[2] The name Batavia is Latin for the Betuwe region of the Netherlands, and honors early Dutch land developers.

The current City of Batavia was an early settlement in what is today called Genesee Country, the farthest western region of New York State, comprising the Genesee Valley and westward to the Niagara River, Lake Erie, and the Pennsylvania line.

[6] Batavia, New York, was named by Busti in honor of the Batavian Republic (1795–1806), a republican government of the Netherlands and home of the investors of the Holland Land Company.

Seneca chief and orator Red Jacket was adamantly against the sale, but his influence was thwarted by freely-distributed liquor and trinkets given to the women.

He acquiesced and signed the Treaty of Big Tree, in which the tribe sold their rights to the land (except for a small portion) for $100,000.

Mary Jemison, known as The White Woman of the Genesee, who was captured in a raid and ended up marrying her Seneca captor, was an able negotiator for the tribe and helped win them more favorable terms.

A scandal erupted in Batavia in 1826, when William Morgan was offended by the local Masonic Lodge (Western Star Chapter R. A. M. No.

Anti-Masonry was a factor in politics for many years afterward, leading to the creation of the Anti-Masonic Party, as well as religion.

The Erie Canal in 1825 bypassed Batavia, going well to the north at Albion and Medina, enabling Buffalo and Rochester to grow much faster.

With the sale of the western part of the state completed, Batavia became a small industrial city in the heart of an agricultural area.

Batavia grew rapidly in the early 20th century, receiving an influx of Polish and Italian immigrants.

In recent years much of the heavier industry left for other areas of the US, or abroad, and according to U.S. Census data there has been a gradual but consistent decline in the city's population from 1960 forward.

[7][8] In August 2012, Muller Quaker Dairy broke ground on what was to be one of the largest yogurt manufacturing plants in the United States, and employed 170 people in December 2015.

[9][10] On December 10, 2015, the closure of the yogurt plant was announced with the additional news that the facility would be sold to the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative.

In Batavia, there are multiple companies ranging from food products to manufacturing that release toxic chemicals on a regular basis.

The following data comes from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) database.

Of this number, a total of 53,610 pounds was released on land, or into the air and water of the surrounding areas without being managed properly.

Of these facilities, 4 are indicated by the EPA to release chemicals that could pose a threat to people in the surrounding communities.

It is important to note, however, that the very presence of these compounds in released materials does not directly correlate with human ingestion, and that there are many safety measures in place to ensure that this is the case.

[64] This disparity accounts for a large difference in the health outcomes of the people in these neighborhoods, including increased asthma rates in children of color compared to their white counterparts,[65] and many other adverse effects.