New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the seventeenth-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.........

New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the seventeenth-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the northeastern coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod. Settled areas are now part of the Mid-Atlantic States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Its capital, New Amsterdam, was located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan on the Upper New York Bay.





Initially a private venture to exploit the North American fur trade, New Netherland was slowly settled during the first decades of its existence, in part due to conflicts with Native Americans and mismanagement by the Dutch West India Company. During the 1650s it experienced exponential growth and became a major port for trade in the North Atlantic. Its surrender to the British in 1664 was finalized with the Treaty of Westminster in 1674.

Descendents of the original settlers played a prominent role in colonial America. New Netherland Dutch culture characterized the region (today's Capital District, Hudson Valley, western Long Island, northeastern New Jersey and the five boroughs of New York City) for two centuries. The concepts of civil liberties and pluralism introduced in the province became a mainstay of American political and social life.

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European exploration

Seventeenth-century Europe was a time of expansive social, cultural, and economic growth, and in the Netherlands is known as the Dutch Golden Age. Nations were vying for domination of lucrative trade routes across the globe, particularly those to Asia. Simultaneously, philosophical/theological battles were manifested in military battles taking place across the continent. The Netherlands had become a home to many intellectuals, international businessmen, and religious refugees. The English had a settlement at Jamestown, the French had a small settlement at Quebec and the Spanish were developing colonies to exploit trade in South America and the Caribbean.


Map based on Adriaen Block's 1614 expedition to New Netherland, featuring the first use of the name.Henry Hudson was an English sea captain and explorer who believed he could find a northwest passage to Asia. In 1609, under contract with the Dutch East India Company (VOC), located in Amsterdam, he explored the waters off the east coast of North America aboard the yacht Halve Maen. His first landfall was at Newfoundland and the second at Cape Cod. He sailed south to the Chesapeake River, close to but not approaching the English colony at Jamestown. He then turned northward, travelling along the shore and after passing Sandy Hook entered the narrows into the Upper New York Bay. (The narrows are named for Giovanni da Verrazzano who had sighted them in 1524.) Believing he may have found a water route across the continent he proceeded up the river which would later bear his name (the Hudson) but at the site of present-day Albany the water became too shallow to proceed.

Upon returning to The Netherlands, Hudson reported that he had found a fertile and fecund land and a people amicable to engaging his crew in small-scale bartering of furs, trinkets, clothes, and small manufactured goods. His report stimulated further interest in the prospect of exploiting this new trade resource, and was the catalyst for Dutch merchant-traders to fund more expeditions. At least one was made the following year, under the command of Symen Lambertsz Mau.

In 1611-1690, the Admiralty of Amsterdam sent two covert expeditions to find a passage to China with the yachts Craen and Vos, captained by Jan Cornelisz May and Symon Willemsz Cat, respectively.

In four voyages made between 1611 and 1614, the area between present-day Delaware and Massachusetts was explored, surveyed, and charted by Adriaen Block, Hendrick Christiaensen, and Cornelis Jacobsz May. The results of these explorations, surveys, and charts made from 1609 through 1614 were consolidated in Block’s map, which used the name New Netherland for the first time.

During this period there appears to have been some trading with the native population. Jan Rodrigues, born in Santo Domingo of African descent, spent the winter of 1613-1614, on the island of Manhattan trapping for pelts, and is the first recorded non-Native American to do so.

New Netherland Company and Dutch West India Company

On March 17, 1614, the States General, the governing body of The Netherlands, proclaimed it would grant an exclusive patent for trade between the 40th and 45th parallels. This monopoly would be valid for four voyages, all of which had to be undertaken within three years after it was awarded. Block's map, and the report which accompanied it, were used by the New Netherland Company (a newly formed alliance of trading companies) to win their patent, which would expire on January 1, 1618.

The New Netherland Company also ordered a survey of the Delaware area. This task was undertaken by skipper Cornelis Hendricksz of Monnickendam, who explored the Zuyd Rivier (the Delaware River) from its bay to its northernmost navigable reaches in 1614, 1615, and 1616. His observations were preserved in a map drawn in 1616. Hendricksz's voyages were made aboard the Onrust (Restless), a vessel that Block ordered built before he returned to the Netherlands; it was a replacement for the yacht Tyger, which had been lost to fire in January 1614. Despite the survey, the company was unable to secure an exclusive patent from the States General for the area between the 38th and 40th parallels.

The issue of patents by the States General in 1614 turned New Netherland into a private, commercial venture. Soon thereafter Fort Nassau was constructed on Castle Island, up Hudson's river, in the area of present-day Albany. The primary purpose of the fort was to defend river traffic against interlopers and to conduct fur trading operations with the natives. The location of the fort proved to be impractical, due to repeated flooding of the island in the summers, and the fort was abandoned in 1618, which coincided with the patent's expiration.


The West India House in Amsterdam, headquarters of the West India Company from 1623 to 1647.The Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie, or Chartered West India Company (WIC), was granted a charter by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on June 3, 1621. It gave the exclusive right to operate in West Africa (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope) and the Americas. In New Netherland, profit was originally to be made from the North American fur trade.

Among the founders of the WIC was Willem Usselincx who, between 1600 and 1606, had promoted the concept that a main objective of the company should be the establishment of colonies in the New World. In 1620, Usselincx made a last appeal to the States General, which rejected his principal vision as a primary goal. The formula of trading posts with small populations and a military presence to protect them, which was working in the East Indies, was preferred over mass immigration and the establishment of large colonies. Not until 1654, when forced to surrender Dutch Brazil and forfeit the richest sugar-producing area in the world, did the company belatedly focus on colonization in North America.