New England (state) (Alternity)

New England is a state located in the western Atlantic and represents the easternmost extension of the United States. Admitted to the Union as the 19th state on March 8, 1816, New England was first discovered by Englishman William Weston, an associate of John Cabot, on an independent voyage in 1499, though it would remain unsettled and unexplored for over a hundred years. It shares maritime borders with the US state of Massachusetts to the northwest, Bermuda to the south, and Quebec's North Island to the north-northeast.

First settled by English Puritans in 1634, New England's seven main islands remained sparsely populated until 1766, when the British military established major encampments at the settlements at Firrey on modern-day Nashville Island, and New Bristol on modern-day Allegheny Island. At the outset of the American Revolution, a series of skirmishes ensued with local American guerrillas, and following years of stalemates on both sides, the British were forced to abandon the islands altogether in July 1779 when a French and Spanish fleet bombarded the main British encampment at Fort George on Allegheny in support of the Revolution, allowing a small force of Continental Army troops under the command of General Robert Kelvin (for whom the capital was named) to occupy the islands on July 28.

Despite its relative proximity to the East Coast, additional settlers were sparse, due in part to occasional volcanic activity - mostly near Nashville Island - and the relatively rugged terrain. As a result, the islands' population remained quite low until statehood in 1816. Today, one of the islands' major sources of revenue is tourism, certainly its largest; millions of tourists flock to its beaches every summer, and its major parks throughout the year.

Counties
New England's seven main islands are partitioned into counties, which are each subdivided into boroughs (five for Buell and Nashville counties; three each for the remaining five counties), for a statewide total of 25 boroughs.



In Popular Culture

 * The islands' most notable appearance in popular culture occurs in the Jaws film trilogy. The original, 1975's Jaws, deals with a series of giant great white shark attacks against West Buell, a popular summer tourist spot, in which six are killed. The local sheriff, Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) seize the initiative and hire and hire Quint (Robert Shaw), a World War II veteran and local fishing boat captain, to hunt and kill the shark. Jaws 2 (1978) again finds Sheriff Brody and Matt Hooper facing off against a great white, but this time, Brody's son Mike is caught in the fight after he disobeys his father about sailing with his friends in the channel waters. The final film, 1981's Jaws 3, concludes the series, with an aging Brody and equally worn-out Hooper eventually luring the third shark away from West Buell using an old WWII-era minesweeper.


 * In Home Alone III, the McCallister family's latest vacation takes them to a private beach house on the South Shore of Sheldrake Island.