City full appreciate that this prejudice is but natural, it being absolutely impossible for any loyal citizen to consider it complimentary to be longer called after the Capital of Prussia,Be it therefore and it is hereby resolved that the City Council be petitioned to take the necessary steps to have the name 'Berlin' changed to some other name more in keeping with our National sentiment."

Most at the meeting endorsed the resolution with only one member voting against it. L. J. Breithaupt attended the meeting and spoke against the resolution, arguing that any name change would have no effect on British victory in the war and that any proposal of changing the city name should instead be put to a popular vote. In his diary he called the event, "an epoch making meeting". On 21 February, organizers of the resolution brought a petition with 1,080 signatures to the city council calling for the name change. City council voted in favour of petitioning Ontario's Legislative Assembly to have the city's name changed and to possibly amalgamate with Waterloo. Businessmen and community leaders wrote letters to the Berlin News Record arguing for and against the name change. Many arguments turned toward ad hominem. At an early March meeting manufacturers and businessmen pushed for the name change. Those opposing the change were threatened with boycotts. The city council offered a reward for the most suitable replacement name and received thousands of suggestions by the end of March. On 4 April, Berlin's delegation appeared before the Ontario's Legislative Assembly's Private Bills Committee. The committee voted to not report the bill to the Legislature out of fears that violence would break-out in Berlin as a result. Returning to Berlin unsuccessful, the delegation formed a British League "to promote British Sentiments in the community". On 14 April, the league passed their own resolution imploring the city council to protest their treatment at Ontario's Legislative Assembly. The council passed the resolution, including in it an amendment that allowed them to hold a referendum over the issue. During a 24 April meeting, the council voted to hold a referendum on 19 May.

Most Berliners expressed little interest in the campaign but those who did found it intense. Archivist Barbara Wilson states: "Many Berliners, including Mayor J. E. Hett, saw no real purpose in changing Berlin's name, but to oppose the change-the-name movement actively in February [1916] would have led to more charges of disloyalty and pro-Germanism." The Berlin Telegraph supported the name change while the Berlin News Record opposed. Both papers ran pieces and advertisements arguing their positions. Tensions continued to rise, culminating on 5 May when 30 soldiers entered and ransacked the Acadian Club in Waterloo. Canada's Minister of Justice, Charles Doherty, refused to reimburse the club for the damages, explaining that doing so would engender further racial disharmony. William Breithaupt, head of Berlin's library board and the president of the Waterloo Historical Society, was outspoken in his opposition to the name change. Throughout the campaign he received threatening letters and found the phone lines to his house cut.

May 1916 referendum
On 19 May 1916, the referendum was held in Berlin asking voters: "Are you in favour of changing the name of this city?" Historian Adam Crerar writes that much of the voting was characterized by intimidation. Soldiers of the 118th kept potential name change opponents away from the polls, while name change proponents challenged unnaturalized citizens. Many of those disenfranchised had voted in previous elections and had sent sons to fight for Canada in the war.

Of 3,057 votes cast, "yes" won by 81 votes. English & McLaughlin write that women and soldiers were generally "yes" voters, while the working class and residents of the especially German North Ward generally voted "no". The result of the vote prompted supporters to celebrate in the streets. A report in the Berlin News Record recounted fireworks being set off into the air and the sidewalks, ultimately injuring many celebrants. Alderman J. A. Hallman sent a telegram to King George V informing him, "The loyal citizens of Berlin Canada rejoice to inform Your Majesty that they have this day cast off forever the name of the Prussian capital." The Duke of Connaught informed Hallman on 23 May that the King had received his telegram. A regimental band and crowd walked through Berlin and gathered in front of August Lang's home, a major opponent of the name change. Lang confronted the crowd and an altercation ensued. Colonel Lochead of the 118th Battalion found no fault on the part of his soldiers. On 22 May, a week after the initial referendum, the 707 soldiers in the 118th Battalion left for London, Ontario, to continue training, alleviating much on the tension in the community.

June 1916 name selection
A civic committee of 99 members was assembled to produce name recommendations. The committee narrowed thousands of suggestions to a shortlist of Huronto, Bercana, Dunard, Hydro City, Renoma and Agnoleo. A report in the Berlin News Record wrote that the names became "the joke of the country". On 1 June, the Berlin City Council thanked the committee and decided to assemble its own list, offering cash prizes for winning suggestions. On 5 June, Britain's Secretary of State for War, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, drowned aboard HMS Hampshire after it struck a mine while en route to Russia. News of his drowning was widely reported the following day. The Berlin News Record published a letter in its 7 June edition from local resident Elsie Master, who suggested "Kitchener" as a better alternative to "Berlin", writing it would evoke "splendid patriotism, tremendous energy, great attainments, and a sense of unswerving honour and rectitude". The city council added Kitchener to their revised shortlist of names, the name being particularly popular among local businessmen, though some felt it to be in poor taste. An editorial in Stratford, Ontario's Herald complained: "No name of a martyr of this war should be allowed to be appropriated where the motive is largely commercial."

