What's Left of New Amsterdam? (And the Origins of the USA)

in 1609 english explorer henry hudson set sail to find the northwest passage but instead of exploring on behalf of his country of birth it was for the netherlands dutch east india company like several other voyages hudson took he didn't find a passage to asia but he did come across an area that would interest his new employers this was the hudson river and the new york bay he reported back that this land was fertile was populated with natives willing to trade and that there was an abundance of bieber's which could be exploited for commercial purposes beef repels were a hot commodity in europe at the time their fur could be felted to make waterproof hats and parts of the beaver were used for medicines and perfumes in the years following hudson's voyage as a result of his report the dutch sent voyages to survey the region which was named new netherland dutch companies began trading in the newly formed colony but in 1621 a monopoly was granted to the dutch west india company the west india company encouraged the permanent settlement of new netherland they purchased the island of manhattan from local natives whom the island is named after this is where the majority of settlers would come to live in 1624 the west india company built a fort fort amsterdam at the tip of manhattan island marking the beginning of new amsterdam the fort provided protection but it also served as the center of trading activity for all of new netherland which brought with it opportunity and naturally immigration but new netherland was squeezed between the english colonies of virginia to the south and the new england colonies in the north its location and valuable fur trade made it very attractive to the british in 1664 four english frigates sailed into new amsterdam's harbor and demanded new netherlands surrender the british promised the settlers they could continue their way of life the locals had also lost their loyalty to the west indian company after repeated requests of the company to provide them with protection which the company ignored so the locals chose not to resist and so the town was taken by the english with no casualties new amsterdam was then reincorporated under english law as new york city the dutch actually briefly and just like the english had peacefully took back new amsterdam in 1673 renaming it new orange before giving it back to the english at the conclusion of the third anglo-dutch war essentially trading it for the former british colony of suriname the british would hold the settlement until it became part of the united states now over 300 years since new amsterdam became new york city what's left of it unfortunately there isn't really a lot of tangible things there are no structures that remain while the demolition of old structures to make room for new large developments did occur fires are a large reason why little survives a fire broke out during the american revolution that destroyed a large area of what was new amsterdam in 1835 another devastating fire hit lower manhattan and a third massive fire struck 10 years later leaving almost nothing of what was new amsterdam untouched it's unlikely anything of the old settlement survived past this period the piece of land that once housed fort amsterdam now sits the u.s customs house which inside now serves as the museum of the american indian today's bowling green is still a public gathering place today it's a nice little park but in new amsterdam it served as a cattle market and parade ground but as you can see on this new amsterdam era map what does remain is the street pattern though the sights are a little different than they once were you can still walk the same path as the settlers almost four centuries ago the large street starting from fort amsterdam and heads north became what we call broadway today's broad street once housed a canal which was also likely used as a sewer on the settlement's northern limit is wall street on english maps there are two different spellings in the dutch language de val strat and de vostrat val means walloon in english which is a cultural identity of a group of people that primarily live in wallonia peterman we the person who bought manhattan for the dutch was a walloon so it's possible that this is the origin of the name but vol can be translated as rampart or wall this is typically thought to be the true name and origin because there was a nine-foot wall made of dirt and wooden planks on the back of wall street this was constructed to protect the residents of new amsterdam from the british pirates and native americans you can reportedly trace the original wall street wall by following square wooden markers on the ground on pearl street an outline of the old city hall which also acted as a tavern is outlined in cream-colored stone though unrelated just steps away is francis tavern which just over a century after new amsterdam became new york george washington gave his famous farewell informing his officers he was resigning his commission not far from here are two 20th century structures built in the dutch colonial revival style though there are few tangible remains of new amsterdam new amsterdam left something greater which stretches farther than just lower manhattan these are characteristics and values that the united states was founded on and still holds true today things such as tolerance freedom of religion the opportunity for upward mobility and maybe even our ideas of democracy for the rest of this video i argue why this settlement deserves more credit than it