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New Netherland Colonial Province 1614 — 1664 1673 — 1674 → The coastline claimed by New Netherland and some prominent settlements shown relative to modern borders. Capital New Amsterdam Language(s) Dutch, English,French, and others Political structure Colonial Province Director-General  - 1626-1632 Peter Minuit  - 1638-1647 Willem Kieft  - 1647-1664 Peter Stuyvesant History  - Established 1614  - Treaty of Breda August 27, 1664

Nieuw-Nederland, or New Netherland, was the seventeenth century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on northeastern coast of North America. The claimed territory were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to southern Cape Cod. Settled areas are now part of Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Its capital, New Amsterdam, was located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan on the Upper New York Bay.

[edit] Background

Seventeenth century Europe was a time of expansive social, cultural, and economic growth. Nations were vying for domination of lucrative trade routes across the globe, particularly those to Asia. Simulatanesly, philosophical/theological battles were manifested in miliatary battles taking place across the continent. The Netherlands had become a home to many intellectuals, international businessmen, and religious refugees. The English had a settlement at Jamestown in North America, the French had a colony at Quebec and the Spanish were developing colonies to exploit trade in South America and the Carribean.

[edit] Exploration

Henry Hudson was an English sea captain and explorer who believed he could find a northwest passage to Asia. In 1609, under contract with the Dutch East India Company (VOC), located in Amsterdam, he explored the waters off the east coast of North America aboard the yacht Halve Maen. His first landfall was at Newfoundland Island and the second at Cape Cod. He sailed south to the Chesapeake River, close to but not approaching the English colony at Jamestown. He then turned northward, travelling along the shore and after passing Sandy Hook entered the narrows into the Upper New York Bay. (The narrows are named for Giovanni da Verrazzano who had sighted them in 1524. ^[1]) Believing he may have found a water route across the continent he proceeded up the river which would later bear his name (the Hudson) but at the site of present-day Albany the water became too shallow to proceed.

Map based on Adriaen Block's 1614 expedition to New Netherland, featuring the first use of the name.

Upon returning to The Netherlands, Hudson reported that he had found a fertile and fecund land and a people amicable to engaging his crew in small-scale bartering of furs, trinkets, clothes, and small manufactured goods. His report stimulated further interest ^[2] in the prospect of exploiting this new trade resource, and was the catalyst for Dutch merchant-traders to fund more expeditions. At least one was made the following year, under the command of Symen Lambertsz Mau.

In 1611-1690, the Admiralty of Amsterdam sent two covert expeditions to find a passage to China with the yachts Craen and Vos, captained by Jan Cornelisz May and Symon Willemsz Cat, respectively.

In four voyages made between 1611-1614, the area between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts was explored, surveyed, and charted by Adriaen Block, Hendrick Christiaensz, and Cornelis Jacobsz May. The results of these explorations, surveys, and charts made from 1609 through 1614 were consolidated in Block’s map, which used the name New Netherland for the first time. www.dump.com

[edit] New Netherland Company

On March 17, 1614 The States General, the governoring body of The Netherlands, proclaimed it would grant an exclusive patent for trade between the 40th and 45th parallels. This monopoly would be valid four voyages, all of which had to be undertaken within three years after it was awarded. Block's map, and the report which accompanied it, were used by The New Netherland Company (a newly formed alliance of trading companies) to win their patent, which would expire on January 1, 1618.

The New Netherland Company also ordered the Delaware area to be surveyed. This was undertaken by skipper Cornelis Hendricksz of Monnikendam who, in 1614, 1615, and 1616, explored the Zuyd Rivier (the Delaware River) from its bay to its northernmost navigable reaches. His observations were preserved in a map drawn in 1616. The company was, however, unable to secure an exclusive patent from the States General for the area between the 38th and 40th parallels. Hendricksz voyages were made aboard the Onrust, the Restless. This new vessel was ordered built by Block before his return to the Netherlands to replace the yacht Tyger, which had been lost to fire in January 1614.

The issue of patents by the States General in 1614 turned New Netherland into a private, commercial venture. Soon thereafter Fort Nassau was constructed on Castle Island, up Hudson's river, in the area of present-day Albany. The primary purpose of the fort was to defend river traffic against interlopers and to conduct fur trading operations with the natives. The location of the fort proved to be impractical, due to repeated flooding of the island in the summers, and the fort was abandoned in 1618 ^[3] (which coincided with the expiration).

[edit] The Dutch West India Company

The West India House in Amsterdam, headquarters of the West India Company from 1623 to 1647.

The Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie, or Chartered West India Company (WIC}, was granted a charter by Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on June 3, 1621. It gave the exclusive right to operate in West Africa (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope) and the Americas. ^[4] In New Netherland, profit was originally to be made from the North American fur trade.

Among the founders of the WIC was Willem Usselincx who, between 1600 and 1606, had promoted the concept that a main objective of the company should be the establishment of colonies in the new world. In 1620, Usselincx made a last appeal to the States General, which rejected his principal vision as a primary goal. The recipe of trading posts with small populations and a military presence to protect it, which was working in the East Indies, were preferred over mass immigration and the establishment of large colonies. It was not until 1654, when forced to surrender Dutch Brazil and forfeit richest sugar-producing area in the world, did the company belatedly focus on colonization in North America.

The West India Company between 1621 and 1623 recalled all commercial parties operating in the New Netherland territory, and invalidated all their interests. That action voided maritime law as the only legal recourse in the area.

[edit] Trading Partners

An American beaver

The early trading partners of the New Netherlanders were the Native Americans who lived there at the time of their arrival. The Dutch did very little, if any, trapping themselves, but depended on the indigenous population to caputure, skin and deliver pelts, especially beaver, to them. It is likely the Hudson's peaceful contact with the local Mahicans encouraged them to establish, in 1614, Fort Nassau, the first of many garrsioned trading stations to be built. In 1628, the Mohawks (members of the Iroquois League) conquered the Mahicans who then retreated to Connecticut. The Mohawks gained a near monopoly in the fur trade with the Dutch, controlling the Adirondacks and Mohawk Valley ^[5] (where small trading points were later created at Schenectady and Schoharie).

The Algonquian Lenape population around the New York Bay and along the Lower Hudson were seasonally migrational people who became known collectively as the River Indians ^[5]. Among them were the Wappinger, Hackensack, Raritan, Canarsee, Tappan. It was these groups who had most frequent contact with the New Netherlanders. Those in the the Highlands and Hudson Valley were called Munsee ^[5] while those along the Delaware were called the Minquas.

Company policy required that land be purchased from the existing peoples. The WIC would offer a land patent, the recepient of which would be responsible for negotiating a deal with representatives, usual the sachem, or high chief, of the local population. The concept of ownership as understand by the Swannekins, or salt water people, was foriegn to the Wilden, or natives. ^[5] The exchange of gifts in the form of sewant or manufactured goods was perceived as trade agreement and defense alliance which included farming, hunting, and fishing rights. Often, the Indians did not vacate the property or reappeared as their migrational patterns dictated. The Europeans were welcomed on the land, but the Indians had no intention of leaving. This misconception, and other differences, would later lead to violent conflict, though at the same time were the beginings of a what would later become multicultural society. ^[6]

As the colony grew, it would become a major hub for in the triangular trade between North America, the Carribean and Europe, and the place where raw materials such as furs, lumber, and tabacco would be loaded. Legal and sanctioned privateering would both contribute to its growth.

[edit] Early Settlement

Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova, 1635.

In 1624 New Netherland became a province of the Dutch Republic, which had lowered the northern border of its North American dominion to 42 degrees latitude in acknowledgment of the claim by the English north of Cape Cod (see John Smith's 1616 map as self-appointed Admiral of New England). Being a seafaring people in whose country water was the main mode of transport, the Dutch were naturally focused the three main rivers of the region which they had named the Zuyd Rivieror (South River), the Noort Rivier, (North River), and the Versche Rivier (Fresh River).

International law at the time required not only discovery and charting but also settlement to perfect a territorial claim. To this end, in May 1624, the WIC landed 30 families on Noten Eylant (today's Governors Island) at the mouth of what had been named the North River. They disembarked from the ship “New Netherland,” under the command of Cornelis Jacobsz May, the first Director of the New Netherland. He was replaced the following year by Willem Verhulst.

In June, 1625, forty-five more colonists disembarked on Noten Eylant from three ships named Horse, Cow, and Sheep, which also delivered 103 horses, steers, cows, pigs and sheep. Some settlers were dispersed to the various garrisons built across the territory: to Fort Orange, where the settlement of Beverwijck sprang up, to Fort Goede Hoop on the Fresh River, Fort Nassau on the South River. Some of these garrisons were named in honor of the House of Orange-Nassau, whose members occupied positions of power as lord-lieutenants of various provinces of the Dutch Republic.)

