![CastelloPlanOriginal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/CastelloPlanOriginal.jpg)
New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam,
or ) was a 17th-century
Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in
New Netherland
New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...
. The initial trading ''
factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...
'' gave rise to the settlement around
Fort Amsterdam
Fort Amsterdam was a fort on the southern tip of Manhattan at the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers. It was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then English/British rule of the colony of New Netherland and subsequently th ...
. The fort was situated on the strategic southern tip of the island of Manhattan and was meant to defend the
fur trade operations of the
Dutch West India Company in the North River (
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
). In 1624, it became a provincial extension of the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
and was designated as the capital of the province in 1625.
By 1655, the population of New Netherland had grown to 2,000 people, with 1,500 living in New Amsterdam. By 1664, the population of New Netherland had risen to almost 9,000 people, 2,500 of whom lived in New Amsterdam, 1,000 lived near
Fort Orange
Fort Orange ( nl, Fort Oranje) was the first permanent Dutch settlement in New Netherland; the present-day city of Albany, New York developed at this site. It was built in 1624 as a replacement for Fort Nassau, which had been built on nearb ...
, and the remainder in other towns and villages.
In 1664, the English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it
New York after the Duke of York (later
James II & VII
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
). After the
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas and trade routes, whe ...
of 1665–67, England and the
United Provinces of the Netherlands
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands ( Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
agreed to the status quo in the
Treaty of Breda. The English kept the island of Manhattan, the Dutch giving up their claim to the town and the rest of the colony, while the English formally abandoned
Surinam in South America, and the island of
Run in the
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...
to the Dutch, confirming their control of the valuable
Spice Islands
A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices are ...
. What was once New Amsterdam became New York City's
downtown, today known as
Lower Manhattan.
Etymology
The indigenous
Munsee
The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along ...
term for the southern tip of the island was
Manhattoe, and variations of this name were also applied to the first Dutch settlement there. With the construction of
Fort Amsterdam
Fort Amsterdam was a fort on the southern tip of Manhattan at the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers. It was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then English/British rule of the colony of New Netherland and subsequently th ...
, the town also became variously known as "Amsterdam" or "New Amsterdam". New Amsterdam's city limits did not extend north of the
wall of Wall Street, and neither the remainder of the island of Manhattan nor of wider New Netherland fell under its definition.
History
Early settlement (1609–1624)
![Rigging House motif](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Rigging_House_motif.jpg)
In 1524, nearly a century before the arrival of the Dutch, the site that would later become New Amsterdam was named
Nouvelle Angoulême by the Italian explorer
Giovanni da Verrazzano
Giovanni da Verrazzano ( , , often misspelled Verrazano in English; 1485–1528) was an Italian ( Florentine) explorer of North America, in the service of King Francis I of France.
He is renowned as the first European to explore the Atlanti ...
, to commemorate his patron King
Francis I of France
Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin on ...
, whose family consisted of the
Counts of Angoulême
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
. The first recorded exploration by the Dutch of the area around what is now called
New York Bay was in 1609 with the voyage of the ship ''
Halve Maen
''Halve Maen'' (; en, Half Moon) was a Dutch East India Company '' vlieboot'' (similar to a carrack) that sailed into what is now New York Harbor in September 1609. She was commissioned by the VOC Chamber of Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic to ...
'' (English: "Half Moon"), commanded by
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States.
In 1607 and 16 ...
in the service of the Dutch Republic, as the emissary of
Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange
Maurice of Orange ( nl, Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was ''stadtholder'' of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at the earliest until his death in 1625. Before he became Prince o ...
and
stadholder
In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and ...
of Holland. Hudson named the river the Mauritius River. He was also covertly attempting to find the
Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...
for the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
. Instead, he brought back news about the possibility of exploitation of
beaver by the Dutch who sent commercial, private missions to the area the following years.
At the time, beaver pelts were highly prized in Europe, because the
fur
Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...
could be
felt
Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...
ed to make waterproof hats. A by-product of the trade in beaver pelts was
castoreum
Castoreum is a yellowish exudate from the castor sacs of mature beavers. Beavers use castoreum in combination with urine to scent mark their territory. Both beaver sexes have a pair of castor sacs and a pair of anal glands, located in two cavitie ...
