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The written history of New Jersey began with the exploration of the Jersey Coast by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524, though the region had been settled for millennia by Native Americans. The New Jersey region soon came under the control of the Swedes and the Dutch resulting in a struggle in which the Dutch were victorious. However, the Dutch colony of New Netherland was seized by the English in 1664. New Jersey was one of the original 13 colonies that joined the American Revolutionary War in 1776. In 1787, New Jersey was the third state to ratify the United States Constitution. In the nineteenth century, New Jersey cities led the nation into the Industrial Revolution and provided soldiers for many of the wars the United States fought, including 88,000 soldiers for the American Civil War. During the early 1900s, New Jersey prospered but weakened in the Great Depression in the 1930s. During World War II and the Cold War New Jersey's shipyards and military bases played an important role in the defense of the United States. In the 1960s New Jersey was the site of several race riots and the Glassboro Summit Conference, between American President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin. (More...)

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