by Andre Sanchez

The first European to visit what was to become New York city was Florentine Giovanni Da Verrazzano, after whom the Verrazano Narrows Bridge is named.  Verrazzano left from France in 1524 and made landfall near Cape Fear. 

He sailed North and made contact with the Lenape people at what came to be Lower New York Bay, although he named it New Angoulême in honor of the King of France who at that time was Francis I.  He then sailed farther north, touching at Naragansett Bay before heading farther north past Maine and newfoundland and then back to France. 

Although he made landfall several times during his first journey, Verazzano did not come across the Delaware or Hudson Rivers, and his exploration must have been mimimal. It was not until 1609 that Englishman Henry Hudson sailed up and explored the Hudson River for the Dutch East India Company that employed him.  Hudson found Manhattan island and it was named Manna-Hata which means ‘island of many hills’ in the Lanape dialect.

Hudson’s exploration of the Hudson river, which he had named the Mauritius River, discovered the possibility of a trade in beaver pelts, that were highly prized in Europe because of their waterproof properties.  This prompted the Dutch to extend their interest in the area to private commercial surveys which ultimately led to the charting and establishment of the whole Hudson River area. 

Eventually the Dutch established a permanent settlement on Manhattan and the surrounding area, calling the whole colony New Netherland.  A Dutch fur trading settlement in Lower Manhattan in 1613 was the first of the European settlements, though it was not until 1624 that the first official Dutch settlement was established on Governer’s Island, thus making official the Dutch possession of the territory.  

Fort Amsterdam is said to have been  founded in 1625 to protect the settlers against other Europeans, although there is no evidence that it was actually constructed. Whether this occurred or not, the island and the town became known in the same year as New Amsterdam after the capital city of Holland. 

The Director-General of New Netherlands who was appointed in 1626 was, in fact, a Belgian, Peter Minuit, who claimed to have purchased the island of Manhattan from the Canarsee native Americans on 24th May, but in fact the island at that time was owned by the Weckquaesgeek people so ownership was open to question.  This did not deter Minuit, howver, who continued to lay claim to ownesrhip of the island.

The colony of New Netherland was granted self-government in 1652 and New Amstrdam was declared a city the year after.  However, this was to be short lived since in 1664, when the English and Dutch were officially at peace, four heavily armed English warships sailed into the harbor and demanded the colony’s surrender which was granted by the then Director-General, Peter Stuyvesant. At that time the Brirtish had several colonies in North America, and it was King Charles II’s objective to add New Netherlands to them to form a powerful American colonial alliance.  Prior to surrendering the town, Stuvesant suceeded in procuring guarantees for the rights and freedoms of the New Netherlanders that later became the basis of the Bill of Rights.

Although this sparked off a war between the Dutch and the English, New Amsterdam was in English hands and was renamed New York after the Duke of York, later to become James II.  It returned to Dutch hands for a short period in 1673, but was returned to Britain 1674, under the Treaty of Westmister, in exchange for Dutch Guiana, now Surinam.

New York was about to enter into another period of her history, under British rule, until the War of Independence brought freedom from the British on 25th November, 1783.

A History of New York City: The Dutch Period and Before (Part 1 of 3) was originally published at http://www.globallifenow.com