Interestingly, most of the settlers were not Dutch, but Walloon or Huguenot, thus adding to the ethnic mix that characterized the country from which they had sailed and the colony and the country it would become.

[edit] New Amsterdam

Peter Minuit became Director of the New Netherland in 1626 and made a decision that would greatly affect the new colony (and ultimately shape Amercian history). Originally, the capital of the province was to be located on the South River, but it was soon realized that the location was susceptible to mosquito infestation in the summer and the freezing of its waterways in the winter. He chose instead the island of Manhattan and, in what is one of the most legendary real-estate deals ever made, purchased it from the Canarsee. ^[7]. He order the construction of Fort Amsterdam at its southern tip, around which would grow the heart of the province, and eventually the largest metropolis on the continent. Under the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam fell all the communities that grow up around it such as Staaten Eylandt, Nieuwe Haarlem, Pavonia, Noordwijk,and the six Lange Eylandt towns. The sheltered harbor of the bay would lead it to become a major port for trade routes in the New World.

[edit] Patroonships

In the hope of encouraging immigration the Dutch West India Company, in 1629, started to offer vast land grants and the title of patroon to some of invested members.^[8]. The deeded tracts were called patroonships and could span 16 miles in length on one side of a major river, or 8 miles if spanning both sides. The title of patroon came with powerful manorial rights and privileges. A patroon could create civil and criminal courts, appoint local officials and hold land in perpetuity. In return, he was required by the company to establish a settlement of at least 50 families within four years. The first residents would live as tenants working for the patroon These be relieved of the duty of public taxes for ten years, but were required to pay the patroon in money, goods, or services in kind. A patroonships could have its own churches, community infrastructure, and village.

Of the five patents given, largest and only truly successful patroonship in New Netherland was Rensselaerwyck. Rensselaerwyck covered almost all of present-day Albany and Rensselaer counties and parts of present-day Columbia and Greene counties in the Hudson Valley. Pavonia (later Bergen, New Netherland), across the North River from Manhattan became a company held property administered by an appointed superintendednt after the original partroon failed to fulfull contractual agreements.

The word patroonship was used until the year 1775, when the English redefined the lands as estates and took away the jurisdictional privilege. Livingston Manor, Cortlandt Manor, and Philipsburg Manor, all created during the British colonial period, are often considered patroonships.

[edit] Towns and Colonies

The three largest towns in New Netherland were New Amsterdam (Manhattan and outlying settlements), Wiltwyck and Beverwijck, the last of which was adminstratively independent from, but economically relied on Rensselaerwyck. All werre located on the Hudson's River, which was the main thoroughfare of the province for the indigenous and immigrating populations alike.

Apart from the forts, and the small communities that supported it, settlement along the Zuyd Rivier was limited. Zwaanendael (1631) was, under mysterious circumstances, repelled by the local population. Few other settlers made the fort on the Fresh River their home.

In 1640 the charter was revised to cut new plot sizes in half, and allow any Dutch American in good standing to purchase an estate. Other towns and estates were Colen Donck (1646), Achter Col (1641), and Vriessendael(1640), Oude Dorp, Brooklyn as "Breuckelen" (1646), Flatlands as "New Amersfoort" (1647). Gravesend (1645) was settled under Dutch patent by English followers of Anabaptist Lady Deborah Moody.

[edit] Kieft's War

William Kieft was Director New Netherland from 1638 until 1647. Though the colony had grown somewhat before his arrival it did not flourish, and Kieft was under pressure to increase profits. At first he suggested collecting tribute from the Indians .^[9] (as was common among the various dominant tribes), but his demands to the Tappan and Wecquaesgeek were simply ignored. Susequently when a colonist was murdered (in an act of revenge for some killings that had taken place years earlier) and the Indians refused to turn over the perpetrator Kieft suggested they be taught a lesson by ransacking their villages. In an attempt to gain public support he created a citizens commission, the council of twelve men. They did not, as was expected, rubber-stamp his ideas, but took the opportunity to mention grievences that had with company's mismanagement and its irresponsiveness to their suggestions. Kieft thanked and disbanded them, and againist their advice ordered that groups of Tappan and Wecquaesgeek (who had sought refuge from their more powerful Mahican enemies) be attacked at Pavonia and Corlear's Hook. The massacre left 130 dead. Within days the surrounding tribes, in a unique move, united and rampaged the country-side, forcing settlers who escaped to find safety at Fort Amsterdam. For two years, a series of raids and reprisals raged across the province, until finally in 1645 a treaty was signed ending hostilities. This war impeded growth across the colony for most of the decade.

