The borough of Queens was named after the wife of Charles II of England, Queen Catherine of Braganza in 1683. The area became a borough of New York City in 1898 and rapid economic and physical growth followed the merger. At the beginning of the 17th century, Queens was populated largely by small farms and was predominantly rural. During the 18th century, the area started to experience growth in the area of manufacturing along the shores of the East river. After the merger with New York City the growth that had already begun increased at an ever-increasing rate.

The area has been very popular for new immigrants in the past half of this century and is largely split up into different ethnic neighborhoods that feel very much like the home countries of the people that live there. There are very few inter-racial neighborhoods in Queens and the new immigrants that come to live here tend to congregate in their own areas.

New York's two major airports are located in queens along with a lot of the industry in New York City. Queens is connected physically to Long Island.