Founding of New York

As some of you will know (and some of you won't), New York was formerly New Amsterdam, as it was originally a Dutch colony. The story of the founding of the city can be summarised by describing the four men who had the biggest impact on the formative years of the colony.



Henry Hudson - Hudson was an explorer who was determined to find a passage through the Arctic to the orient (Asia). He never managed it, but at he inadvertantly discovered New York. He was working for the Dutch at the time, hence the Dutch staked their claim on the colony.



Peter Minuit - Peter Minuit was one of the early West India Company's governors of the colony. He was a competent governor, who 'bought' the island of Manhattan from a native tribe for goods worth 60 guilders, the equivalent of $24. He was unfairly sacked from his post, and later went on to found New Sweden on behalf of the Swedish government (thus becoming a thorn in the side of future governors of New Netherland).



Adriaen Van Der Donck - A new generation Dutch lawyer, schooled in the new legal and philosophical principles of the age (educated at Leiden University, the Harvard of its day, while Rene Descartes was there). After qualifying as a lawyer, he went seeking a job to challenge him. He got a job for Kiliaen van Rensselaer, an Amsterdam diamond merchant, who had made his own fiefdom within New Netherland. Van Der Donck took the job of lawman, overseeing van Rensselaer's domain. Later he left the role and gained his own land in New Amsterdam. He became actively involved in the political life of the colony and was the instrumental figure in reducing the power of the West India company governor and gaining power and influence for the settlers of New Netherland. His success was almost complete when war broke out between Holland and England, causing the Dutch government to leave some power in the hands of the West India company to aid in the defence of New Netherland. Van Der Donck was eventually forbidden to practice law or politics in the colony, and retired to his own lands in New Netherland.

Peter Stuyvesant - Peter Stuyvesant was the last governor of New Netherland before it was taken over by the English. He was the political enemy of Adriaen Van Der Donck and believed that the West India Company, through him, should have all the power in the colony. He did however effectively defend the colony for many years against the British, Native Americans and others, while at the same time helping New Amsterdam to flourish commercially, and later politically. Through the buildings he helped build and the institutions he helped found, the Dutch colony had a lasting impact on New York and America as a whole.