—the secretion of the animals' anal glands—which was used for its medicinal properties and for perfumes. The expeditions by
Adriaen Block
Adriaen (Arjan) Block (c. 1567 – buried April 27, 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four v ...
and
Hendrick Christiaensen
Hendrick Christiaensen (died 1619) was a Dutch explorer who was involved in the earlier exploration of what became the colony of New Netherland.
Life
Hendrick Christiaensen was a ship captain and trader employed by the Van Tweenhuysen Company of ...
in 1611, 1612, 1613 and 1614, resulted in the surveying and charting of the region from the
38th parallel to the
45th parallel. On their 1614 map, which gave them a four-year trade monopoly under a patent of the
States General The word States-General, or Estates-General, may refer to:
Currently in use
* Estates-General on the Situation and Future of the French Language in Quebec, the name of a commission set up by the government of Quebec on June 29, 2000
* States Gener ...
, they named the newly discovered and mapped territory New Netherland for the first time. It also showed the first year-round trading presence in New Netherland,
Fort Nassau, which would be replaced in 1624 by Fort Orange, which eventually grew into the town of
Beverwijck
Beverwijck ( ; ), often written using the pre-reform orthography Beverwyck, was a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River in New Netherland that was renamed and developed as Albany, New York, after the English took cont ...
, renamed
Albany in 1664.
Spanish trader
Juan Rodriguez (rendered in Dutch as Jan Rodrigues), was born in the
Captaincy General of Santo Domingo
The Captaincy General of Santo Domingo ( es, Capitanía General de Santo Domingo ) was the first colony in the New World, established by Spain in 1492 on the island of Hispaniola. The colony, under the jurisdiction of the Real Audiencia of Sant ...
, the first
Spanish Colony
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
in the Americas. Allegedly of
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
and
African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
descent, he arrived on Manhattan Island during the winter of 1613–1614 under the command of Thijs Volckenz Mossel captain of the ''Jonge Tobias'', trapping beavers and trading with the local population as a representative of the Dutch East India Company. He is the first recorded non-Native American inhabitant of what would eventually become New York City.
The territory of New Netherland was originally a private, profit-making commercial enterprise focused on cementing alliances and conducting trade with the local Native American ethnic groups. Surveying and exploration of the region was conducted as a prelude to an anticipated official settlement by the Dutch Republic, which occurred in 1624.
Pilgrims' attempt to settle in the Hudson River area
![Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, by William Halsall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Mayflower_in_Plymouth_Harbor%2C_by_William_Halsall.jpg)
In 1620 the
Pilgrims attempted to sail to the Hudson River from England. However, ''
Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
'' reached
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
(now part of Massachusetts) on November 9, 1620, after a voyage of 64 days.
[ (page 20).] For a variety of reasons, primarily a shortage of supplies, ''Mayflower'' could not proceed to the Hudson River, and the colonists decided to settle near Cape Cod, establishing the
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the British America, first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the pa ...
.
Dutch return
The mouth of the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
was selected as the ideal place for initial settlement as it had easy access to the ocean while also securing an ice-free lifeline to
the beaver trading post near present-day Albany. Here, Native American hunters supplied them with pelts in exchange for European-made trade goods and
wampum
Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western Nor ...
, which was soon being made by the Dutch on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. In 1621, the
Dutch West India Company was founded. Between 1621 and 1623, orders were given to the private, commercial traders to vacate the territory, thus opening up the territory to Dutch settlers and company traders. It also allowed the laws and ordinances of the states of Holland to apply. Previously, during the private, commercial period, only the law of the ship had applied.
In May 1624, the first settlers in New Netherland arrived on Noten Eylandt (Nut or Nutten Island, now
Governors Island
Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park ...
) aboard the ship ''New Netherland'' under the command of
Cornelius Jacobsen May
Cornelis Jacobsen Mey (in Dutch often rendered as Cornelius Jacobsz. May) was a Dutch explorer, captain and fur trader. Cape May, Cape May County, and the city of Cape May, New Jersey, are named after him.Russell Shorto, ''The Island at the Center ...
