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Maine is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is probably named after the French province of Maine. Another possibility for the name "Maine" is that the people living on islands along the coast of Maine used to speak of going to the mainland as "going over to the Main."

The state experiences a continental climate, much more so in the southern part of the state, with Fahrenheit temperatures dipping into the 20s and 10s in the winter and 70s and 80s in the summer.

Four U.S. Navy ships have been named USS

Original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking peoples including the Wabanaki, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscots. The first European settlement in Maine was in 1604 by a French party that included Samuel de Champlain, the noted explorer. The French named the area that includes Maine as Acadia. English colonists sponsored by the Plymouth Company settled in 1607. the coastal areas of western Maine first became the Province of Maine in a 1622 land patent. Eastern Maine north of the Kennebec River was more sparsely settled and was known in the 17th century as the Territory of Sagadahock.

The province within its current boundaries became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1652. Maine was much fought over by the French and English during the 17th and early 18th centuries. After the defeat of the French in the 1740s, the territory from the Penobscot River east fell under the nominal authority of the Province of Nova Scotia, and together with present day New Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia county of Sunbury, with its court of general sessions at Campobello. American and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. The treaty concluding revolution was ambiguous about Maine's boundary with British North America. The territory of Maine was confirmed as part of Massachusetts when the United States was formed, although the final border with British territory was not established until the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.

Because it was physically separated from the rest of Massachusetts and was growing in population at a rapid rate, it became the 23rd state on March 15, 1820 through the Missouri Compromise. This compromise allowed admitting both Maine and Missouri (in 1821) into the union while keeping a balance between slave and free states. Maine's original capital was Portland until 1832, when it was moved to Augusta.

See also: List of Governors of Maine,U.S. Senators from Maine,List of Maine State Senators,andAs Maine goes, so goes the country

The capital of Maine is Augusta and its governor is John Baldacci (Democrat). Its two U.S. senators are Susan Collins (Republican) and Olympia Snowe (Republican).

Maine's politics are notable for several reasons, and are dramatic. In the 1930s, it was one of very few states which remained dominated by the Republican Party. In the 1936 Presidential election, Franklin D. Roosevelt received the electoral votes of every state other than Maine and Vermont.

Beginning in the 1960s, Maine began to lean toward the Democrats, especially in Presidential elections. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey became just the second Democrat in half a century to carry Maine thanks to the presence of his running mate, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie. Maine has since become a left-leaning swing state, but has voted Democratic in four straight Presidential elections, casting its votes for Bill Clinton twice, Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry (with 53.6% of the vote) in 2004. Republican strength is greatest in Washington and Piscataquis counties. Though Democrats have carried the state in presidential elections in recent years, Republicans have largely maintained their control of the state's U.S. Senate seats, with Ed Muskie and George Mitchell being the only Maine Democrats serving in the U.S. Senate in the past fifty years.

Maine voters tend to accept independent and third-party candidates more frequently than most states. Maine has had two independent Governors recently (James B. Longley, 1975–1979 and Angus King, 1995–2003). The Reform Party of Ross Perot achieved a great deal here in the Presidential elections of 1992 and 1996: in 1992 Perot came in second to Bill Clinton, despite the longtime presence of the Bush family summer home in Kennebunkport, and in 1996, Maine was again Perot's best state.

The Green Party candidate won nine percent of the vote in the 2002 gubernatorial election, more than in any election for a statewide office for that party. The Green Party also elected John Eder to the office of State Representative in Maine, its highest elected official nationwide. Maine politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, are noted for having more moderate views than many in their party.

Since 1969, two of Maine's four electoral votes are awarded based on the winner of the statewide election. The other two go to the highest vote-winner in each of the state's two congressional districts.

Famous politicians from Maine include James Blaine, Edmund Muskie, Margaret Chase Smith, William Cohen, George J. Mitchell, John Baldacci, Olympia Snowe, Hannibal Hamlin, Susan Collins, Owen Brewster, and Percival Baxter.

Maine is an Alcoholic beverage control state.

To the south and east is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the northeast is New Brunswick, a province of Canada. The Canadian province of Quebec is to the northwest. Maine is both the largest and the northernmost state in the New England region, bordered on the west by New Hampshire. Maine is the only state that borders exactly one other state. Maine is the easternmost state in the contiguous 48 states(). Its easternmost city is Eastport, and its easternmost town is Lubec. Its largest lake is Moosehead Lake, and its highest mountain is Mt. Katahdin, which is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. A new International Appalachian Trail starts at Mt. Katahdin and runs to Belle Isle, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Maine also has several unique geographical features. Machias Seal Island, off its easternmost point, is claimed by both the USA and Canada and is the only U.S. land area still in dispute with respect to sovereignty. Also in this easternmost area is the Old Sow, the largest tidal whirlpool in the world.

Maine is the most sparsely populated state east of the Mississippi River, owing in part to its huge relative size—its land mass exceeds that of all other New England states combined. It is appropriately called the Pine Tree State, as 90 percent of its land is forest. In the forested areas of the interior there is much uninhabited land, some of which does not even have formal political organization into local units. For example, the Northwest Aroostook, Maine "territory" in the far north is listed as having an area of 2,668 square miles and a population of 27, or one person for every 100 square miles.

