colony · North America and Oceania

New Netherland

1614 CE – 1667 CE · capital New Amsterdam

The Dutch colony on the Hudson River, whose port of New Amsterdam became New York and whose tolerant, commercial character shaped the city.

Origins

Henry Hudson explored the river named after him for the Dutch East India Company in 1609, and Dutch traders were soon buying furs there; the New Netherland Company built a post near modern Albany in 1614. After 1621 the Dutch West India Company of the Dutch Republic took over, and in 1626 Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from the Lenape.

Rule and society

The company governed through a director-general and council, and the colony lived on the fur trade through Fort Orange, with settlers drawn from many nations. Patroonships such as Rensselaerswyck offered large estates to investors. Willem Kieft's war with the Lenape in 1643 to 1645 nearly ruined the colony. Peter Stuyvesant, governing from 1647, conquered New Sweden in 1655 and built the wall that gave Wall Street its name. Residents of Flushing protested his intolerance in 1657.

Decline and legacy

In 1664 an English fleet seized New Amsterdam without a fight, and it became the Province of New York, confirmed by the Treaty of Breda in 1667. The Dutch briefly retook the colony in 1673 to 1674. Dutch place names and customs persisted in the Hudson Valley.

Lineage

New NetherlandDelaware Colony 1664 CE – 1776 CE Province of New York 1664 CE – 1776 CE

Connections (4)

New Netherland was a colony of Dutch Republic1614 CE – 1667 CE
New Netherland was part of Dutch Empire1614 CE – 1667 CE
New Sweden was conquered by New Netherland1655 CE
New Netherland was conquered by Kingdom of England1664 CE

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Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). New Netherland. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/new-netherland
MLA: “New Netherland.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/new-netherland. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “New Netherland.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/new-netherland.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘New Netherland’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/new-netherland (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