[edit] Director-General of New Netherland

Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam in 1648, the only ruler of the colony to have the title of Director-General of New Netherland. It was during the period of his governorship that province experienced exponential growth, and indeed, was taken seriously by the European powers. Stuyvesant was a military man and company man, whose approach to ruling firmly for the profit of the WIC came in direct conflict with the conflict the New Netherlanders. Disenchanted with the previous governor and ignorance of indigenous peoples, the irresponsiveness of the WIC to their rights and requests, with the guidance of van der Donck they submitted the Remonstrance of New Netherland to the States General.

The WIC had lost its monopoly on trade some years earlier, thus opening the market for private enteprenuers. In 1654, The Netherlands lost to the Portuguese its holings in Brazil, encouraging some of its residents to emmigrate north and some investors to see the economic potential of the burgeoning region.

[edit] Remonstrance of New Netherland

[edit] Esopus Wars

The Esopus Wars are so named for the branch of Lenape that lived around Wiltwyck, which was the Dutch settlement on the mid Hudson river between Beverwyk and New Amsterdam. These conflicts were generally over incursion of New Netherlanders in Munsee lands, for which contracts had not been clarified, and were seen by the natives as unwanted incursion into their territory.

[edit] Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity

New Netherlanders were not necessarily Dutch, and New Netherland was never a homogenous society. ^[10] The term New Netherland Dutch generally includes all the Europeans who came to live there, ^[11] but may also refer to Africans, Carribeans, and South Americans and even the Native Americans who where there when they arrived. Though Dutch was the official language, and likely the linqua franca of the province is was but one of many spoken there. ^[12] The Metoac and Algonquian languages had many dialects,Walloons and Huguenots tended to speak French, Scandanavians brought their tongues, as did the Germans. It is likely the Africans, both freeman and the close to 300 slaves, may have spoken their mother tongues as well. English was already well on the rise to become the vehicular language in world trade, and settlement by individual or groups of English-speakers started early. The arrival of refugees from New Holland in Brazil may have brought more Portuguese, Spanish, and perhaps Hebrew (spoken by the province's first Jews). Commercial acitvity in the harbor could have been transacted simulatanously in any of a number of tongues.

[edit] Secular Society

see also: Flushing Remonstrance Although the Dutch West India Company had established the Reformed Church as the official religious institution of New Netherland ^[13], the early Dutch settlers planted the concept of toleration as a legal right in North America as per explicit orders in 1624. They had to attract, “through attitude and by example”, the natives and nonbelievers to God’s word “without, on the other hand, to persecute someone by reason of his religion, and to leave everyone the freedom of his conscience” (or, in Dutch, levenshouding en voorbeeld moesten zij de Indianen ende andere blinde menschen tot de kennisz Godes ende synes woort sien te trecken, sonder nochtans ijemant ter oorsaecke van syne religie te vervolgen, maer een yder de vrijch[eyt] van sijn consciencie te laten).^{[citation needed]}

Those instructions derived from the founding document of the Dutch Republic, the 1579 Union of Utrecht, stating “that everyone shall remain free in religion and that no one may be persecuted or investigated because of religion” (dat een yder particulier in sijn religie vrij sal moegen blijven ende dat men nyemant ter cause van de religie sal moegen achterhaelen ofte ondersoucken). That statement, unique in the world at the time, became the historic underpinning for the opening of the first synagogue in the Western Hemisphere at Recife in Dutch Brazil in 1642. as well as the official granting of full residency for both Ashkenazim and Sephardim Jews in New Amsterdam in 1655.

In addition, the laws and ordinances of the states of Holland were incorporated by reference in those first instructions to the Governors Island settlers in 1624. They contained the legal and cultural code that lies at the root of the New York Tri-State traditions and, ultimately, American pluralism (diversity) and liberty.^{[citation needed]}

See also:Flushing Remonstrance

[edit] New Sweden

A modern map which approxiamates the relative size and location of the settled areas of New Netherland and New Sweden, which was never officially recognized by the Dutch Republic.

Peter Minuit, who had purchased Manhattan in 1626 (and was soon after dismissed as director), knew that the Dutch would be unable to defend the southern flank of its North American territory and had not signed treaties with or purchased land from the Minquas. After gaining the support from the Queen of Sweden, he chose the southern banks of the Delaware Bay to establish a colony there, which he did in 1638, calling it Fort Christina, New Sweden. As expected, the government at New Amsterdam took no other action than to protest, and the colony grew to include other settlements. In 1651, the Dutch Fort Nassau was relocated in an attempt to disrupt trade and reassert control. It was in 1655, though, that Stuyvesant led a military expediton and re-gained control of the region. During his absence many of the villages and plantations at Pavonia and Lang Eylant were attacked in a incident that is sometimes called the Peach Tree War. ^[14] The attacks at Pavonia, Hoboken, and Staten Island are sometimes considered revenge for the murder of an Indian girl attempting to pluck a peach, it was likely that they were a retaliation for the attacks at New Sweden.

