Annapolis, Maryland

Annapolis (/əˈnæpəlᵻs/) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, 25 miles (40 km) south of Baltimore and about 30 miles (50 km) east of Washington, DC, Annapolis is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. Its population was measured at 38,394 by the 2010 census.

The city served as the seat of the Continental Congress in 1783–84 and was the site of the 1786 Annapolis Convention (which called for the Constitutional Convention held the following year) and the Annapolis Peace Conference, held in 2007. Annapolis is the home of St. John's College as well as the United States Naval Academy.

History

Colonial and early United States (1649–1808)

A settlement in the Province of Maryland named "Providence" was founded on the north shore of the Severn River in 1649 by Puritan exiles from Virginia led by Governor William Stone (1603–60). The settlers later moved to a better-protected harbor on the south shore. The settlement on the south shore was initially named "Town at Proctor's", then "Town at the Severn", and later "Anne Arundel's Towne" (after the wife of Lord Baltimore who died soon afterwards).