Setting (cont.)

Cambridge was founded by a group of 700 Puritans, from England in 1631, who hoped to build a community based on the Bible. The settlers formed several villages around the Massachusetts Bay, but they could not agree on a capital.

Newtowne, before it became Cambridge in 1638, went from lines on a grid map into a busy place. Soon, Newtowne had a meetinghouse, a school, and a marketplace (Winthrop Square). Harvard College, one of the first colleges in America, was founded in 1636, to train young men for the ministry and for positions of leadership within the godly community.

Later on Cambridge became a city in 1846, uniting three rival villages -- Old Cambridge, Cambridgeport and East Cambridge.

Today, Cambridge is home to a culturally diverse population of over 95,000. Over fifty languages may be heard on the streets of the city, including Spanish, Creole, Portuguese, Chinese, Amharic, and Korean. Children from 82 different countries of origin attend the public schools. College students from around the world study at Harvard, Radcliffe, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Lesley College. The heavy industries of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have been replaced by technology-based enterprises, including electronics, self-developing film and cameras, software and biotechnology research.

Sources:
Cambridge History

Other links about Cambridge's History
Settlement of Cambridge
Topographical Description of Cambridge