History
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In September 1609, Henry Hudson and about 20 seamen sailed the Halve Maen into what is now New York harbor, and although the Dutch East India Company had expected a passage to Asia, the voyage instead helped the Dutch claim Nieuw Nederland. In 1625-26, the Dutch West India Company established Fort Amsterdam at Manhattan’s tip as the colony’s capital and trading center, and the town that grew around it, Nieuw Amsterdam, became the center of a diverse and growing community. Built of earth and maintained by European laborers and enslaved Africans, the fort dominated the small town and harbor, served as the headquarters of the colony, and housed the Company-appointed director and a garrison meant to defend against attacks by Spain, France, England, or hostile native peoples. As the nerve center of Nieuw Amsterdam and of Nieuw Nederland beyond it, the fort was also the place where, in 1664, Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant surrendered to an English fleet, after which Nieuw Amsterdam became New York City and Nieuw Nederland became New York and New Jersey.
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