Sanctuary City

Sanctuary City
Country	United States
State	New Hampshire
County	Rockingham
Settled	1630
Incorporated (Portsmouth)	1653
Incorporated (city)	1849
Reformed as Sanctuary City	September 10, 1985
Core city	Portsmouth/"Sanctuary City"
Satellite cities	List of satellite cities Derry Salem Epping Chester Raymond Candia Hampton Seabrook Plaistow Atkinson Newmarket Rye North Hampton Kittery, Maine
Area
• City	800 sq mi (2,060 km2)
• Land	695 sq mi (1,801 km2)
• Water	100 sq mi (259 km2)  12.6%
• Urban	285.10 sq mi (738.41 km2)
• Metro	410.27 sq mi (1,062.59 km2)
Elevation	70 ft (20 m)
Population  (2010)
• City	20,000,000
• Density	25,000/sq mi (9,700/km2)

Sanctuary City, officially called The Sanctuary Area of Portsmouth, Exeter, and Derry and sometimes referred to as The Greater Sanctuary Area, is a metropolitan area located in the USA on Earth-0. As the home of the largest population of Meta-Humans on Earth-0, it is a significant region with colorful recent history.

History

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Settlement and Incorporation

The area that would be settled as Portsmouth was first explored by Europeans in 1603. As the Piscataqua River forms a good natural harbor, the area was of interest to European settlers, and was settled in 1630 by European colonists under the name "Strawbery Banke" due to the amount of wild strawberries growing in the area.

As a European colony, Portsmouth was a beneficiary of the Triangle Trade, and Enslaved Africans were imported to the colony (with records dating back to at least 1645) - these imported slaves were key to the colony's prosperity. Strawbery Banke was incorporated in 1653, and named "Portsmouth" in honor of the colony's founder, who was from Portsmouth, Hampshire.

American Revolution

In 1774, when the American Revolution was brewing, Paul Revere rode to Portsmouth to warn the city that the Royal Navy was coming to capture the city. The risk of invasion from the sea led to the Patriot government moving the captial of the region from Portsmouth in-land to Exeter. As a sea port, Portsmouth was a key location for the American revolutionaries to receive supplies from their French allies.

African Americans were key to defending to defending Portsmouth during the revolutionary war, and as such a group of enslaved African Americans from Portsmouth wrote to the state legistlature of New Hampshire in 1779 to abolition slavery on those grounds - slavery would not be banned in New Hampshire until 1857.

19th Century

The 1807 embargo of American trade with Britain caused financial disruption in Portsmouth, as several local businessmen went bankrupt due to New England's reliance on trade with Canada. Portsmouth was relatively uninvolved in the War of 1812, but did host privateers.

Portsmouth was incoporated as a city in 1849.

Thanks to being a key port and shipbuilding city, Portsmouth was a wealthy city in the 1800s, leading to much of its downtown core consisting of examples of Colonian, Georgian, and Federal style houses. Due to fires in the early 1800s, the city established a fire district that required buildings within its boundaries be built from brick with slate roofs, leading to much of the area's distinctive style.

Portsmouth went into decline with the Industrial Revolution, as focus switched from its port to industrial mill towns located further inland than the city.

Early 20th Century

During World War II, Portsmouth Municipal Airport was converted for military use. By 1956, the airport became Pease Air Force Base, which housed nuclear bombers during the Cold War. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was also a key base during the Cold War, being responsible for the construction of significant US Submarines during the period.

As with many other cities, Portsmouth benefitted from mid-20th century federal urban renewal projects, with funds being particularly focused on the North End area due to its high Italian-American population leading to it being perceived as a poor, overcrowded area and a significant fire hazard. Approximately 300 families were displaced due to this project.

Notes

• Sanctuary City is the primary location setting for Earth-0, and as such has a lot of happening in it.
• A population of 20 million places Sanctuary City as having a larger population than the New York Metropolitan Area, but not larger than the Combined New York Statistical Area.
• The date of the Portsmouth/Rockingham area being reformed in Sanctuary City officially, September 10, 1985, is the official release date for Uncanny X-Men #200 (titled "The Trial of Magneto!"), a Marvel comic famous for a key legal decision involving Mutants, from whom Meta-Humans take much inspiration.