New Amsterdam

Nieuw Amsterdam, German New Amsterdam, was from 1624 to 1664 the administrative seat of the Dutch colony of Nieuw Nederland ( New Netherlands) on a vast area around today's Manhattan and was renamed after the conquest by the British in New York.

History

Beginnings of Dutch colonization

Henry Hudson explored in 1609 today's New York Bay and recognized the economic importance of the area that struck him through his fur wealth. Between 1611 and 1614, among others explored the Dutchman Adriaen Block and Hendrick Christiansz the coastal strip. Over time, there developed the settlement of New Amsterdam, which became the most important settlement Nieuw Nederlands.

The purchase of Manhattan

For the first time in 1625 and again in May 1626 reached in the service of the Dutch West India Company (WIC ) Peter Minuit standing, a born in Wesel businessman and son Walloon religious refugees, Nieuw Nederland. In his role as governor of the colony he had built Fort Amsterdam and was responsible for the management and for the development of the young settlement. He replaced Willem Verhulst, 1625 held the leadership of the colony. It is unclear whether Minuit itself (as the tradition wants ) the exchange transaction initiated with the locals, maybe a branch of the Lenni Lenape, which of these " Manna - hatta " ( hilly island ) called island for goods worth 60 guilders ceded. This figure is taken from a letter written by Peter Schagen to the West India Company: the traditional conversion to 24 U.S. dollars, which uses a conversion rate from the 19th century, is not particularly meaningful, since one of the amount are not readily in the time early 17th century can still be transferred to the present.

In any case, meant the purchase no transfer of ownership in the modern sense, but rather the permission to use the land in question together with the people living there and colonize. The purchase followed beyond a multi-year phase in which the Indian population had to be hosted at the expense of the settlers and supplied with goods and food.

Economic and other development

In order to improve the self-sufficiency of the settlement with food, were outside the city limits - north of today's Wall Street - Farms (Dutch Bouwerie ) applied, from which the name of New York's Bowery district derives. On February 2, 1653 Nieuw Amsterdam was granted city rights.

Capture of the city by the British

On August 27, 1664 shortly before the outbreak of the Second Anglo -Dutch naval warfare, Nieuw Amsterdam was occupied by a British expedition under Richard Nicolls. Against the will of Peter Stuyvesant, possibly due to its unpopularity, the Dutch gave up without a fight. After the colony James, Duke of York was (later King James II ), a brother of the English King Charles II awarded, Nieuw Amsterdam was renamed New York.