, who disembarked on the island with thirty families to take legal possession of the New Netherland territory. The families were then dispersed to
Fort Wilhelmus
Fort Wilhelmus was a ''factorij'' in the 17th-century colonial province of New Netherland, located on what had been named Hooghe Eyland (High Island) (also called Verhulsten Island) on the Zuyd Rivier, now Burlington Island in the Delaware River ...
on Verhulsten Island (
Burlington Island
Burlington Island is a island located in the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the United States. Burlington Island is officially part of the city of Burlington, in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. It is an un ...
) in the South River (now the
Delaware River), to Kievitshoek (now
Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,481 at the 2020 census. It contains the incorporated borough of Fenwick, as well as the census-designated places of Old Saybrook Center and Saybroo ...
) at the mouth of the Verse River (now the
Connecticut River) and further north at
Fort Nassau on the Mauritius or North River (now the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
), near what is now Albany.
A fort and
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
were soon erected at Nut Island. The latter was constructed by Franchoys Fezard and was taken apart for iron in 1648.
Fort Amsterdam (1624)
![Blaeu - Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova (Detail Hudson Area)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Blaeu_-_Nova_Belgica_et_Anglia_Nova_%28Detail_Hudson_Area%29.png)
The threat of attack from other European colonial powers prompted the directors of the
Dutch West India Company to formulate a plan to protect the entrance to the Hudson River. In 1624, 30 families were sponsored by Dutch West India Company moving from Nut Island to Manhattan Island, where a citadel to contain
Fort Amsterdam
Fort Amsterdam was a fort on the southern tip of Manhattan at the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers. It was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then English/British rule of the colony of New Netherland and subsequently th ...
was being laid out by Cryn Frederickz van Lobbrecht at the direction of
Willem Verhulst
Willem Verhulst or Willem van Hulst was an employee of the Dutch West India Company and the second (provisional) director of the New Netherland colony in 1625–26. Nothing is known about his life before and after this period. Verhulst may have ...
. By the end of 1625, the site had been staked out directly south of
Bowling Green
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls.
Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...
on the site of the present
U.S. Custom House. The
Mohawk-Mahican War in the Hudson Valley led the company to relocate even more settlers to the vicinity of the new Fort Amsterdam. In the end, colonizing was a prohibitively expensive undertaking, only partly subsidized by the fur trade. This led to a scaling back of the original plans. By 1628, a smaller fort was constructed with walls containing a mixture of clay and sand.
The fort also served as the center of trading activity. It contained a barracks, the church, a house for the West India Company director and a warehouse for the storage of company goods. Troops from the fort used the triangle between the ''
Heerestraat'' and what came to be known as
Whitehall Street
Whitehall Street is a street in the South Ferry/Financial District neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The street begins at Bowling Green to the north, where it is a continuation of the ...
for marching drills.
1624–1664
![GezichtOpNieuwAmsterdam](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/GezichtOpNieuwAmsterdam.jpg)
Verhulst, with his council, was responsible for the selection of Manhattan as a permanent place of settlement and for situating Fort Amsterdam. He was replaced as the company director of New Netherland by
Peter Minuit
Peter Minuit (between 1580 and 1585 – August 5, 1638) was a Wallonian merchant from Tournai, in present-day Belgium. He was the 3rd Director of the Dutch North American colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1631, and 3rd Governor of New ...
in 1626. According to the writer Nathaniel Benchley, to legally safeguard the settlers' investments, possessions and farms on Manhattan island, Minuit negotiated the "purchase" of Manhattan from a band of
Canarse
The Canarsee (also Canarse and Canarsie) were a band of Munsee-speaking Lenape who inhabited the westernmost end of Long Island at the time the Dutch colonized New Amsterdam in the 1620s and 1630s.
They are credited with selling the island of Man ...
from Brooklyn who occupied the bottom quarter of Manhattan, known then as the
Manhattoes, for 60
guilders
Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Emp ...
' worth of trade goods. Minuit conducted the transaction with the Canarse chief Seyseys, who was only too happy to accept valuable merchandise in exchange for an island that was actually mostly controlled by the Weckquaesgeeks. The deed itself has not survived, so the specific details are unknown. A textual reference to the deed became the foundation for the legend that Minuit had purchased Manhattan from the Native Americans for twenty-four dollars' worth of trinkets and beads, the guilder rate at the time being about two and a half to a
Spanish dollar
The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight ( es, Real de a ocho, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content ...
