Dutch in New York
Dutch began building a trading station they called New Amsterdam, located at the mouth of the Hudson River. They quickly realized that the best spot for their homes was the beautiful island of Manhattan. The director of the colony, Peter Minuit, traded goods with the local Native Americans for the right to use the island. Meanwhile, the company also built Fort Orange upstream from the mouth of the Hudson and not far from the site of Albany, the modern capital of New York State.
The Dutch established connections with Native American trade in much the same way the Europeans linked up with existing trade in West Africa. The Dutch were less interested in conquering or transforming the countryside than in simply obtaining furs by trade. The settlers soon built up a prosperous trade in furs and other goods with Europe. In 1655, the Dutchman Adriaen Van der Donck gave three reasons for Dutch trading success in New Netherland:
"First, it is a fine fruitful country. Secondly, it has fine navigable rivers extending far inland, by which the productions of the country can be brought to places of [sale]. [Thirdly,] the Indians, without our labor or trouble, bring to us their fur trade, worth tons of gold, which may be increased, and is like goods found"
Farmers also grew wheat and rye on their Manhattan lands, and increased production of more crops as their holdings expanded along the Hudson and Delaware rivers. The settlers shipped most of these products to other colonies.
New Amsterdam became a port where Dutch, Swedish, French, German, English, and many other people carried on peaceful business together. Some 18 different languages were spoken in its streets. Religious tolerance was a firm rule. The town even boasted the first synagogue, or house of Jewish worship, on the North American continent.
Although Dutch rule was generally mild, the last governor, Peter Stuyvesant, was often at odds with the colonists. They wanted more self-government, and the hot-tempered Stuyvesant yielded little.
he English looked on the prosperity of the Dutch colony with envious eyes. In 1664, the English king, Charles II, decided to make a move. He declared that the entire region of the Dutch colonies belonged to his brother, the Duke of York.
The Duke of York sent a fleet of four ships and several hundred soldiers to New Amsterdam. The town had no fort or other defenses, and the Dutch realized at once that they could do nothing to stop the English. Although Stuyvesant stormed and raged, the Dutch would not fight, and in the end he was forced to give up the town. New Amsterdam was immediately renamed New York and became an English colony. Soon the rest of New Netherland surrendered to the English.
