Explorers from many European countries visited Massachusetts before the start of permanent settlement. The Vikings may have visited around 1000. John Cabot is thought to have seen the coast in 1498. Samuel de Champlain mapped the coastline in 1605.

The first permanent European settlement in Massachusetts was at Plymouth, where pilgrims who crossed from England on the Mayflower started a community in 1620. About half of the settlers did not survive the first winter, but the local Indians provided them with knowledge that enabled them to survive the following winter more comfortably. Within a few years, Plymouth Colony had 2,500 settlers.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony encompassed a larger area and more communities. By 1640, there were around 10,000 settlers. Groups from Massachusetts started other settlements, including some in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. All of them gradually separated, with Maine being the last to go (1820).

Massachusetts was a center of agitation for independence. The Boston Tea Party provoked the British into declaring the Intolerable Acts, which served to unite other colonies behind the cause. Massachusetts was less supportive of the War of 1812, which impacted its overseas trade. However, the embargo had the beneficial effect of requiring more local manufacture. Two of the first six American presidents were from Massachusetts – John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams.

Massachusetts also fostered the growth of the anti-slavery movement. William Lloyd Garrison began to publish his anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator in Boston in 1831. The state was solidly for the Union during the Civil War, and ships built in Massachusetts contributed to the blockade of the Confederacy. Manufacturing was greatly stimulated by the demands of war.

Many inventions have originated in Massachusetts, including the sewing machine and the telephone. The first long-distance telephone line was strung between Boston Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, in 1881.Also, Brandeis University is one of the newest private research universities in Massachusetts, as well as the only nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored college or university in the country.