[edit] New England

1685 reprint of 1650 map of New Netherland, which is not a completely correct representation of the situation at the time. The border with New England had been adjusted to 50 miles west of the Fresh River, while the Lange Eylandt towns west of Oyster Bay were under Dutch jurisdiction.

Developed simulataneously to that of New Netherland, the English colonies to the north grew more rapidly since a policy of settlement by religious sects (rather than trade) was the motivation for their creation. It was fear of an invasion by them that the palisade at contemporary Wall Street was originally built. Initially there was limited contact, but with a swelling English population and territorial disputes the two provinces engaged direct diplomatic relations. The New England Confederation was formed in 1643 as a political and military alliance of the British colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. The latter two were actually on land claimed by the United Provinces, but unable to populate or militarily defend their territorial claim, the Dutch could do nothing but protest the growing flood of English. With the 1650 Treaty of Hartford, Stuyvesant provisionally ceded the Connecticut River region to New England, drawing New Netherland's eastern border 50 Dutch miles west of the Connecticut's mouth on the mainland and just west of Oyster Bay on Long Island. The Dutch West India Company refused to recognize the treaty, but since it failed to reach any agreement with the English, the Hartford Treaty set the de facto border.

[edit] Capitulation

In March 1664, Charles II of England resolved to annex New Netherland and “bring all his Kingdoms under one form of government, both in church and state, and to install the Anglican government as in old England”. In the face of this decision, the directors of the Dutch West India Company comforted themselves that the religious freedom of the colony rendered military defense against New England unnecessary. They wrote to Director-General Peter Stuyvesant:

. . . we are in hopes that as the English at the north (in New Netherland) have removed mostly from old England for the causes aforesaid, they will not give us henceforth so much trouble, but prefer to live free under us at peace with their consciences than to risk getting rid of our authority and then falling again under a government from which they had formerly fled.

On August 27, 1664, four English frigates sailed into New Amsterdam’s harbor and demanded New Netherland’s surrender. They met no resistance because numerous citizens’ requests for protection by a suitable Dutch garrison against “the deplorable and tragic massacres” by the natives had gone unheeded. That lack of military defense, ammunition, and gun powder — as well as the indifferent responses from the West India Company upon frequent and urgent requests for reinforcement of men and ships against “the continual troubles, threats, encroachments and invasions of the English neighbors and government of Hartford Colony” — made New Amsterdam defenseless.

Governor Stuyvesant made the best of a bad situation and negotiated successfully for good terms from his “too powerful enemies." The capture of the city was one of a series of attacks on Dutch colonies that resulted in the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

During the negotiations over the Articles of Transfer, as the surrender of the city was known, Petrus Stuyvesant and his council secured the principle of tolerance in Article VIII, which assured New Netherlanders that they “shall keep and enjoy the liberty of their consciences in religion” under English rule.

In the 1667 Treaty of Breda ending the war, the Dutch did not press their claims on New Netherland. The status quo, with the Dutch occupying Suriname and the nutmeg island of Run, was maintained; no definitive solution was decided.

[edit] Restitution

Within six years, the nations were again at war, and in August 1673 the Dutch recaptured New Netherland with a fleet of 21 ships, then the largest ever seen in North America. It was composed of two squadrons, one under the command of Vice-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen de Jongste, sent out by Pieter Huybert, ‘’raadspensionaris’’ of the Zeeland Chamber of the Dutch West India Company, and one under Jacob Binckes, sent by the Amsterdam Chameber.

The victors chose Anthony Colve as governor and renamed the city "New Orange", reflecting the installation of William of Orange as Lord-Lieutenant (stadtholder) of Holland in 1672. (He became King William III of England in 1689).

Nevertheless, after the conclusion of the third Anglo-Dutch war, 1672-1674, — the historic “disaster years” in which the Dutch Republic was simultaneously attacked by the French under Louis XIV, the English, and the Bishops of Munster and Cologne — the republic was financially and morally bankrupt.