. The price of 60 Dutch guilders in 1626 amounts to around $1,100 in 2012 dollars. Further complicating the calculation is that the value of goods in the area would have been different than the value of those same goods in the developed market of the Netherlands.
The Dutch exploited the hydropower of existing creeks by constructing mills at Turtle Bay (between present-day East 45th–48th Streets) and Montagne's Kill, later called Harlem Mill Creek (East 108th Street). In 1639 a sawmill was located in the northern forest at what was later the corner of
East 74th Street
74th Street is an east–west street carrying pedestrian traffic and eastbound automotive/bicycle traffic in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs through the Upper East Side neighborhood (in ZIP code 10021, where it is known as East ...
and
Second Avenue, at which African slaves cut lumber.
The New Amsterdam settlement had a population of approximately 270 people, including infants. In 1642 the new director
Willem Kieft
Willem Kieft (September 1597 – September 27, 1647) was a Dutch merchant and the Director of New Netherland (of which New Amsterdam was the capital) from 1638 to 1647.
Life and career
Willem Kieft was appointed to the rank of director ...
decided to build a stone church within the fort. The work was carried out by recent English immigrants, the brothers John and Richard Ogden. The church was finished in 1645 and stood until destroyed in the
Slave Insurrection of 1741.
A pen-and-ink view of New Amsterdam,
drawn on-the-spot and discovered in the map collection of the
Austrian National Library
The Austrian National Library (german: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of V ...
in Vienna in 1991, provides a unique view of New Amsterdam as it appeared from Capske (small Cape) Rock in 1648. It was associated with
Adriaen van der Donck
Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck (16181655) was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific ''Jonkheer'' the city of Yonkers, New York, is named. Although he was not, as sometimes claimed, the first lawyer in the Dutch colo ...
's ''Remonstrance of New Netherland'', and may have inspired later views as by
Claes Jansz. Visscher. Capske Rock was situated in the water close to Manhattan between Manhattan and Noten Eylant, and signified the start of the East River roadstead.
New Amsterdam received
municipal rights
Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...
on February 2, 1653, thus becoming a city. Albany, then named ''Beverwyck'', received its city rights in 1652. ''Nieuw Haarlem'', now known as
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...
, was formally recognized in 1658.
The first
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
known to have lived in New Amsterdam arrived in 1654. First to arrive were Solomon Pietersen and Jacob Barsimson, who sailed during the summer of 1654 directly from Holland, with passports that gave them permission to trade in the colony. Then in early September,
23 Jewish refugees arrived from the Brazilian city of
Recife
That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15)
, image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg
, mapsize = 250px
, map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco
, pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...
, which had been
conquered by the Portuguese in January 1654. The director-general of New Netherland,
Peter Stuyvesant, sought to turn them away but was ultimately overruled by the directors of the Dutch West India Company in Amsterdam.
Asser Levy
Asser Levy (died early 1680s), also known as Asser Levy van Swellemhttps://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9876-levy-asser-asser-levy-van-swellem Solomon Grayzel, ''A History of the Jews'', The Jewish Publication Society of America, Philade ...
, an
Ashkenazi Jew who was one of the 23 refugees, eventually prospered and in 1661 became the first Jew to own a house in New Amsterdam, which also made him the first Jew known to have owned a house anywhere in North America.
In 1661, the
Communipaw ferry was founded and began a long history of trans-Hudson ferry and ultimately rail and road transportation. On September 15, 1655, New Amsterdam was attacked by 2,000 Native Americans as part of the
Peach Tree War
The Peach Tree War, also known as the Peach War, was a large-scale attack on September 15, 1655 by the Susquehannock Indians and allied tribes on several New Netherland settlements along the North River (Hudson River).
The attack was motivated ...
. They destroyed 28 farms, killed 100 settlers, and took 150 prisoners.
In 1664, Jan van Bonnel built a
saw mill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ( dimens ...
on
East 74th Street
74th Street is an east–west street carrying pedestrian traffic and eastbound automotive/bicycle traffic in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs through the Upper East Side neighborhood (in ZIP code 10021, where it is known as East ...
and the East River, where a long stream that began in the north of today's Central Park, which became known as the Saw Kill or Saw Kill Creek, emptied into the river.
Later owners of the property George Elphinstone and Abraham Shotwell replaced the sawmill with a leather mill in 1677.
