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Historical Background

The Dutch and the Swedes: Patroons and Plowmen

Another European nation, newly risen to power, was not to be denied a share of the New World wealth. Holland, or the Netherlands, was almost as quick as Britain and France to seize the opportunities in North America. Dutchmen as well as Englishmen, however, clashed before long with the newly arrived Swedes, whom they felt were encroaching on their territory. New Netherland soon conquered New Sweden, only to fall itself to Britain, whose settlers surrounded it on all sides. Though the Dutch and Swedish phases of colonial history were short-lived—from about 1614 until 1664—the settlers of the two nations contributed substantially to our national heritage.

Henry Hudson meeting with the Indians along the Hudson River. An Englishman, he probed the North American Continent for the Dutch East India Company. After exploring the coast from Newfoundland to Virginia, he sailed into New York Harbor and up the Hudson River to the site of Albany. From a painting by J. L. G. Ferris. (Courtesy, William E. Ryder and the Smithsonian Institution.)

DUTCH EXPLORATION

The various provinces that comprised the Netherlands passed from the estates of the Dukes of Burgundy to the Hapsburg family in the late Middle Ages. Philip II, Hapsburg heir in the mid-16th century to most of Europe as well as Spain, ruled the Low Countries through a despotic overlord who precipitated a revolt that culminated in 1581 in the in dependence of Holland. The meteoric rise of the little Dutch Republic to a powerful position among the nations of Europe is one of the most dramatic in history—as well as a tribute to its form of government.

The enterprising burghers of Amsterdam soon began to seek a share in the trade of both the East Indies and the New World. In 1602, the States General (the parliament) chartered the Dutch East India Company and boldly authorized it to capture what it could of the Eastern trade from other nations. In 1609, the company employed Henry Hudson, an English navigator who twice had unsuccessfully sought the Northwest Passage in northern waters for the Muscovy Company, to probe the North American Continent. On the Half Moon, he struck the coast of Newfoundland, turned south as far as Virginia, and then returned up the coast to Delaware Bay. He continued northward and entered New York Harbor. When he first sighted the "Great River of the Mountains," or the "Great North River," later named for him, he excited hope among the crew that the passage to the East had been found. The Half Moon moved upstream for 11 days, to the site of Albany, before Hudson, observing the narrow channel and shallow water, decided that he had not found the passage to the East and returned to Holland. The next year, no longer employed by the Dutch, but sponsored by a group of English adventurers, he still pursued the passage. But his crew mutinied and set him adrift to perish on the cold waters of the great northern bay that now bears his name.