New Netherland - Origins

Origins

In the 17th-century, Europe was undergoing expansive social, cultural, and economic growth. In the Netherlands this is known as the Dutch Golden Age. Nations vied for domination of lucrative trade routes across the globe, particularly those to Asia. Simultaneously, philosophical and theological conflicts were manifested in military battles across the continent. The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands had become a home to many intellectuals, international businessmen, and religious refugees. In the Americas, the English had a settlement at Jamestown, the French had a small settlements at Port Royal and Quebec, and the Spanish were developing colonies to exploit trade in South America and the Caribbean.

In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English sea captain and explorer, was hired by the Flemish Protestant emigres running the Dutch East India Company (VOC) located in Amsterdam, to find a Northeast Passage to Asia sailing around Scandinavia and Russia. Turned back by the ice of the Arctic in his second attempt, he sailed west to seek a northwest passage rather than return home and ended up exploring 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. Believing the passage to the Pacific ocean was between the St. Lawrence River and Chesapeake Bay, Hudson sailed south to the Bay then turned northward, traveling close along the shore. He first discovered Delaware Bay and began to sail upriver looking for the passage. This effort was foiled by sandy shoals, and the Halve Maen continued north. After passing Sandy Hook, Hudson and his crew entered the narrows into the Upper New York Bay. (Unbeknownst to Hudson, the narrows had already been discovered in 1524 by explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano; today the bridge spanning them is named for him.) Believing he may have found the continental water route, Hudson sailed up the major river which would later bear his name (the Hudson). Days later, at the site of present-day Albany, he found the water too shallow to proceed.

Upon returning to the Netherlands, Hudson reported having found a fertile land and an amicable people willing to engage his crew in small-scale bartering of furs, trinkets, clothes, and small manufactured goods. His report, first published by the Antwerp emigre and Dutch Consul at London, Emanuel Van Meteren, in 1612, stimulated interest in exploiting this new trade resource, and was the catalyst for Dutch merchant-traders to fund more expeditions. Flemish Lutheran emigre merchants, such as Arnout Vogels, sent the first follow up voyages to exploit this discovery as early as July, 1610.

In 1611–1612, the Admiralty of Amsterdam sent two covert expeditions to find a passage to China with the yachts Craen and Vos, captained by Jan Cornelisz Mey and Symon Willemsz Cat, respectively. In four voyages made between 1611 and 1614, the area between present-day Maryland and Massachusetts was explored, surveyed, and charted by Adriaen Block, Hendrick Christiaensen, and Cornelius Jacobsen Mey. 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. On maps, it was also called Nova Belgica. During this period there was some trading with the native population. Dutch trader Jan Rodrigues (born in Santo Domingo of Portuguese and African descent) spent the winter of 1613–1614 trapping for pelts and trading with the local population. He was the first recorded non-Native American to do so.