The States of Zeeland had tried to convince the States of Holland to take on the responsibility for the New Netherland province, to no avail. In November 1674, the Treaty of Westminster concluded the war and ceded New Netherland to the English.

[edit] Demographics

Population estimates:

• 1628: 270
• 1630: 300
• 1640: 500
• 1650: 1,000 ^[15]
• 1664: 9,000 (700 of whom were black)

[edit] Legacy

New Netherland has left a profoundly enduring legacy on both American cultural and political life, greatly influenced by social and political climate in the Dutch Republic at the time as well as by the character of those who immigrated to it.

[edit] Tolerance

Manifested, and occasionally embraced, as multiculturism in late tweentieeth century USA, the concept of tolerance was the mainstay of province's mother country. It was a haven for refugees from surrounding autocratic or despotic regimes as well as home to the world's major ports in the newly developing global economy. Concepts of relgious freedom and free-trade (including a stock market), In 1682, the visiting Virginian William Byrd commented about New Amsterdam that "they have as many sects of religion there as at Amsterdam".

[edit] Civil Rights

The Dutch Republic as one of the first nation-states of Europe and citizenship was extended to more people than ever before. The framers of the U.S. Constitution were influenced by the Constitution of the Republic of the United Provinces, though that influence was more as an example of things to avoid than of things to imitate.^[16] In addition, the Act of Abjuration, essentially the declaration of independence of the United Provinces, is strikingly similar to the later American Declaration of Independence^[17] though concrete evidence that the former directly influenced the latter is absent. John Adams went so far as to say that “the originals of the two Republics are so much alike that the history of one seems but a transcript from that of the other.”^[18] The seven arrows in the lion's left claw in the Republic's coat of arms, representing the seven provinces, was a precedent for the thirteen arrows in the eagle's left claw in the Great Seal of the United States.^[19] The Articles of Transfer (outlining the terms of surrender to the English),^[20] provided for the right to worship as one wished, and were incorporated into subsequent city, state, and national constitutions in the USA.

[edit] First Families

Main article: Dutch American

Many New York citizens are directly descended from the Dutch families of New Netherland. The Roosevelt family, which produced two Presidents, are descended from Claes van Roosevelt, who emigrated about 1650. ^[21] The Van Buren family of President Martin Van Buren also originated in New Netherland.

[edit] Language

Main article: Words of Dutch origin

Many words came into American vernacular via Dutch, some (such as cookie) directly from New Netherlland. The the quintessential American Yankee is acutally a take-off of a of Dutch name. ^[22][23]

A dialect known as Jersey Dutch, was spoken in and around Bergen and Passaic counties in New Jersey, which were essentailly rural communities until the early 20th century. ^[24]

[edit] Folklore

The colors of the flags of the City of New York and Nassau County are the blue, white and orange of the old Dutch flag. The colors are also seen in materials from New York's two World's Fairs and the uniforms of the New York Mets baseball club, New York Knicks basketball club, and New York Islanders hockey club. The tradition of Santa Claus comes from the settlers of New Netherland. .^{[25] [26]} The folk tales of the Dutch peasants of the Hudson Valley gave literary inspiration to Washington Irving for his two most famous short stories, Rip van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

[edit] Placenames

Main article: Toponymy of New Netherland

Early settlers and their descendents gave many placenames still in use throughout the region that was New Netherland. Using Dutch, and the Latin alphabet, they also gave "Batavianized" ^[27]names of the Native Americans and geographical locations in their territories such as Manhattan, Hackensack, Sing-Sing, and Canarsie. Peeksill, Catskill, and Cresskill all refer to the stream, or kils, around which they grew. Among the names that have kept their almost purely Dutch form are the bodies of water Spuyten Duyvil, Kill van Kull, and Hellgate. Haverstraw, Kinderhook, Claverack, Bushwick, and Bergen, still retain a Dutch ring to some.

[edit] See also

Hudson Valley portal

• People of New Netherland
• Dutch Empire

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nieuw Nederland

• The New Netherland Museum
• New Netherland Project
• Un-Pilgrims - Article by Russell Shorto
• 17-page article on Jewish arrival in New Netherland
• Right of the People to Petition the Government for a Redress of Grievances; exercised in 1649 and codified in 1791 First Amendment
• New York and its origins
• Dutch Portuguese Colonial History: history of the Portuguese and the Dutch in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), India, Malacca, Bengal, Formosa, Africa, Brazil. Language Heritage, lists of remains, maps.
• NEW NETHERLAND AND BEYOND: Collections of Genealogy and History, Including Maps and Various Lists!