The final choices for the vote were narrowed to Brock, Kitchener, Corona, Adanac, Keowana and Benton. Some residents suggested that Berlin be renamed Waterloo and the cities merge. A resolution pushing for this failed in Berlin's City Council on 20 June. From 24 to 28 June 1916, between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm each day, a second vote was held to determine a new city name. Turnout was low, with only 892 votes cast out of a possible 4,897. Of those, 163 spoiled their ballots, many crossing out all the options and writing in either Berlin or Waterloo. Kitchener won with 346 votes, besting Brock by eleven votes.

Immediate

Wilson writes that the reaction to the June vote result was "dead silence". Regarding the low voter turnout, the Berlin News Record commented: "The outstanding feature was the absolute indifference displayed by the ratepayers." On 4 July 1916, the Berlin City Council approved the vote, setting 1 September 1916 as when the city would officially become Kitchener. On 11 July, the city council endorsed a petition by the newly formed Citizens' League, garnering 2,068 signatures opposing the name change. A delegation took the petition on to Ontario's Legislative Assembly. The provincial government refused to stop the change seeing the vote as having been entirely orderly. On 23 August, the Ontario government passed an order recognizing the change as coming into effect on 1 September.

On 1 September 1916, Berlin officially became Kitchener. English & McLaughlin write that Berlin's name change failed to quell outside suspicions about the loyalty of the German population. Those who opposed the name change were harassed for their defiance. Letter writers continued to address their mail to Berlin, forcing the Post Office to issue memoranda, while municipalities in Ontario petitioned the government to force those who refused to reference the city as Kitchener. In the lead-up to Kitchener's 1 January 1917 municipal election, members of the British League sought to expel "aliens" off the voters' list. Every candidate elected to the city council had previously been against the name change. When the results were announced, the British League, citizens and soldiers of the 118th Battalion gathered outside the Berlin News Record office, as well as mayor-elect David Gross's home and button factory. Soldiers smashed windows and destroyed the interiors of both buildings. In an effort to defuse tensions, Gross pledged in his inaugural address that he would not try to change Kitchener's name back to Berlin.

The last major attempt to change the name of Kitchener back to Berlin came during a 2 December 1919 city council meeting. A finance committee report recommended another vote be held regarding the city's name. A crowd of 500, mostly members of the Great War Veterans' Association, made their way into the council room to show their opposition to the resolution. The council voted the resolution down but protestors assaulted two aldermen who abstained from the vote, forcing them to kiss the Union Jack and throwing one in the Victoria Park lake.

1917 federal election

On 24 November 1917, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden visited Kitchener to generate support for his Military Service Act and to campaign for his Unionist Party in the upcoming federal election. Two months earlier, his government passed the Wartime Elections Act which, among other things, disenfranchised voters expected to be opposed to conscription. The disenfranchisement included Germans who received their citizenship after 31 March 1902. At the November event, a group of disgruntled citizens heckled Borden. The incident received national press coverage, with local manufacturers and businessmen urging Kitchener City Council to apologize to the prime minister to prevent further lost business. The city council refused to apologize by a vote of seven to five. Newspapers in other Ontario cities – including Kingston, Guelph and Brantford – pointed to the refusal as evidence that, though Kitchener had changed its name, the residents remained loyal to Germany over Canada. In his memoirs, Borden reflected that for the rest of Canada, "the Kitchener incident was much more effective than any speech I could have delivered." Following the refusal, the Board of Trade and the Kitchener Manufacturers' Association protested the action by organizing a factory shutdown scheduled for 3 December. On the day of the protest, city council voted to apologize to stop a prolonged shutdown.

