什麼是羅德島

正式名稱羅德島暨普洛維頓斯種植園州（Rhode Island and Providence Plantations）

美國東北部一州。新英格蘭地區之一，爲美國最小的一州，面積3,139平方公里。首府爲普洛維頓斯。以大西洋爲邊界。原始居民爲納拉甘西特族印第安人。1636年被逐出麻薩諸塞的威廉斯和其追隨者首次在此建立歐洲人居住點。1663年國王查理二世頒給威廉斯特許證。雖然該地從未正式加入新英格蘭殖民地，許多居住地仍在菲利普王戰爭中遭到嚴重焚燬，損失慘重。爲聯邦的原始成員之一，1790年批准聯邦憲法，爲正式加入聯邦的第十三州。1790年斯萊特在波塔基特建立的棉花紡織坊，是美國工業革命的開始。其原本特許狀在1842年多爾反叛（參閱Dorr, Thomas Wilson）前有效，並造成選舉權的擴大。其經濟主要倚靠製造業，產品包括珠寶和銀器、紡織品和衣服、電子機械和電器製品。人口約1,048,319（2000）。

Rhode Island

State (pop., 1997 est.: 987,000), northeastern U.S. One of the New England states and the smallest U.S. state, it covers 1,212 sq mi (3,139 sq km); its capital is Providence. It borders the Atlantic Ocean. The original inhabitants were Narragansett Indians. The first European settlement was in 1636 by Roger Williams and his followers, who were banished from Massachusetts; in 1663 King Charles II granted a charter to Williams. Though it never officially joined the New England colonies in King Philip's War, it suffered greatly when many settlements were burned. It was in the forefront fighting British customs laws leading up to the American Revolution. An original state of the Union, it was the 13th to ratify the Constitution, in 1790, only after the Bill of Rights was included. The cotton-textile mill built by Samuel Slater in Pawtucket in 1790 initiated the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. Its original charter remained in effect until Dorr's Rebellion (see Thomas W. Dorr) in 1842 led to extension of suffrage. Manufacturing is important to the economy, and products include jewelry and silverware, textiles and clothing, and electrical machinery and electronics.