The Netherlands Expansion into the Americas
Last Updated      12/17/2009     12/15/2009     12/14/2009     1/2/2008      1/1/2008     12/28/2007

The Dutch controlled a colonial global empire.
The Dutch Navy was a major force, and they reigned at sea.
1602, Dutch merchants found the Dutch East India Co. to trade in Africa and the East Indies.
The Dutch had a fleet of 10,000 merchant ships.
They seized Portuguese trading posts in the East Indies.
They reached Australia and New Zeland..
They founded Capetown at the southern tip of Africa.
1621, Dutch West India Company founded.

Dutch West India Company
1580, Philip II of Spain inherited the Portuguese crown.
The period of Spanish rule was marked by frequent aggressions against Brazil by the English and Dutch, the traditional enemies of Spain.
1624, a Dutch fleet seized Bahia, but the city was recaptured by a combined force of Spaniards, Portuguese, and Native Americans the following year.
1630, The Dutch attacked again, and an expedition sponsored by the Dutch West India Company captured Pernambuco (now Recife) and Olinda.
Most of the territory between Maranhão Island and the lower course of the São Francisco River fell to the Dutch in subsequent operations.
Under the able governorship of Count Joan Mauritz van Nassau-Siegen, the Dutch-occupied part of Brazil prospered for several years.
1644, Nassau-Siegen resigned, however, in protest against the exploitative policies of the Dutch West India Company.
Shortly after his departure the Portuguese colonists, with support from their mother country, rose in rebellion against Dutch rule.
1654, The Dutch capitulated.
1661, the Dutch renounced by treaty their claims to Brazilian territory.

Henry Hudson
1609, Dutch East India Co. hired Englishman Henry Hudson to find northeast passage.
After looking he sailed west.
Hudson arrived off the coast of Cape Cod.
He sailed up the Hudson River.
He claimed the Hudson River valley for the Dutch East India Company.

New Amsterdam
1624, 30 colonist familes arrive at the island Manhattan.
They found the city of New Amsterdam.
They focused on fur trading instead of farming.
Beginning in 1625, enslaved Africans were brought to America to help build New Amsterdam.
The colonies the Dutch founded were called New Netherlands.
New Amsterdam was the capital.



Peter Minuit
1626, Peter Minuit arrives and purchases the island of Manhattan.
Minuit formally founds New Amsterdam, which became New York City.
Peter Minuit became the third director of New Amsterdam, following Captain Cornelius May and Willem Verhulst.
Verhulst was explicitly instructed to pay something for the land they were to settle on if need be.
23 September 1626, Verhulst didn't last very long and was sent home in disgrace on the Arms of Amsterdam on.Minuit negotiated a deed with the Manhattan Indians giving the Dutch possession of Manhattan.
He establishes Fort Orange, which became Albany, NY.
1n the 1630s-1640s, the Dutch crushed the strength of the river Indians.
1638, Swedes build Fort Christina, near present-day Wilmington, Delaware.
1640, West India Company gives up their monopoly.
 

Willem Kieft
From 1638 to 1647 Willem Kieft served as the director of New Amsterdam.
All the area north of what is now 59th Street was called "Muscoota" by the Manhattan Indians.
Muscoota means "flat place".
This flat place was good for growing food and this is why many of the Manhattan Indians lived in this part of Manhattan.
When the Dutch arrived and took over the lower, southern part of the island - "Nieuw Amsterdam".
They left the native Indians pretty much to themselves in the northern part.
One trader, Mynheer Hendrick de Forest became the first European to set foot in Muscoota.
He liked it immediately.
After a while, he built a house, planted some crops and began living in Muscoota, all without asking the Native Americans if he could.
Later on, other Dutchmen and women followed suit and began to move into Muscoota too.
Kieft felt it was his duty to drive the Native Americans out, but that only created a loss for both sides.
Kieft indiscriminately and arbitrarily sentenced some Native Americans to death.
The Manhattan Indians retaliated and killed all of the settlers.



Peter Stuyvesant

Early Life
Peter Stuyvesant was born in Scherpenzal near Wolvega, Frieland, Netherlands.
He was a Dutch soldier and colonial official.
He entered the military at a very young age.
Stuyvesant was wounded in his right leg and had to have it ampuated and replaced by a wooden one.
His wooden leg was later decorated with silver-ornaments.
People called him "Old Silver Nails" because of his leg.

Director General
Peter Stuyvesant replaced Willem Kieft as the last director of New Amsterdam.
1647, Peter Stuyvesant, the new Director General of New Neterland. and whips the colony in shape.
Stuyvesant increased the number of enslaved Africans in the colony.
He became the largest owner of enslaved African in New Netherland.
His governance brought about many positive changes to New Amsterdam such as restricting garbage in the streets.
He established a volunteer firefighting brigade, and most notably, he organized the development pattern of Manhattan.
1652, 60-70 familes move up river.
1655, in a dispute with Sweden over their expansion in the Delaware Valley.
Stuyvesant invaded and forced the Swedes to surrender.
1657, Stuyvesant sends an army to crush the Esopus Indiand and build a fort.
The people took their houses down board by board.
They rebuilt their houses behind a stockade 14 feet high made of tree trunks.
This 2340 foot wall stretched from the East river to the Hudson to keep out Indians and the English.
This became the Wall Street of today.
The men left the fort to farm and the women anmd children stayed inside.
1654, Jews arrived seeking protection.
Stuyvesant wanted them turned away.
He was told that New Amsterdam was a business community and not a religious community.
1654, September 12, first Roshashonna service in the new world.
In 1660, he supervised what was probably Manhattan’s first public auction of human beings.
1664, the largest cargo of enslaved Africans, 290 people, arrived in New Amsterdam ion the Gideon.
1664, peace treaty with the Esopus Indians.
New Amsterdam's population grew to 9,000 people.

Anglo-Dutch Wars
New Amsterdam did not stay Dutch long.
1663, English and Dutch West India Company clashed over African trade of slaves, ivory, and gold.
1664, Dutch and English prepared for war.
Stuyvesant did not have a fleet or any real army to defend the colony.
1664 August 27, James I, brother of King Charles of England, arrived with a small fleet.
Stuyvesant received a petition from 93 city members advising him to yurn over the city.
He was forced to surrender the colony to the English war fleet without a struggle.
He marched out of the fort.
He retired to what is now Greenwich Village.
People did not care to fight the English.
The new governor offered passage back to the Holland for anyone not accepting English rule.
No one took him up on his offer.
The English took over most of the Dutch colonies.
1664 August 29, New York was born.

Bibliography
"Dutch Colonies." Kingston: Discover 300 Years of New York History. 1 Jan. 2008. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/kingston/colonization.htm.

Greenblatt, Miriam, and Lemmo, Peter. Human Heritage A World History. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill, 2001.

"History of Brazil." Microsoft Encarta 1997.

"Middle Colonies." Colonization. 1 Jan. 2008. http://www.harlingen.isd.tenet.edu/coakhist/coloniz.html.

"Peter Minuit." Wikipedia On Line Encyclopedia. 1 Jan. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Minuit.

"Peter Stuyvesant." Wikipedia On Line Encyclopedia. 1 Jan. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Stuyvesant.

Three Worlds Meet.  Fall 2008. http://schools.nyc.gov/documents/teachandlearn/ss/4.2_Guide.pdf.