During the election campaign, newspapers across Ontario generally sided with the Union government and their pro-conscription stance. Kitchener and Waterloo were similar, where in the final three and a half weeks of the election campaign the Berlin News Record and the Berlin Telegraph did not publish or report on any campaign material from the Liberals, forcing Liberal challenger William Daum Euler to print his own paper, the Voice of the People. Union campaign posters argued, "Who would the Kaiser vote for?" In the vote, the incumbent Unionist Weichel lost his Waterloo North seat to Euler, a major opponent of conscription. Carried by the German vote, Euler won by a twenty-point margin, the largest majority of any of Ontario's Liberals. Illustrating the divide, he took 63.1 per cent of the civilian vote but only 4.6 per cent of the soldier vote. The defeated Weichel lamented, "you cannot beat the Kaiser in North Waterloo." German animus for the Union Government and the Conservative Party persisted for generations, while Euler's win reinforced outside perceptions that the residents of Kitchener and Waterloo remained loyal to Germany despite the name change.

Long-term

Historian David Blackbourn describes the First World War as a caesura for people of German descent in the Anglo-Saxon world, marking a general decline in German culture. "When the heavily German city of Berlin, Ontario became Kitchener, and Berlin, Iowa became Lincoln, these were instances of something repeated thousands of times across the German-speaking parts of the English speaking world. Little Germanys retreated sharply." The levels of public unrest displayed during the Berlin-Kitchener name change distinguishes it from other contemporary name change examples. Geographers Chris Post and Derek Alderman see the changing of German place names during and after the war in the US, Canada and Australia as examples of "the political semiotic process of 'toponymic cleansing'." The Canadian Government passed an Order in Council on 26 September 1918 requiring all Canadian newspapers in "languages of the enemy" to be published in either English or French. Ontario's last German-language newspaper, the Berliner Journal, ran its last German issue on 2 October and its final issue in December.

Anti-German sentiments persisted in the immediate aftermath of the war. Many German-Canadians anglicized their names – changing Braun to Brown and Schmidt to Smith, for example – and instead referred to their heritage as Dutch or Austrian. A 1919 Order in Council forbade German immigrants to enter Canada, a restriction held in place until 1923. In the decades that followed, the German population of Kitchener decreased continuously. The 1911 census listed 76 per cent of people in the community as being of German origin, dropping to 55.6 and 53 per cent in 1921 and 1931 censuses, respectively. Though the city had attracted large numbers of German immigrants in the previous century, when the restrictions on immigration were lifted in 1923 most newcomers instead settled in western Canada where resource industries were plentiful and land was inexpensive.

In the early 1930s, Kitchener and Waterloo largely rejected local fascist movements inspired by Germany's rising Nazi Party. When Canada and Britain again found themselves at war against Germany during the Second World War, community leaders were sensitive to charges of disloyalty and acted quickly to assuage outside doubts; the Concordia Club and other German social clubs shut down in August 1939. Kitchener experienced little of the anti-German sentiment seen during the First World War. During the war, seven Kitchener residents were interned as enemy aliens. This was a lower number than that of surrounding communities, a fact the Daily Record reported proudly. Historian William Campbell credits the lack of anti-German sentiment to a broadening of the Canadian identity following the First World War, extending beyond the dominant English and French cultures. English & McLaughlin point to the automobile and new forms of mass media – such as movies, the radio and magazines – as expanding culture in Kitchener and bringing it more in alignment with Canada and North America as a whole. Most scholars agree that in the decades following the war Germans in Canada were assimilated.

Through the second half of the 20th century, Greeks, Portuguese, Indian, West Indian and Chinese ethnic groups dominated immigration to the community, 25 per cent of residents considering themselves of German origin in the 2001 census. After English, German was the second-most spoken language in Waterloo Region until 2016, when it was surpassed by Mandarin. In the aftermath of the First World War, the community shifted to emphasizing the Pennsylvania Dutch and Mennonite communities that first settled in the area, illustrated in Mabel Dunham's 1924 work of historical fiction, The Trail of the Conestoga, and in the 1926 dedication of the Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower. Overt celebrations of the city's European German tradition returned in the late 1960s and early 1970s; the Kitchener–Waterloo Oktoberfest attracts hundreds of thousands of participants annually, making it the largest Oktoberfest celebrated in North America, though English & McLaughlin comment the event is more a celebration of drinking than of German culture. In 1992, author William Chadwick examined the name change in a work of popular history, published as The Battle for Berlin, Ontario: An Historical Drama. He produced a play from the book, The Berlin Show, staged for Waterloo audiences in the summer of 1994. In the 21st century, Horatio Herbert Kitchener's role in establishing concentration camps during the Second Boer War has made his legacy unsavoury to some Kitchener residents. In 2020, a 380-signature petition calling for another name change prompted the Kitchener City Council to respond: "While we in no way condone, diminish or forget his actions... Kitchener has become so much more than its historic connection to a British field marshal."

title: Berlin-to-Kitchener name change