 Originally dependent on agriculture and trade with Europe, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. Migration of factories to the lower-wage Southern states caused economic stagnation during the first half of the 20th century. The Massachusetts economy was revived after World War II, and today is prominent in higher education, health care, and high technology.
Massachusetts was originally inhabited by several Algonquian tribes: the Wampanoag, Nauset, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Pennacook, Mahican, Massachuset, and some Narragansett and Pequot. A vast number of the indigenous people were killed by waves of smallpox inadvertently brought to the New World by Sir Herbert Popham and his ship to the Saco, Maine area in 1616.
The first European settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, established their settlement at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag. This was the second successful permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony; both were preceded by temporary camps, the unsuccessful Popham Colony, and Spanish settlements in Florida in the 1500s. Most early settlers came from within 60 miles (100 km) of Haverhill, England. The Pilgrims were soon followed by Puritans who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony at present-day Boston in 1630. The Puritans, whose beliefs included exclusive understanding of the literal truth of the Bible, came to Massachusetts for religious freedom. Dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts because of the Puritan society's lack of religious tolerance. Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island, and Hooker founded Connecticut.
By 1636, the colonists had begun to settle the inland Pioneer Valley along the Connecticut River, where the state's best agricultural land is concentrated.
Native American-European racial tensions led to King Philip's War 1675-76. There were major campaigns in the Pioneer Valley and Plymouth Colony, as well as an unsuccessful expedition against Quebec under William Phips in 1690. Massachusetts became a single colony in 1692, the largest in New England, and one where many American institutions and traditions were formed. The colony fought alongside British regulars in a series of French and Indian Wars that were characterized by brutal border raids and successful attacks on British forces in New France (present-day Canada).
 Massachusetts was a center of the movement for independence from Great Britain, earning it the nickname, the "Cradle of Liberty". Colonists here had long had uneasy relations with the English monarchy, including open rebellion under the Dominion of New England in the 1680s.
The Boston Tea Party is an example of the protest spirit of the later pre-revolutionary period in the 1770s, and the Boston Massacre is a famous incident which escalated the conflict. With actions by patriots such as Sam Adams and John Hancock followed by counter-actions by the Crown were a main reason for the unity of the Thirteen Colonies and the outbreak of the American Revolution. The Battles of Lexington and Concord initiated the American Revolutionary War and were fought in the Massachusetts towns of Concord and Lexington.
After independence and during the formative years of independent American government, Shays' Rebellion was an armed uprising in the western half of the state from 1786 to 1787. The rebels were mostly small farmers angered by crushing war debt and taxes which resulted from their lack of representation in Congress.
On March 15, 1820, Maine separated from Massachusetts, of which it had been a non-contiguous part, and entered the Union as the 23rd State as a result of the ratification of the Missouri Compromise.
During the 19th century, Massachusetts became a national and world leader in the Industrial Revolution, with its mastery of machine tools and textiles. The economy transformed from primarily agricultural to manufacturing, making use of its many rivers to power factories for shoes, furniture, and clothing that drew labor from Yankees on subsistence farms at first, and later drew upon immigrant labor from Europe.
Horace Mann made the state system of schools the national model. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson made major contributions to American thought. Members of the Trancendentalism movement, they emphasized the importance of the natural world to humanity.
In the years leading up to the Civil War, Massachusetts was a center of social progressivism, the temperance movement, and abolitionist activity within the United States. Antagonism to their views resulted in anti-abolitionist riots in Massachusetts between 1835 and 1837. The works of abolitionists contributed to subsequent actions of the state during the Civil War. Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to abolish slavery, in a 1783 judicial interpretation of its 1780 constitution, and was the first state to recruit, train, and arm a Black regiment with White officers, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.
The industrial economy declined in the early twentieth century with the exodus of many manufacturing companies. By the 1920s low-wage competition from the South, followed by the Great Depression, led to the collapse of Massachusetts' two main industries, shoes and textiles. In the years following World War II, Massachusetts was transformed from a factory system to a largely service and high-tech based economy.
Government contracts, private investment, and research facilities led to a new and improved industrial climate, with reduced unemployment and increased per capita income. Suburbanization flourished, and by the 1970s, the Route 128 corridor was dotted with high-technology companies who recruited graduates of the area's many elite institutions of higher education.
The Kennedy family was prominent in Massachusetts politics in the 20th century, especially with President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s.
In 1987, the state received federal funding for the $14.6 billion Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Known colloquially as the "the Big Dig," it was at the time the biggest federal highway project ever approved. As of 2007, the highway is open but landscaping is still underway.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to allow same-sex couples to marry.
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