The history of Boston intertwines with the history of the United States. Boston is the capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the historical center of New England.
The first Euro-American settlement in the immediate area of Boston was a short way across Boston Harbor at Charlestown. Boston's deep harbor and advantageous geographic position helped it to become the busiest port in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, eventually surpassing Plymouth and Salem. Until the 1760s, Boston was America's largest, wealthiest, and most influential city.
The Shawmut Peninsula was originally connected to the mainland to its south by a narrow isthmus, Boston Neck, and surrounded by Boston Harbor and the Back Bay, an estuary of the Charles River. Several prehistoric Native American archaeological sites, including the Boylston Street Fishweir, excavated during construction of buildings and subways in the city, have shown that the peninsula was inhabited as early as 7,500 years before present.
Trimountaine was the original name given by European settlers to the peninsula that would later be incorporated as the city of Boston. The name was derived from the three prominent hills on the peninsula, two of which were leveled as the city was modernized. The third, Beacon Hill, remains to this day a prominent feature of the Boston cityscape.
