History of New York City

choi

DG Hart, The Birth of Gotham; The roots of modern-day New York—its dizzying cultural diversity and capitalist might—lie in its Dutch origins. Wall Street Journal, Apr 2, 2025, at page A15
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture ... -of-gotham-ebfc7907
(book review on Russell Shorto, Taking Manhattan; The extraordinary events that created New York and shaped America. WW Norton & Co, Mar 4, 2025)

Note:
(a) In 2007 "the US Mint had observed the 1607 settlement of Jamestown by producing a commemorative silver dollar. In 2008 Canada's government approved spending $155 million on the 400th anniversary of Champlain's founding of Quebec [City]."
(i) dollar coin (United States)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_coin_(United_States)
("Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, and base metal versions")
(ii)
(A) New France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_France
(1534–1763; "beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris"/ section 2 History, section 2.3 Conquest of New France: Seven Years' War of 1756 to 1763, in Treaty of Paris of 1763, Britain acquired "French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River": introduction of this Wiki page)

Compare Louisiana Purchase
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase
(For "most of the land in the Mississippi River's drainage basin west of the river.[1] In return for fifteen million dollars")
(B) Samuel de Champlain (1574 – 1635)
• Champlain
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Champlain
(pronunciation)
• Dictionary of American Family Names (published by Oxford Univ Press) says the French surname Champlain denotes "someone who lived by a flat field. It originates from champ field, open land + plaine level."
• French-English dictionary:
* Champlain (etymology: a topographic surname, from [noun masculine] champ field +‎ [adjective masculine; feminine plaine (champ is masculine, so the adjective MUST be masculine, too)] plain flat)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Champlain
   ^ The English adjective and noun plain is borrowed from French (in the Middle Ages).
*
(C) Quebec City
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_City
(section 1 Name and usage: promontory of Quebec [elevation: 110m]; section 2 History, section 2.1 French regime (1500s–1763): "the earliest known French settlement in North America, Fort Charlesbourg-Royal, established in 1541 by explorer Jacques Cartier
-- in previous trips to the region, Cartier only explored and built nothing more lasting)

(b) "New York was created twice, with two sets of dates confusingly—yet tidily—40 years apart. In 1624 the Dutch West India Co established New Netherland; Dutch traders and settlers had been arriving in the area for about 10 years. The English succeeded the Dutch in 1664, and New Netherland became New York. * * * Both the English and Dutch set up trading companies that immediately became competitors for trade with Asia [EIC v VOC] and exploration of the New World. Alliances and antagonisms among European colonial powers varied, but the English and Dutch seemed always at each other's throats [the fierce competitions led to Anglo-Dutch Wars]."
(i) Dutch East India Co (1602-1799; Dutch acronym: VOC)   Compare East India Company (EIC; British; 1602-1874; world's first joint-stock company)
Dutch West India Co (1621-1792; English acronym: WIC; Dutch acronym: GWC)
(ii)
(A) New Netherland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Netherland
(table: Capital  New Amsterdam; "The colony [New Netherland] 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 [of 1665–1667], surrendered New Netherland to the English following the capture of New Amsterdam [in 1664]. In 1673, the Dutch retook the colony but relinquished it under the Treaty of Westminster (1674) that ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War" (1672-1674) * * * The Dutch recaptured New Netherland in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships [a show of force that was bloodless, same as Britain's bloodless capture of New Amsterdam in 1664]")

Why did the Dutch hand over New Netherland in the 1673 Treaty?  See Third Anglo-Dutch War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Anglo-Dutch_War
(1672-1674; section 5 Second Peace of Westminster [also known as Treaty of Westminster of 1673]: "The treaty stipulated that New York—formerly New Netherland—would henceforth be an English possession and that Suriname, captured by the Dutch in 1667, would remain their colony, confirming the status quo of 1667")
(B) New Amsterdam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Amsterdam
("at the southern tip of Manhattan Island * * * By 1655, the population of New Netherland had grown to 9000 Dutch people, with 1,500 living in New Amsterdam. By 1664, the population of New Netherland had risen to almost 9,000 people, 2,500 of whom lived in New Amsterdam, 1,000 lived near Fort Orange [present-day City of Albany, NY] * * * In 1664, the English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York after the Duke of York (later James II & VII)"/ section 2 History, section 2.3 1624–1664: Dutch Peter Minuit, then company director of New Amsterdam, in 1626 purchased Manhattan from Lenape: "The deed itself has not survived, so the specific details are unknown"/ section 2.4 English capture)

