This is the beginning of the story of New Netherland, the Dutch colonization of today’s New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic. New Netherland was a long-ignored period in American history, but has come into its own in recent years. The Dutch and New Netherland are now seen to have had a significant impact on the early United States, with important downstream consequences. Such as the word “cookie,” which is why we Americans don’t call them “biscuits,” as the English do.

In this episode we discuss the geopolitical and economic considerations that led to the chartering of the New Netherland Company in 1614 and the much larger Dutch West India Company in 1621, both motivated in part by the fantastic success of the Dutch East India Company. We end the episode just before the first batch of Dutch settlers are to arrive in New York harbor.

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Jeff’s pictures of the Wessagussett site

Selected references for this episode

Eric Yanis, The Other States of America History Podcast

Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Jaap Jacobs, The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America

Mark Meuwese, “The Dutch Connection: New Netherland, the Pequots, and the Puritans in Southern New England, 1620-1638,” Early American Studies, Spring 2011.

Dutch East India Company (Wikipedia)