New Netherland
New Netherland (Dutch: Nieuw Nederland)[5] was a 17th-century colonial province[6] of the Dutch Republic located on the east coast of what is now the United States of America. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
New NetherlandNieuw Nederland
Colony (Dutch colonial empire)
(List)
1614
August 27, 1664
July 23, 1667
August 9, 1673
February 19, 1674
The colony was originally conceived by the Dutch West India Company (GWC) in 1621 to capitalize on the North American fur trade. Settlement initially stalled because of policy mismanagement by the GWC, and conflicts with Native Americans. The settlement of New Sweden by the Swedish South Company encroached on its southern flank, while its eastern border was redrawn to accommodate an expanding New England Confederation.
The colony experienced dramatic growth during the 1650s, and became a major center for trade across the North Atlantic. The Dutch conquered New Sweden in 1655, but during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, surrendered New Netherland to the English following the capture of New Amsterdam. In 1673, the Dutch retook the colony but relinquished it under the Treaty of Westminster (1674) that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War.
The inhabitants of New Netherland (New Netherlanders) were European colonists, Native Americans, and Africans imported as slave laborers. Not including Native Americans, the colonial population, many of whom were not of Dutch descent,[7][8][9] was 4,301 in 1650,[4] and 8,000 to 9,000 at the time of transfer to England in 1674.
Expansion and incursion[edit]
South River and New Sweden[edit]
Apart from the second Fort Nassau, and the small community that supported it, settlement along the Zuyd Rivier was limited. The settlement sponsored by the patroons of Zwaanendael, Samuel Blommaert and Samuel Godijn was destroyed by the local Indigenous population soon after its founding in 1631 during the absence of their agent, David Pietersen de Vries.[59]
Peter Minuit, who had obtained a deed for Manhattan from the Lenape (and was soon after dismissed as director), knew that the Dutch would be unable to defend the southern flank of their North American territory and had not signed treaties with or purchased land there from the Lenape. After gaining the support from the Queen of Sweden, Minuit chose the west bank of the Delaware River to establish a colony there in 1638, calling it New Sweden. As expected, the government at New Amsterdam took no action other than to protest. Small settlements centered on Fort Christina sprang up as colony slowly grew, mostly populated by Swedes, Finns, and Dutch.[60]
In 1651, the Dutch dismantled Fort Nassau and constructed Fort Casimir on the west bank in an attempt to disrupt trade and reassert control. Three years later, Fort Casimir was seized by the Swedes and renamed Fort Trinity. In 1655, Stuyvesant led a military expedition and regained control of the region, naming its main settlement "New Amstel" (Nieuw-Amstel).[61] While Stuyvesant was conquering New Sweden, some villages and farms at the Manhattans (Pavonia and Staten Island) were attacked in an incident that is known as the Peach War. These raids are sometimes considered revenge for the murder of a Munsee woman attempting to pluck a peach, though it is possible that they were an attempt to disrupt the attack on New Sweden.[25][62][63]
A new experimental settlement on Delaware Bay was begun in 1663, just before the British takeover in 1664. Franciscus van den Enden had drawn up charter for a utopian society that included equal education of all classes, joint ownership of property, and a democratically elected government.[25] Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy attempted such a settlement near the site of Zwaanendael, but it was largely destroyed in 1664 by the British.[64]