The Saw Kill was later redirected into a culvert, arched over, and its trickling little stream was called Arch Brook.
English capture
![The fall of New Amsterdam cph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/The_fall_of_New_Amsterdam_cph.3g12217.jpg)
On August 27, 1664, while England and the Dutch Republic were at peace, four English frigates sailed into New Amsterdam's harbor and demanded New Netherland's surrender, effecting the bloodless
capture of New Amsterdam
Capture may refer to:
*Asteroid capture, a phenomenon in which an asteroid enters a stable orbit around another body
*Capture, a software for lighting design, documentation and visualisation
*"Capture" a song by Simon Townshend
*Capture (band), an ...
. On September 6, the local Dutch deciding not to offer resistance, Stuyvesant's lawyer
Johannes de Decker
Johannes De Decker (1626 - Unknown) was a Dutch lawyer and colonial official. He was one of the six signers of the articles of capitulation of New Amsterdam to the English on September 6, 1664. De Decker was sent to work as a lawyer for Peter Stuyv ...
and five other delegates signed the official
Articles of Surrender of New Netherland
The Articles of Capitulation on the Reduction of New Netherland was a document of surrender signed on September 29, 1664 handing control of the Dutch Republic's colonial province New Netherland to the Kingdom of England.
Director-General Peter S ...
. This was swiftly followed by the
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas and trade routes, whe ...
, between England and the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
. In June 1665, New Amsterdam was reincorporated under English law as New York City, named after the
Duke of York (later
King James II
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
). He was the brother of
King Charles II, who had been granted the lands.
In 1667, the
Treaty of Breda ended the conflict in favor of the Dutch. The Dutch did not press their claims on New Netherland but did demand control over the valuable sugar plantations and factories captured by them that year on the coast of
Surinam, giving them full control over the coast of what is now
Guyana and
Suriname
Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...
.
In July 1673, during the
Third Anglo-Dutch War
The Third Anglo-Dutch War ( nl, Derde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog), 27 March 1672 to 19 February 1674, was a naval conflict between the Dutch Republic and England, in alliance with France. It is considered a subsidiary of the wider 1672 to 1678 ...
, the Dutch quickly but briefly retook the colony of New Netherland, which the English called "New York", with a combined fleet of a squadron of ships from Amsterdam and a squadron of ships from Zeeland. The commanders were
Jacob Benckes (Koudum, 1637–1677) and
Cornelis Evertsen de Jongste (Vlissingen, 1642–1706) under instruction of the States General of the Dutch Republic.
Anthony Colve
Anthony or Anthonij Colve ( fl. 1667-1695) was a Dutch naval captain and the Director-General of New Netherland during a brief restoration of Dutch rule in New Netherland (roughly present-day New York and New Jersey).
Career
Colve was likely inv ...
was installed as the first Dutch
governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
of the province. Previously there had only been West India Company Directors and a Director-General.
Amidst the recapture, New York City would be again renamed, this time to New Orange. However, after the signing of the
Treaty of Westminster in November 1674, both the Dutch territories were relinquished to the English. With the transfer of control, the names New Netherland and New Orange reverted to the English versions of "New York" and "New York City", respectively. Surinam became an official Dutch possession in return.
Cartography
![Castelloplan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Castelloplan.jpg)
The beginnings of New Amsterdam, unlike most other colonies in the New World, were thoroughly documented in
city map
A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city (or part of a city) created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduce ...
s. During the time of New Netherland's colonization, the Dutch were the pre-eminent cartographers in Europe. The delegated authority of the Dutch West India Company over New Netherland required maintaining sovereignty on behalf of the States General, generating cash flow through commercial enterprise for its shareholders, and funding the province's growth. Thus its directors regularly required that censuses be taken. These tools to measure and monitor the province's progress were accompanied by accurate maps and plans. These surveys, as well as grassroots activities to seek redress of grievances,
account for the existence of some of the most important of the early documents.
There is a particularly detailed city map called the
Castello Plan produced in 1660. Virtually every structure in New Amsterdam at the time is believed to be represented, and by cross-referencing the ''Nicasius de Sille List'' of 1660, which enumerates all the citizens of New Amsterdam and their addresses, it can be determined who resided in every house.