Charles I of England had two sons (and more), Charles I was beheaded, later was succeeded by his oldest surviving son as Charles II. After the latter;s death, the next oldest surviving son succeeded as James II of England (as well as James VII of Scotland).
(iii) The English did not set up the equivalent of WIC. Rather EIC did business in America also. See Boston Tea Party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party
("The target of the Boston Tea Party was the British implementation of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the East India Company to sell tea from China in the colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts [which set precedent for Parliament to tax colony]. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the Townshend Act taxes, which they saw as a violation of their rights as Englishmen to 'no taxation without representation' ")


(d) "Yet the transition from New Netherland to New York went off peaceably. In their demand that the Dutch surrender the New Netherland territory Charles II had claimed for Connecticut, the English used diplomacy with a hint of intimidation. The chief negotiators were Richard Nicolls for the English and Peter Stuyvesant for the Dutch, with assistance from John Winthrop Jr, governor of the new Connecticut colony * * * Although Winthrop’s Connecticut could be stricter in religion than Puritan Massachusetts, with the founding of New York he facilitated an alternative to New England's godly aspirations. Unlike the 'city on a hill' [Boston was founded on Beacon Hill, so named because there was once a beacon there -- 'The beacon was used to warn the residents of an invasion': en.wikipedia.org for 'Beacon Hill, Boston'] his father, the first governor of Massachusetts, had envisioned for devout Boston, New York's greatness would come from cooperation and commerce. Bringing New York within England's colonial orbit also secured most of the eastern seaboard, from the Carolinas to Massachusetts."  
(i) This quotation is about transition of New Netherland to New York (province), not in 1673. See Richard Nicolls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nicolls
(c 1624 – 1672; "served as the first governor of New York from 1664 to 1668 * * * He was killed in [Third Anglo-Dutch War in] 1672")
(ii)
(A) father: John Winthrop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Winthrop
(1588 – 1649; table: 2nd [1630-1634 (first governor was Matthew Cradock, now unknown], 6th, 9th, and 12th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; "a leading figure in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony [1628–1691; founded in Boston; succeeded by Province of Massachusetts Bay], the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony [in 1821 in Plymouth, Mass]. * * * served as governor for 12 of the colony's first 20 years. His writings and vision of the colony as a Puritan 'city upon a hill' dominated New England colonial development")

City upon a Hill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_upon_a_Hill
(B) son: John Winthrop the Younger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Winthrop_the_Younger
(1606 – 1676; Governor of the Connecticut Colony 1659–1676)
• He was mentioned in the review because he was the sitting governor in 1664.
• The first governor of Connecticut Colony was John Haynes 1639-1640.
(iii) Province of New York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_New_York

choi

-------------------WSJ
In 2014, New York state declined to celebrate its own 350th anniversary. It was a strange decision considering the memorializing fervor elsewhere: Seven years earlier, the U.S. Mint had observed the 1607 settlement of Jamestown by producing a commemorative silver dollar. In 2008 Canada’s government approved spending $155 million on the 400th anniversary of Champlain’s founding of Quebec. Yet New York chose not to acknowledge its origin in 1664.

Part of the problem may be that New York was created twice, with two sets of dates confusingly—yet tidily—40 years apart. In 1624 the Dutch West India Co. established New Netherland; Dutch traders and settlers had been arriving in the area for about 10 years. The English succeeded the Dutch in 1664, and New Netherland became New York. If you celebrate New York’s founding, which date should you use?  

The shift from New Netherland to New York is the subject of Russell Shorto’s “Taking Manhattan.” At the heart of the story is the Anglo-Dutch component of a broader competition among the English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedes for wealth and control in the North Atlantic. Both the English and Dutch set up trading companies that immediately became competitors for trade with Asia and exploration of the New World. Alliances and antagonisms among European colonial powers varied, but the English and Dutch seemed always at each other’s throats.

