New Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam) was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that later became New York City. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar During the 17th century Dutch traders established trade posts and plantations throughout the Americas; actual colonization with Dutch settling in the new lands was not as common The City of New York

The town developed outside of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island in the New Netherland territory (1614–1664) which was situated between 38 and 42 degrees latitude as a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic from 1624. Fort Amsterdam (subsequently named Fort James, Fort Willem Hendrick, Fort James (again Fort William, Fort Anne and Fort George) Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York New Netherland (Dutch Nieuw-Nederland, Latin Novum Belgium or Nova Belgica) 1614–1674 is the name of the former Dutch territory on the eastern coast Types of administrative and/or political territories include Many types of legally administered territories, each of which is a non-sovereign geographic area "United Netherlands" redirects here For the "Kingdom of the United Netherlands" see United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Provincial possession of the territory was accomplished with the first settlement which was established on Governors Island in 1624. This article is about Governors Island in New York For other uses see Governors Island (disambiguation Governors Island is a 172- Acre (69 ha island A year later, in 1625, the first settlers arrived on the southern tip of Manhattan; in 1626 construction of a citadel comprising Fort Amsterdam was commenced. ^[1]

Earlier, the harbor and the river had been discovered, explored and charted by an expedition of the Dutch East India Company captained by Henry Hudson in 1609. The Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in old-spelling Dutch, literally "United East Indian Henry Hudson' (1570 &ndash 1611 was an English Sea explorer and Navigator in the early 17th century From 1611 through 1614, the territory was surveyed and charted by various private commercial companies on behalf of the States General of the Dutch Republic and operated for the interests of private commercial entities prior to official possession as a North American extension of the Dutch Republic in the form of an overseas province in 1624. The States-General ( Staten-Generaal) is the Parliament of the Netherlands.

The town of New Amsterdam became a city when it received municipal rights in 1653 and was unilaterally reincorporated as New York City in June 1665, making it the oldest incorporated city,^[2] in the United States. The City of New York The town was founded in 1625 by New Netherland's second director, Willem Verhulst who, together with his council, selected Manhattan Island as the optimal place for permanent settlement by the Dutch West India Company. Willem Verhulst was the second director of the Dutch West India Company. Dutch West India Company ( Dutch: Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie or GWC; English: Chartered West India Company was a company of That year, military engineer and surveyor Krijn Frederiksz laid out a citadel with Fort Amsterdam as centerpiece. To secure the settlers' property and its surroundings according to Dutch law, the third director, Pieter Minuit, created a deed with the Manhattan Indians in 1626 which officially authorized legal possession of Manhattan according to Dutch Laws. Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York

The city, situated on the strategic, fortifiable southern tip of the island of Manhattan was to maintain New Netherland's provincial integrity by defending river access to the company's fur trade operations in the North River, later named Hudson River. The history of New York City begins with its Lenape inhabitants prior to the arrival of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 and continues with its founding The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal Fur. The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami Furthermore, it was entrusted to safeguard the West India Company's exclusive access to New Netherland's other two estuaries; the Delaware River and the Connecticut River. The Delaware River is a river on the Atlantic coast of the United States. The Connecticut River is the largest River in New England, flowing south from the Connecticut Lakes in northern New Hampshire, along the border New Amsterdam developed into the largest Dutch colonial settlement in the New Netherland province, now the New York Tri-State Region, and remained a Dutch possession until September 1664, when it fell provisionally into the hands of the English. The Tri-State Region is commonly used in the area surrounding New York City to unambiguously refer to the greater metropolitan area. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland

The Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. New Netherland was ceded permanently to the English in November 1674 in the Treaty of Westminster. The Treaty of Westminster of 1674 was the Peace treaty that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

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, ensuring New Netherlanders that they "shall keep and enjoy the liberty of their consciences in religion", negotiated with the English by Petrus Stuyvesant and his council). The Seal of the City of New York, adopted in an earlier form in 1686 bears the legend SIGILLUM CIVITATIS NOVI EBORACI which means simply "The Seal of the Peter Stuyvesant (originally Pieter or Petrus, Peter is never mentioned in historical records (c

