Boston, the economic and intellectual center of New England and, historically, America’s cradle of liberty, is the stage on which much of the drama of the earliest years of our country took place. It is here that the Colonies, which evolved into the present United States, were first established. The capital city of Massachusetts, Boston was first settled in the 17th century, but it was the 18th century that saw the growing rift between the English Parliament and the colonists in what was referred to as the Bay Colony. Many of the historic sites and buildings in Boston, and the towns surrounding it, are associated with this period of separation from the Crown.