The Dutch initially bested the English thanks to better administration, an adept navy and a comfort with brutal tactics. For instance, in 1623 the Dutch raided the island of Amboyna, now part of Indonesia, and tortured natives working for the English employees. The English, beset by political instability in London, would take 40 years to retaliate: In 1664 they attacked Dutch-controlled Gorée Island, off Africa’s west coast, and brought “hell and destruction” to nearby Dutch ports in present-day Ghana and Sierra Leone. This episode testified to an English resentment of the Dutch so pronounced that in 1673 John Dryden published a play about the Amboyna massacre. “Curse on my fond Credulity,” one character says, “to think / There could be Faith or Honour in the Dutch.”

Yet the transition from New Netherland to New York went off peaceably. In their demand that the Dutch surrender the New Netherland territory Charles II had claimed for Connecticut, the English used diplomacy with a hint of intimidation. The chief negotiators were Richard Nicolls for the English and Peter Stuyvesant for the Dutch, with assistance from John Winthrop Jr., governor of the new Connecticut colony, an accomplished man of science and an experienced negotiator in English and Dutch territorial rivalries. With knowledge of English retaliation at Gorée Island the prior year, Dutch colonists could not be faulted for thinking that Nicolls and Winthrop would use force to take over New Netherland. As it happened, Nicolls offered terms so agreeable that Stuyvesant kept them secret in hopes of gaining support for resistance to the English. In the end, though, Dutch merchants preferred profits and peace to conflict with the English.

Although Winthrop’s Connecticut could be stricter in religion than Puritan Massachusetts, with the founding of New York he facilitated an alternative to New England’s godly aspirations. Unlike the “city on a hill” his father, the first governor of Massachusetts, had envisioned for devout Boston, New York’s greatness would come from cooperation and commerce. Bringing New York within England’s colonial orbit also secured most of the eastern seaboard, from the Carolinas to Massachusetts.  

Mr. Shorto’s method is to tell backstories in vivid and sometimes creative detail. At one point he writes that “we can imagine” Nicolls enlisting the “darkly handsome” Winthrop, who was “boiling with ambition”—though their allegiances had been different during the recent Civil War, “they were both what you might call moderates in their respective camps.” A little later, Mr. Shorto admits “we have no record giving details” of this meeting between the two. More compellingly, the author’s creative license renders Stuyvesant three-dimensional, very much in contrast to the Dutch leader’s historical reputation as a severe Calvinist and despot. Mr. Shorto informs us that Stuyvesant’s testy temperament likely owed to a war wound suffered in a 1644 battle with the Spanish at St. Maarten. Doctors sawed off his leg at the knee and had no anesthetic to minimize the pain. Instead of giving up an active life, in 1648 Stuyvesant took an assignment to run New Netherland. America’s early colonists, the book reminds us, were a remarkable breed.

Mr. Shorto uses this unfamiliar part of colonial history to sing New York’s praises, and the tune he uses is American exceptionalism. New York City’s Dutch heritage is largely responsible for a city that “mesmerizes people from all over the world,” he writes. Americans may know the Puritans, Pilgrims and Jamestown settlers, but colonial New Yorkers’ fame, he contends, should be as great. The city and region embody the opportunity and diversity of America. New Yorkers, he argues, inherited from the Dutch “the concept of pluralism” and “ensured that the country would embrace capitalism.” From these “effervescent, messy” ingredients came a liberal society that contravened the legacy of Boston’s “dour, self-righteous, theocratic” Protestantism.

The book isn’t all celebration. It begins with an acknowledgement of the sins of settler colonialism, an opening that seems to promise another protracted prosecution of American exploitation and injustice. Instead of condemning European settlers, however, “Taking Manhattan” rescues the Dutch chapter of America’s colonial past. We’re reminded why Nick Carraway, the narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” ends with an allusion to the Dutch settlers and the “fresh, green breast of the new world” they created. As for New Yorkers in the 21st century, if they won’t pay respects to their colonial origins, Mr. Shorto deserves credit for showing them why they should.

Mr. Hart teaches history at Hillsdale College and is the author of “Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant.”