History

See also: Dutch colonization of the Americas and History of New York City

Early 20th century Dutch Revival buildings on S Williams Street in lower Manhattan recall the Dutch origins of the city. During the 17th century Dutch traders established trade posts and plantations throughout the Americas; actual colonization with Dutch settling in the new lands was not as common The history of New York City begins with its Lenape inhabitants prior to the arrival of Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 and continues with its founding Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York The original 17th century architecture of New Amsterdam has completely vanished (affected by the fires of 1776 and 1835),^[3][4] leaving only archaeological remnants. The Great Fire was a devastating fire that burned through the night of September 21 – September 22, 1776 on the west end of what then constituted The Great New York Fire destroyed the New York Stock Exchange and most of the buildings on the southeast tip of Manhattan around Wall Street on December

A map of the Hudson River valley c. 1635 (North is to the right)

Early Settlement (1609–1625)

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 or "Half Moon", captained by Henry Hudson, in the service of the Dutch Republic, as the emissary of Holland's stadholder Maurits. New York Bay is the collective term for the marine areas surrounding the entrance of the Hudson River into the Atlantic Ocean. Henry Hudson' (1570 &ndash 1611 was an English Sea explorer and Navigator in the early 17th century Hudson named the river the Mauritius River and was covertly attempting to find the Northwest Passage for the Dutch East India Company. The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago The Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in old-spelling Dutch, literally "United East Indian Instead, he brought back news about the possibility of exploitation of beaver pelts in the area, leading to private commercial interest by the Dutch who sent commercial, private missions to the area the following years. The American Beaver ( Castor canadensis) is a large semi-aquatic Rodent native to Canada, much of the United States, and parts of northern Fur is a body hair of any non-human Mammal, also known as the Pelage.

At the time, beaver pelts were highly prized in Europe, because the fur could be "felted" to make waterproof hats. Fur is a body hair of any non-human Mammal, also known as the Pelage. Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting condensing and pressing fibers A by-product of the trade in beaver pelts was castoreum — the secretion of the animals' anal glands — which was used for its supposed medicinal properties. Castoreum is the name given to the exudate from the castor sacs of the mature North American Beaver Castor canadensis and the European Beaver The expeditions by Adriaen Block and Hendrick Christiansz in the years 1611, 1612, 1613 and 1614 resulted in the surveying and charting of the region from the 38th parallel to the 45th parallel. Adriaen (Aerjan Block (c 1567 Amsterdam &ndash buried April 27 1627, Amsterdam was a Dutch private trader and navigator who is best On their 1614 map, which gave them a four year trade monopoly under a patent of the States General, they named the newly discovered and mapped territory New Netherland for the first time. It also showed the first year-round, top-of-the-Hudson River, island-based trading presence in New Netherland, Fort Nassau, which years later, in 1624, would be replaced by Fort Orange on the main land which grew into the town of Beverwyck, now Albany. The name Fort Nassau was used by the Dutch in the 17th century for several fortifications mostly trading stations named for the House of Orange-Nassau. Beverwyck was a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River in New Netherland that was to become Albany New York when the Albany is the Capital of the State of New York and the County seat of Albany County.

Main article: New Netherland. New Netherland (Dutch Nieuw-Nederland, Latin Novum Belgium or Nova Belgica) 1614–1674 is the name of the former Dutch territory on the eastern coast

The territory of New Netherland, comprising the Northeast's largest rivers with access to the beaver trade, was provisionally a private, profit-making commercial enterprise focusing on cementing alliances and conducting trade with the diverse Indian tribes. New Netherland (Dutch Nieuw-Nederland, Latin Novum Belgium or Nova Belgica) 1614–1674 is the name of the former Dutch territory on the eastern coast They enabled the serendipitous surveying and exploration of the region as a prelude to anticipated official settlement by the Dutch Republic which occurred in 1624.