The city map known as the
Duke's Plan probably derived from the same 1660 census as the Castello Plan. The Duke's Plan includes two outlying areas of development on Manhattan along the top of the plan. The work was created for James (1633–1701), the Duke of York and Albany, after whom
New York,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and New York's Capital –
Albany, were named just after the seizure of New Amsterdam by the British. After that provisional relinquishment of New Netherland, Stuyvesant reported to his superiors that he "had endeavored to promote the increase of population, agriculture and commerce...the flourishing condition which might have been more flourishing if the now afflicted inhabitants had been protected by a suitable garrison...and had been helped with the long sought for settlement of the boundary, or in default thereof had they been seconded with the oft besought reinforcement of men and ships against the continual troubles, threats, encroachments and invasions of the British neighbors and government of Hartford Colony, our too powerful enemies".
The existence of these city maps has proven to be very useful in the archaeology of New York City. For instance, the Castello map aided the excavation of the Stadthuys (
City Hall) of New Amsterdam in determining the exact location of the building.
Layout
![Wall Street IRT 008c](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Wall_Street_IRT_008c.JPG)
The maps enable a precise reconstruction of the town. Fort Amsterdam was located at the southernmost tip of the island of Manhattan, which today is surrounded by Bowling Green.
The Battery is a reference to its
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
of cannon.
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
was the main street that led out of town north towards Harlem. The town was surrounded to the north by a wall leading from the eastern to the western shore. Today, where the course of this city wall was, is
Wall Street. Nearby, a canal which led from the harbor inland was filled in 1676, and is today
Broad Street.
The layout of the streets was winding, as in a European city. Only starting from Wall Street going toward uptown did the typical grid become enforced long after the town ceased to be Dutch. Most of the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
overlaps with New Amsterdam and has retained its original street layout.
Legacy
![Stuyvesant Columbia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Stuyvesant_Columbia.jpg)
The 1625
date of the founding of New Amsterdam is now commemorated in the official
Seal of New York City. (Formerly, the year on the seal was 1664, the year of the provisional Articles of Transfer, assuring New Netherlanders that they "shall keep and enjoy the liberty of their consciences in religion", negotiated with the English by
Peter Stuyvesant and his council.)
Sometimes considered a dysfunctional trading post by the English who later acquired it from the Dutch,
Russell Shorto
Russell Anthony Shorto (born February 8, 1959) is an American author, historian, and journalist who is best known for his book on the Dutch origins of New York City, '' The Island at the Center of the World''. Shorto's research for the book rel ...
, author of ''The Island at the Center of the World'', suggests that the city left its cultural marks on later New York and, by extension, the United States as a whole.
Major recent historical research has been based on a set of documents that have survived from that period, untranslated. They are the administrative records of the colony, unreadable by most scholars. Since the 1970s,
Charles Gehring of the
New Netherland Institute The New Netherland Institute (formerly Friends of the New Netherland Project) is a non-profit organization created to support the translation and publication of 17th-century Dutch documents from the period of the Dutch colonization of New Netherland ...
has made it his life's work to translate this first-hand history of the Colony of New Netherland.
The scholarly conclusion has largely been that the settlement of New Amsterdam is much more like current New York than previously thought. Cultural diversity and a mindset that resembles the
American Dream were already present in the first few years of this colony. Writers like
Russell Shorto
Russell Anthony Shorto (born February 8, 1959) is an American author, historian, and journalist who is best known for his book on the Dutch origins of New York City, '' The Island at the Center of the World''. Shorto's research for the book rel ...
argue that the large influence of New Amsterdam on the American psyche has largely been overlooked in the classic telling of American beginnings, because of animosity between the English victors and the conquered Dutch.
The original 17th-century architecture of New Amsterdam has completely vanished (affected by the
fires of 1776 and
1835),
leaving only archaeological remnants. The original street plan of New Amsterdam has stayed largely intact, as have
some houses outside Manhattan.
The presentation of the legacy of the unique culture of 17th-century New Amsterdam remains a concern of
preservationists Preservationist is generally understood to mean ''historic preservationist'': one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects, or sites from demolition or degradation. Historic preservation us ...
and educators. In 2009 the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
celebrated the
400th anniversary of
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States.
In 1607 and 16 ...