currently receives for its influence on the united states and should receive the same spotlight as other colonial settlements that as americans we so often claim as our origins it's typically thought that when the british took over new amsterdam that its culture was erased but it wasn't none of the residents left and the british found that new amsterdam was thriving and was uniquely tied to both the dutch and the british empires the settlement worked and they recognized they shouldn't fix what wasn't broken the dutch essentially invented modern capitalism they created the first multinational corporation and the first stock exchange and this knack for making money was brought with the dutch to new amsterdam in 1640 the west india company gave up its monopoly and new amsterdam became a free trading port which enabled other businessmen to invest in new netherlands and encouraged more people to move to the settlement this is when new amsterdam truly began resembling what today we call the american dream entrepreneurship was rampant and many residents had side businesses it was common for a man to work for the west india company but also own a tavern or a bakery or sell crops on behalf of farmers every resident in new amsterdam had shares in one shipment of cargo or another everyone here is a traitor one resident remarked in 1650 this was the first place in what would become the united states that upward mobility was truly possible today what was new amsterdam and new york as a whole is a global leader in trade and certainly isn't finance at one point two-thirds of the u.s federal tax revenue came through the u.s customs house where fort amsterdam once sat the stock exchange was invented in amsterdam and now what was new amsterdam hosts by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization after the 1987 stock market crash an artist gave new york city a giant bronze charging bull which he said represented the strength spirit and power of the american people and especially those of new york city two other cities have a bull shanghai and of course amsterdam and something that's always good for business is tolerance a decade before the founding of other colonies with religious freedom rhode island and connecticut and over 50 years before the province of pennsylvania was founded there was new amsterdam and when the british took it over in 1664 the new amsterdam director general peter striveson and his counsel negotiated with the british that new netherland shall keep and enjoy the liberty of their consciousness and religion this freedom of religion came from the netherlands tolerance was a defining cultural characteristic of the nation when i say tolerance though i don't really mean that diversity was celebrated more like put up with and many even within new amsterdam didn't actually agree that having tolerance for other religions or ethnic groups was good for a nation but thought diversity could actually weaken it this included the then director general one-legged peter striveson a member of the dutch reform church when a group of jews disembarked in new amsterdam wishing to stay he wrote the directors of new netherland and amsterdam that the deceitful race such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of christ be not allowed further to infect and trouble this colony strives and felt similarly towards other groups that made new amsterdam their home which included lutherans roman catholics and quakers but the directors replied with a reminder that freedom of religion is official policy this diversity wasn't just religion but nationalities and ethnicities a 1646 jesuit priest reported that he found 18 languages spoken in new amsterdam this was the first multicultural society in what would become the united states if you walk through the streets of new york city today you are bound to have the same experience new amsterdam actually had their own taxation without representation moment the main cause for the american revolutionary war but instead of a tax on tea and paper it was beaver and beer the director of new netherland from 1638 to 1647 villam kiev started a brutal war with natives that the settlers and their representing council were against then after waging this unpopular war he taxed the colonists to pay for it this actually resulted in the death of anne hutchinson one of the pioneers for religious freedom in the colonies a founding member of rhode island and a challenger on gender roles in positions of power threats of massachusetts taking over rhode island compelled hutchinson to move to new netherland where she could continue her beliefs in what is today the bronx when the natives retaliated for keith's actions her and six of her children were among the casualties the only survivor from the household was her nine-year-old daughter who was kidnapped led by new amsterdam lawyer adrian vanderdonk settlers wrote legal petitions to the leaders of the west indian company and states general in the heg asking for keith's removal and representation one letter makes the complaint clear that one man should dispose here of our lives and properties at his will and pleasure in a manner so arbitrary that a king dare not legally do the like the settlement didn't get its democracy but keefe was replaced i should also mention as it relates to the us government and democracy that u.s presidents theodore and franklin d roosevelt were both descendants of a dutch resident of new amsterdam if tolerance upward mobility and the foundations of our democracy didn't come from new amsterdam where else did they come from what