Immediately after the armistice period between the Dutch Republic and Spain (1609–1621), the founding of the Dutch West India Company took place in 1621. Dutch West India Company ( Dutch: Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie or GWC; English: Chartered West India Company was a company of That year, as well as in 1622 and 1623, orders were given to the private, commercial traders to vacate the territory, thus opening up the territory to the transplantation of Dutch culture onto the North American continent whereon the laws and ordinances of the states of Holland would now apply. Previously, during the private, commercial period, only the law of the ship had applied. The mouth of the Hudson River was selected as the most perfect place for initial settlement as it had easy access to the ocean while securing an ice free lifeline to the beaver-rich, unexploited forests farther north where the company's traders could be in close contact with the American Indian hunters who supplied them with pelts in exchange for European-made trade goods for barter and wampum, which was soon being "minted" under Dutch auspices on Long Island. The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States Barter is a type of Trade in which goods or services are directly exchanged Wampum is a string of creamy white colored shell beads fashioned from the North Atlantic Channeled whelk ( Busycotypus canaliculatus) shell and is traditionally used A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures Coins for Currency. Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, USA, its western shores directly across from Manhattan, from which the island stretches

Thus in 1624 when the first group of families arrived on Governors Island to be followed by the second group of settlers to the island in 1625, in order to take possession of the New Netherland territory and to operate various trading posts, they were spread out to Verhulsten Island (Burlington Island) in the South River (Delaware River), to Kievitshoek (now Old Saybrook, Connecticut) at the mouth of the Verse River (Connecticut River) and at the top of the Mauritius or North River (Hudson River), now Albany. This article is about Governors Island in New York For other uses see Governors Island (disambiguation Governors Island is a 172- Acre (69 ha island A trading post is a place where the trading of goods takes place Burlington Island is a 300-acre Island located in the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the United States. The Delaware River is a river on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The Connecticut River is the largest River in New England, flowing south from the Connecticut Lakes in northern New Hampshire, along the border The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami Albany is the Capital of the State of New York and the County seat of Albany County.

Fort Amsterdam (1625)

The potential threat of attack from other interloping European colonial powers prompted the Directors of the Dutch West India Company to formulate a plan to protect the entrance to the Hudson River, and to consolidate the trading operations and the bulk of the settlers into the vicinity of a new fort. Dutch West India Company ( Dutch: Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie or GWC; English: Chartered West India Company was a company of The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami Fortifications are Military Constructions and Buildings designed for defense in Warfare Humans have constructed defensive works for In 1625, most of the cattle and some settlers were moved from Noten Eylant, since 1784 named Governors Island, to Manhattan Island where a citadel to contain Fort Amsterdam was being laid out by Cryn Frederickz van Lobbrecht at the direction of Willem Verhulst who had been empowered by the Dutch West India Company to make that decision in his and his council's best judgment. This article is about Governors Island in New York For other uses see Governors Island (disambiguation Governors Island is a 172- Acre (69 ha island

For the location of the fort, company director Willem Verhulst and Military Engineer and Surveyor Cryn Fredericks chose a site just above the southern tip of Manhattan. Willem Verhulst was the second director of the Dutch West India Company. Cryn Fredericks (or Kryn Fredericks) was the chief engineer of the New Netherland colony in 1625 and 1626 The new fortification was to be called Fort Amsterdam. Fort Amsterdam (subsequently named Fort James, Fort Willem Hendrick, Fort James (again Fort William, Fort Anne and Fort George) By the end of the year 1625, the site had been staked out directly south of Bowling Green on the site of the present U.S. Custom House; west of the fort's site, later landfill has now created Battery Park. Bowling Green is a small public park in Lower Manhattan at the foot of Broadway next to the site of the original Dutch fort of New Amsterdam. The Alexander Hamilton US Custom House (originally US Custom House) is a building in New York City, built 1902 - 1907 by the federal government to house the For other uses see Water treatment and Land reclamation. A landfill, also known as a dump (and historically as Battery Park is a 25-acre (10 hectare public park located at the Battery the southern tip of the New York City borough of Manhattan, facing

1625–1674

New Amsterdam in 1664

New Orange, c. 1674

Willem Verhulst, with his council responsible for the selection of Manhattan as permanent place of settlement and situating Fort Amsterdam, was replaced by Peter Minuit in 1626. Peter Minuit (1589 &ndash August 5, 1638) was a Walloon from Wesel, today North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, then part of

