Ever wonder why the history of Maine turned out the way it did? Why did Maine end up joining the Union in 1820 as our nation’s 23rd state, instead of getting in much earlier as one of the original 13, or in our case, it would have been the original 14? How did our sometimes pushy neighbor New Hampshire get in the Union before we did? How do things like that happen?
According to the Dictionary of American History, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, explorers from France, England and Portugal visited Maine in the 1500s and checked it out pretty good. Apparently none of them thought Maine was the kind of place anyone they knew would actually want to live, so they sailed on and never came back.
The Portuguese, who must have been the fussiest of the early explorers, didn’t find what they were looking for until they sailed along the coast of Brazil and decided to settle there. It would be their only colony in the New World.
In the early 1600s, the English and French decided almost simultaneously that they wanted to try to settle in Maine. It’s almost like they were eavesdropping on each other or reading each other’s mail. Suddenly they both thought at the same time that everyone was looking for an out-of-the-way place like Maine to “settle.”
The French, under Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain, established a small settlement on an island in Maine’s St. Croix River in 1604. It failed after one miserable winter.
Under the auspices of Sir John Popham, the English established a colony on the lower Kennebec River in 1607, which also failed after only one winter. Again, all of us Mainers can easily understand the colony’s failure. The only question we have is, “Why is anyone still here?”
Believe it or not, the English Civil War of the 1640s had an adverse affect on British settlement here in Maine. That gave the future summer complaints from Massachusetts time to get control of the land that would eventually become the State of Maine.
They say that if James II had managed to keep his seat on the throne, Maine’s history probably would have been a lot different. But James lost his crown and just about everything else and was eventually driven from power. His successors, William and Mary, eventually granted all of Maine to Massachusetts. Nothing’s been the same around here since then.
So, if you think about it, Maine could have been a Portuguese settlement and then a colony, instead of Brazil. Maybe Portland today would look like Rio de Janeiro, without the Old Port shops, of course.
In 1820, the people of Maine took control of the land of Maine. That worked well for over 100 years and then the people of Massachusetts began buying Maine back, one house lot at a time. They say it won’t be long now before our whole state will once again be owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
John McDonald is the author of five books on Maine, including “John McDonald’s Maine Trivia: A User’s Guide to Useless Information.” Contact him at mainestoryteller@yahoo.com.
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