's 1609 voyage on behalf of the
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
with the New Amsterdam Trail.
The
Dutch-American
Dutch Americans ( nl, Nederlandse Amerikanen) are Americans of Dutch descent whose ancestors came from the Netherlands in the recent or distant past. Dutch settlement in the Americas started in 1613 with New Amsterdam, which was exchanged with ...
historian and journalist
Hendrik Willem van Loon
Hendrik Willem van Loon (January 14, 1882 – March 11, 1944) was a Dutch-American historian, journalist, and children's book author.
Life
He was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the son of Hendrik Willem van Loon and Elisabeth Johanna Hanken. ...
wrote in 1933 a work of
alternative history
Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alte ...
entitled "If the Dutch Had Kept Nieuw Amsterdam" (in ''
If, Or History Rewritten'', edited by
J. C. Squire
Sir John Collings Squire (2 April 1884 – 20 December 1958) was a British writer, most notable as editor of the ''London Mercury'', a major literary magazine in the interwar period. He antagonised several eminent authors, but attracted a coterie ...
, 1931,
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
).
A similar theme, at greater length, was taken up by writer
Elizabeth Bear
Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky (born September 22, 1971) is an American author who works primarily in speculative fiction genres, writing under the name Elizabeth Bear. She won the 2005 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the 2008 Hugo ...
, who published the "
New Amsterdam" series of
detective stories
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
that take place in a world where the city remained Dutch until the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
and retained its name also afterward.
One of New York's Broadway theatres is the
New Amsterdam Theatre
The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater on 214 West 42nd Street, at the southern end of Times Square, in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City. One of the oldest surviving Broadway venues, the New Amsterdam was built fro ...
. The name New Amsterdam is also written on the
architrave situated on top of the row of columns in front of the
Manhattan Municipal Building
The David N. Dinkins Municipal Building (originally the Municipal Building and later known as the Manhattan Municipal Building) is a 40-story, building at 1 Centre Street, east of Chambers Street, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Manhat ...
, commemorating the name of the Dutch colony.
Although no architectural monuments or buildings have survived, the legacy lived on in the form of
Dutch Colonial Revival architecture
Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial Rev ...
. A number of structures in New York City were constructed in the 19th and 20th centuries in this style, such as Wallabout Market in Brooklyn, South William Street in Manhattan, West End Collegiate Church at West 77th Street, and others.
File:Wyckoff-house.jpg, The Wyckoff Farm in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Some of its construction still dates from the Dutch period of what is currently New York City.
File:DSCN3495 pearlstreet e.JPG, 13–15 South William Street, constructed in the Dutch Colonial Revival architecture evoking New Amsterdam
See also
*
Jacobus van de Water
Notes
Further reading
Secondary sources
* Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace. ''Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898'' (2000
excerpt and text search*
* Jacobs, Jaap. ''The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America'' (2009
excerpt and text search* Kammen, Michael. ''Colonial New York: A History'' New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.
* McFarlane, Jim. ''Penelope: A Novel of New Amsterdam'', Greer, SC: Twisted Cedar Press, 2012. 371 pages.
* Schmidt, Benjamin, ''Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570–1670'', Cambridge: University Press, 2001.
* Scheltema, Gajus and Westerhuijs, Heleen, eds. ''Exploring Historic Dutch New York'' (Museum of the City of New York/Dover Publications, 2011).
*
* Swerling, Beverley, ''City of Dreams: A Novel of Nieuw Amsterdam and Early Manhattan'', Simon & Schuster, 2002.
*
Primary sources
* Jackson, Kenneth T. and David S. Dunbar, eds. ''Empire City: New York Through the Centuries'' (2005), 1015 pages of excerpts
excerpt
External links
*
a downloadable audio walking tour of Lower Manhattan
an audio history from the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy
from the
New Netherland Project
"Conditions as Created by Their Lords Burgomasters of Amsterdam"is a publication, from 1656, about goals to populate New Amsterdam
{{Dutch colonies
+
1625 establishments in the Dutch Empire
1664 disestablishments in the Dutch Empire
1664 disestablishments in the Thirteen Colonies
Dutch-American culture in New York (state)
Historic Jewish communities in the United States
History of New York City
Populated places established by the Dutch West India Company
Populated places established in the 1620s
Pre-statehood history of New York (state)