To legally safeguard the settlers' investments, possessions and farms on Manhattan island, Minuit negotiated the "purchase" of Manhattan from the Manahatta band of Lenape for 60 guilders worth of trade goods. The shannon (later named Delaware Indians by Europeans were in the 17th century organized bands of Native American peoples with shared cultural and linguistic The deed itself has not survived so the conditions causing the negotiation and validation of the deed are unknown. A textual reference to the deed became a foundation for the legend that Minuit had purchased Manhattan from the Native Americans for 24 dollars' worth of trinkets. A legend ( Latin, legenda, "things to be read" is a Narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to

While the originally designed large fort, meant to contain the population as in a fortified city, was being constructed, the Mohawk–Mahican War at the top of the Hudson led the company to relocate the settlers from there to the vicinity of the new Fort Amsterdam. Mohawk ( Kanienkeh, Kanienkehaka or Kanien’Kahake, meaning "People of the Flint" are an indigenous people of North America Mohican redirects here For other uses of Mohican see Mohican (disambiguation The Mahicans (also Mohicans) are a As the settlers were at peace with the Manahatta Indians, the fact that no large scale foreign powers were imminently trying to seize the territory, and that colonizing was a prohibitively expensive undertaking, only partly subsidized by the fur trade, led a scaling back of the original plans. By 1628, a smaller fort was constructed with walls containing a mixture of clay and sand, like in Holland. See also Wall Street. Wall Street is a street in lower Manhattan, New York City, United States.

Upon first settlement on Noten Eylant (now Governors Island) in 1624, a fort and sawmill was built. This article is about Governors Island in New York For other uses see Governors Island (disambiguation Governors Island is a 172- Acre (69 ha island A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards Sawmill process A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of 100 years ago a log enters The latter was constructed by Franchoys Fezard. The New Amsterdam settlement had a population of approximately 270 people, including infants. A pen-and-ink view of New Amsterdam,^[5] drawn on-the-spot and discovered in the map collection of the Austrian National Library of Vienna in 1991, provides a unique view of Nieuw Amsterdam as it appeared from Capske (small Cape) Rock in 1648. A national library is a Library specifically established by the Government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. Capske Rock was situated in the water close to Manhattan between Manhattan and Noten Eylant (renamed Governors Island in 1784), which signaled the start of the East River roadstead. This article is about Governors Island in New York For other uses see Governors Island (disambiguation Governors Island is a 172- Acre (69 ha island New Amsterdam received municipal rights on February 2, 1653 thus becoming a city. Events 962 - Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor On August 22, 1654, the first Ashkenazic Jews arrived with West India Company passports from Amsterdam to be followed in September by a sizable group of Sephardic Jews, without passports, fleeing from the Portuguese reconquest of Dutch possessions in Brazil. Events 392 - Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor. Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim ( Hebrew: אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים, ˌaʃkəˈnazim sing Sephardi Jews ( Hebrew: ספרדי, Standard Səfardi Tiberian Səp̄arədî; plural The legal-cultural foundation of toleration as the basis for plurality in New Amsterdam superseded matters of personal intolerance or individual bigotry. Hence, and in spite of certain persons private objections (including that of director-general Petrus Stuyvesant), the Sephardim were granted permanent residency on the basis of "reason and equity" in 1655. Peter Stuyvesant (originally Pieter or Petrus, Peter is never mentioned in historical records (c Nieuw Haarlem was formally recognized in 1658. Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African American cultural and business center

On August 27, 1664, in a surprise incursion when England and the Dutch Republic were at peace, four English frigates sailed in New Amsterdam’s harbor and demanded New Netherland’s surrender, whereupon New Netherland was provisionally ceded by director-general Peter Stuyvesant. Events 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan Peter Stuyvesant (originally Pieter or Petrus, Peter is never mentioned in historical records (c This resulted in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, between England and the Dutch Republic. The Second Anglo-Dutch War was fought between England and the United Provinces from 4 March, 1665 until 31 July, 1667. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland "United Netherlands" redirects here For the "Kingdom of the United Netherlands" see United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In 1667, the Dutch did not press their claims on New Netherland (but did not relinquish them either) in the Treaty of Breda, in return for an exchange with the tiny Island of Run in North Maluku, rich in nutmegs and the guarantee for the factual possession of Suriname, that year captured by them. Run is one of the smallest Islands of the Banda Islands which are a part of Indonesia. North Maluku ( Maluku Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, which are split between it and The nutmegs Myristica are a Genus of Evergreen Trees indigenous to tropical southeast Asia and Australasia Suriname ( Dutch: Suriname; Sranan Tongo: Sranan) officially the Republic of Suriname (traditionally spelled Surinam by The New Amsterdam city was subsequently renamed New York, after the Duke of York (later King James II) — brother of the English King Charles II — who had been granted the lands with the kingly stroke of an armchair pen (similar to the Spanish claim to the entire western hemisphere). New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous For the nursery rhyme see The Grand Old Duke of York. The title Duke of York is a title of Nobility in the British Peerage James II of England and Ireland James VII of Scotland (14 October 1633 &ndash 16 September 1701 was King of England, King of Scots, Later that same year James Charles II (Charles Stuart 29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685 was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