about saint augustine founded in 1565 by the spanish it was the first permanent european settlement in what would become the contiguous united states but st augustine wasn't part of the united states when the u.s was founded and the settlement decided to destroy the french outpost of fort caroline simply because there were huguenots whom the catholic spanish considered to be dangerous heretics what about jamestown this was the first permanent english settlement and it did create a representative colonial government in 1619 though ironically the same year the slavery was introduced it was mostly focused on making a profit but even then religious freedom was not supported in colonial jamestown church services were held 14 times a week and after the introduction of martial law in 1610 attendance was required at all services with punishments for violators ranging from loss of food rations to execution the puritans at the massachusetts bay colony who moved to north america primarily for religious reasons were also pretty far from having tolerance they exiled those who were teaching different beliefs these exiles founded the colonies of rhode island and connecticut some massachusetts-based settlers actually later moved to new amsterdam because of the religious freedom and economic opportunities it provided but what about the pilgrims at plymouth colony this one actually makes sense they had a direct democracy and they were actually pretty tolerant unlike the massachusetts colony there were entrepreneurs and skilled workers that came along on the journey that were not puritans but something commonly left out of the pilgrim story is that they actually migrated from england to the netherlands first because of their religious freedom but after a while the puritans felt that their children were being corrupted by the dutch liberalism so they then migrated to new england many spent a whole decade in the netherlands before coming to america it's highly possible that the group picked up some of their tolerance from the dutch i'm of course oversimplifying and as guilty as anyone else if i claim that new amsterdam alone is the origin of these cultural characteristics in the united states in reality the united states origins are a mix william penn roger williams thomas hooker and hutchinson and many others and their followers that form the colonies of rhode island connecticut and pennsylvania all of course deserve credit for leading the colonies for what would eventually be the first amendment of the us constitution and the belief the u.s still has in it today english philosopher john locke also known as the father of liberalism wrote essays on religious tolerance which provided an early model for the separation of church and state in the united states interestingly though he actually fled to the netherlands from england where he spent five years before returning and found that as far back as 1450 five and later six indian nations made up a democracy predating the united states called the iroquois confederacy that may have had some influence on the united states form of government and the physical geography of new york of course deserves a little credit for the island's economic prosperity but i do think new amsterdam at least deserves more credit for its influence on the united states than it currently receives new amsterdam and the dutch are not even mentioned in the curriculum in many states u.s history classes including my own it's easy to dismiss this tiny settlement as having such an influence it only had about 2500 people at the time of the british takeover but it appears to be the most aligned with american ideals and beliefs than any other original settlement for which u.s citizens claim is their origins and i don't think that's a coincidence after the british took it over it continued to grow people continued to migrate including from the netherlands by 1810 new york state was the most populated state in the u.s what was now new york also continued to grow its economy it traded with other port cities along the coast and up the hudson river this facilitated the spread of culture to areas outside the city itself the erie canal was completed in 1825 which grew the population and economy further from 1892 to 1924 nearly 12 million immigrants from all different nations were processed through ellis island many stayed in new york city while others spread out across the country the first thing they would have seen and experienced was the culture of new york before moving on today new york remains as a modern cultural hearth john adams at one time an ambassador to the netherlands and second president of the united states once wrote if therefore an analogy of religion government manners and the most extensive and lasting commercial interests can form a ground and an invitation to political connections the subscriber flatters himself that in all these particulars the union is so obviously natural that there has seldom been a more distinct designation of providence to any two distinct nations to unite themselves together again i find these similarities to be no coincidence this video didn't really cover much of dutch artifacts contributions and influence outside of new amsterdam their influences stretched further than what i covered but i'll save that for future videos if you enjoyed this video please hit the like button and subscribe for more geography videos thank you for watching [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Geography Geek

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Published: Fri Jul 16 2021