Maine is equally well known for its dramatic ocean scenery. West Quoddy Head is the easternmost piece of land in the contiguous 48 United States. Along the famous rock-bound coast of Maine are lighthouses, sandy beaches, quiet fishing villages and thousands of offshore islands, including the Isles of Shoals, which straddles the New Hampshire border. Jagged rocks and cliffs and thousands of bays and inlets add to the rugged beauty of Maine's coast. Just inland, by contrast, is the view of sparkling lakes, rushing rivers, green forests and towering mountains. This visual contrast of forested slopes sweeping down to the sea has been aptly summed up by American poetess Edna St. Vincent Millay of Rockland and Camden, Maine in "Renascence":

dl, where a rising sea level has invaded former land features, creating bays out of valleys and islands out of mountain tops. In the case of Maine there has been a partially offsetting rise in land also, due to the melting of heavy glacier ice, which caused a rebounding effect of underlying rock; however, this land rise was not strong enough to eliminate all the effect of the rising sea level and its invasion of some former land features.

Millions of ordinary Americans have enjoyed this coastal scenery at Maine's Acadia National Park, the only national park in New England.

The noted American ecologist Rachel Carson did much of her research at one of the Maine seacoast's most characteristic features, a tide pool for her classic "The Edge of the Sea." The spot where she conducted observations is now preserved as the Rachel Carson Salt Pond Reserve at Pemaquid Point.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Maine's total gross state product for 2003 was $41 billion. Its per capita personal income for 2003 was $29,164, 29th in the nation.

Maine's agricultural outputs are seafood (notably lobsters), poultry and eggs, dairy products, cattle, blueberries, apples, and maple sugar. Aroostook County is known for its potato crops. Western Maine aquifers and springs are a major source of bottled water (Poland Spring water is the Northeast's preferred brand). Its industrial outputs are paper, lumber, and wood products, electronic equipment, leather products, food processing, textiles, and tourism. Naval shipbuilding and construction remain key as well, with Bath Iron Works in Bath and Portsmouth Naval Yard in Kittery.

Maine ports play a key role in national transportation. Around 1880, Portland's rail link and ice-free port made it eastern

Canada's principal winter port, until the aggressive development of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the mid-1900s. In 2001, Maine's largest city surpassed Boston as New England's busiest port (by tonnage), due to its ability to handle large tankers.

Maine has a small trapping industry, which, with 3,157 resident trappers, is nevertheless larger than that of most Eastern states (Source: Portland Press Herald, January 23, 2005. Note: Many trappers are part-time). The principal pelt taken by value is beaver. Historically, however, beaver trapping was much more significant in the North Woods and Canadian Maritimes than the small industry of today and was the cause of much early wealth and many trading settlements.

Maine has very few large companies that maintain headquarters in the state, and fewer than before due to consolidations and mergers, particularly in the pulp and paper industry. Structurally, this could be a weakness in an economy that depends on extracting forest and sea resources, because decisions that affect the long-range stability of the resource base are being made in distant locations which do not have to live on a day to day basis with the consequences of their policies. Some of the very few large companies that do maintain headquarters in Maine include Fairchild Semiconductor (South Portland) , IDEXX Laboratories (a large veterinary biotech company in Westbrook) and the famous outdoor supply retailer L. L. Bean (Freeport). Maine is also the home of The Jackson Laboratory, a non-profit institution and the world's largest mammalian genetic research facility.

As of 2005, Maine has an estimated population of 1,321,505, which is an increase of 6,520, or 0.5%, from the prior year and an increase of 46,582, or 3.7%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 6,413 people (that is 71,276 births minus 64,863 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 41,808 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 5,004 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 36,804 people.

Maine is a popular tourist destination, but it also experiences harsh winters and, consequently, the great temporary influx of visitors occurs during the warmer months. Many of these visitors establish an alternate secondary residence in Maine during some or all warm months and then depart for their primary residence in the off-season. These are the Summer People of Maine lore. Official census figures normally count a person as a resident only once, at the place of the primary home. Therefore, there are some situations in which official census figures could be misleading for Maine. For example, some communities may have a much larger seasonal retail sector than their official, small population figure would imply.

As explained in detail under "Geography", there are large tracts of uninhabited land in some remote parts of the interior.

The five largest ancestries in the state are: English (21.5%), Irish (15.1%), French (14.2%), American (9.4%), French Canadian (8.6%). Maine is second only to New Hampshire in the percentage of French Canadians. It also has the largest percentage of non-Hispanic whites of any state and the highest percentage of current French-speakers. Franco-Mainers tended to settle in the industrial cities of inland Maine (especially Lewiston) whereas much of the midcoast and downeast sections remain strongly Anglo. Smaller numbers of various other groups including Germans, Irish, and Italians settled around the state.

As of 2000, 92.2% of Maine residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 5.3% speak French. Spanish is the third most spoken language at 0.8%, followed by German at 0.3% and Italian at 0.1%.

The religious affiliations of the people of Maine are shown in the table below:

In 1839 Governor Fairfield declared war on England over a boundary dispute between New Brunswick and northern Maine. Known as the Aroostook War, this is the first and only time a state has declared war on a foreign power. The dispute was settled, however, before any blood was shed.

A citizen of Maine is known as a "Mainer," though the term "Down Easter" may be applied to residents of the northeast coast of the state.