However, in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch recaptured New Netherland in August 1673 and installed Anthony Colve as New Netherland's first Governor (previously there had only been West India Company Directors), and the city was renamed "New Orange". The Third Anglo-Dutch War or Third Dutch War ( Dutch: Derde Engelse Oorlog or Derde Engelse Zeeoorlog) was a military conflict between Anthony Colve was a Captain and the Governor of New York during a brief restoration of rule by the Netherlands The Governor of New York is the head of the Executive branch of New York 's government and the Commander-in-chief of the state's military After the signing of the Treaty of Westminster in November 1674 the city was relinquished to English rule and the name reverted to "New York"; Suriname became an official Dutch possession in return. The Treaty of Westminster of 1674 was the Peace treaty that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Suriname ( Dutch: Suriname; Sranan Tongo: Sranan) officially the Republic of Suriname (traditionally spelled Surinam by

Maps of New Amsterdam

Redraft of the Castello Plan of New Amsterdam in 1660, drawn in 1916. Copyright New York Historical Society

New Amsterdam's beginnings, unlike most other colonies in the New World, were thoroughly documented in maps. During the time of New Netherland's colonization the Dutch were Europe's pre-eminent cartographers. Moreover, as the Dutch West India Company's delegated authority over New Netherland was threefold, maintaining sovereignty on behalf of the States General, generating cash flow through commercial enterprise for its shareholders and funding the province's growth, 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,^[5] account for the existence of some of the most important of the early documents. ^[6]

There is a particularly detailed map called the Castello Plan. The Castello Plan is an early city map of Lower Manhattan from 1660 created by Jacques Cortelyou, surveyor of New Amsterdam at that time Virtually every structure in New Amsterdam at the time is believed to be represented, and by a fortunate coincidence it can be determined who resided in every house from the Nicasius de Sille List of 1660, which enumerates all the citizens of New Amsterdam and their addresses. ^[7]

The map known as the Duke's Plan probably derived from the same 1660 census as the Castello Plan. The Duke's Plan includes the earliest suburban development on Manhattan (the two outlined areas along the top of the plan). The work was created for James (1633-1701), the duke of York and Albany, after whom New York City and New York State's capital Albany was named, just after the seizure of New Amsterdam by the English. Albany is the Capital of the State of New York and the County seat of Albany County. ^[8] 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 English neighbors and government of Hartford Colony, our too powerful enemies. "

The existence of these maps has proven to be very useful in the archaeology of New York. For instance, the excavation of the Stadthuys (City Hall) of New Amsterdam had great help in finding the exact location of the building from the Castello map. A city hall or town hall is the chief administrative building of a City or Town 's administration and usually houses the city or ^[9]

See also

• New York City
• Director-General of New Netherland
• Petrus Stuyvesant
• Roosevelt family

References

• Hugh Morrison, Early American Architecture ISBN 0-486-25492-5 (Oxford University Press, 1952) [Dover Ed. 1987]
• Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World, The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America ISBN 0-385-50349-0 (New York, Doubleday, 2004)

External links

• New Amsterdam from the New Netherland Project
• The New Amsterdam Project on Governors Island
• New York's Legacy, New York's Identity (19-page article)
• New York and its origins
• Origin of American Toleration, Center of American Pluralism, Lifeblood of American Liberty (34 slides)
• From Van der Donck to Visscher: a 1648 view of New Amsterdam, discovered in Vienna in 1991
• Background on the Native Americans of the area
• New Amsterdam on the Dutch Wikipedia
• New Amsterdam Images Online