It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritan congregation of settlers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony led by Thomas Hooker.

[9] Winslow, along with William Bradford would later travel to Boston to convince the leaders of Massachusetts Bay to join Plymouth in constructing a trading post on the Connecticut River before the Dutch could.

[10][11][12] Despite the Bay Colony's refusal to join the venture, Plymouth sent a bark led by William Holmes to establish a trading post on the Connecticut.

[17] Dudley sent one Thomas Hooker, Newtown's pastor to Boston to resolve the latter dispute, but the resentment of Winthrop remained.

[18][19] After Dudley replaced Winthrop as governor in May 1634, the issue of Hooker's congregation's desire for removal to Connecticut was raised in the General Court.

[24] Finally in 1636 the arrival of a new group of settlers allowed Hooker's congregation to sell their homes and set off on the journey to Connecticut on the May 31.

[25] Hooker's group of around a hundred settlers and as many cattle soon arrived at the Connecticut River and established the town of Newtown near the Dutch fort.

The resulting document, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, was likely mostly drafted by Roger Ludlow, the only trained lawyer in the colonies.

The document was adopted in January 1639 and formally united the settlements of Hartford, Windsor, and Wetherfield together and has been called the first written democratic constitution.

[30] When Fort Good Hope was constructed, the Dutch specified in their treaty with the Pequot that the trading post was to be open to all tribes.

The Narragansett leaders Canonicus and Miantonomoh were able to reassure the colonist, claiming that the culprits not killed by Gallup were hiding among the Pequot.

On May 26, 1637, the group, encamped outside a fortified Pequot village on the Mystic River, launched a surprise attack at dawn.

The English charged into the village, set it on fire, and formed a ring around the stockades to kill anyone attempting to escape.

Mason, accompanied by Israel Stoughton pursued a group of three hundred Pequots to a swamp near modern Fairfield, where they killed and captured a great number of them.

The Confederation negotiated the Treaty of Hartford defining the border between New Netherland and the English colonies, but the government in England refused to ratify it.

The charter granted Connecticut extensive liberties, with the removal of references to royalty being the only change required in the aftermath of the American Revolution.

By the time the candles were relit, the charter had vanished, safely hidden away in a nearby oak tree.

When James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution, Andros initially attempted to suppress the news.

The dominion's short-lived experiment in centralized government ended and Connecticut, along with all the other colonies, had its charter restored.

At the first legislative session in New Haven to create a college for the colony, with Saybrook as the site and Abraham Pierson as the first rector.

[57] The Connecticut Courant, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States, was founded in Hartford in 1764.

[58] Connecticut was a staunch supporter of the American Revolution, with a fifth of the state's male population serving in the war.

In the middle of the 18th century, the government restricted voting rights with a property qualification and a church membership requirement.

[61] The economy began with subsistence farming in the 17th century and developed with greater diversity and an increased focus on production for distant markets, especially the British colonies in the Caribbean.

The American Revolution cut off imports from Britain and stimulated a manufacturing sector that made heavy use of the entrepreneurship and mechanical skills of the people.

In the second half of the 18th century, difficulties arose from the shortage of good farmland, periodic money problems, and downward price pressures in the export market.