THE DUTCH AND SWEDISH COLONIES (1609-1644)
DUTCH EXPANSION
Commercial expansion of the Netherlands.--During the reign of Philip II
occurred the revolt in the Netherlands. Spanish political and commercial
restrictions, and the establishment of the Inquisition, united the great
commercial cities, the nobles, and the common people of the northeastern
provinces in a rebellion which did not cease until the Hollanders had
secured virtual independence by the truce of 1609. During the struggle
Dutch ships raided the Spanish and Portuguese trade routes. As early as
1577 a trade to the White Sea was begun. Soon Dutch ships were trading
to Italy and the Baltic, and by 1598 they had extended their commerce to
Alexandria, Tripoli on the Syrian coast, and Constantinople, to the Cape
Verde Islands and the Guinea coast. The desire to reach India influenced
Dutch statesmen to attempt to find a northeast passage. Between 1594 and
1597 four expeditions were sent out; they failed to find the passage but
gained considerable knowledge of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen.
East Indian trade.--For years Dutch sailors had been employed by the
Portuguese and were well acquainted with the routes to India and
America. In 1596 a company was organized to open a trade with the Far
East; their fleet sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, stopped at
Madagascar, and then proceeded to Java and the Moluccas, returning home
the next year. Several companies were immediately formed, and in 1598
twenty-two vessels sailed by the Cape of Good Hope route for the East,
and Olivier van Noort passed through the Straits of Magellan and
circumnavigated the earth. In 1602 the States General chartered the
United East India Company. Several fleets were despatched and succeeded
in gaining a foothold in Ceylon and along the coasts of India, in Java,
the Moluccas, and various other places. The traders met with great
opposition from the Portuguese and Spaniards, but when peace was made in
1609 the Dutch were given the right of trading to Spanish ports outside
of Europe, and they soon firmly established their power in the Far East
where they absorbed much of Portugal's commerce.
Henry Hudson.--The East India Company hoped to find a shorter route to
India and in 1609 employed an English mariner, Henry Hudson, to search
for a northwest passage. Meeting with ice and storms, he headed his
ship, the _Half Moon_, toward the west. Sighting land at Newfoundland,
he examined the New England coast, rounded Cape Cod, and sailed to
Virginia and southward. Turning north, he probably ran into Chesapeake
Bay, certainly entered Delaware Bay, and then sailed northward to what
is now New York harbor. The Hudson River was explored to a point above
Albany and friendly relations with the Iroquois were established. The
East India Company, however, was making such handsome profits in the
East that the furs of New Netherlands failed to attract it.
The Cape Horn route discovered.--The Dutch were still hopeful of finding
another route to India, and when Jacques le Maire quarreled with the
directors of the East India Company, he planned to form a separate
corporation and seek a route south of the Straits of Magellan. The
people of Hoorn assisted him in fitting out two vessels which were
placed under the command of William Corneliaz Schouten. On the long
voyage the smaller vessel was destroyed, but Schouten with the larger
one in 1616 discovered Cape Horn.
Dutch activities in the Hudson River region, 1610-1621.--The Hudson
River region was visited by traders in 1610-1611, and in 1612 Dutch
merchants sent Christianson and Block to Manhattan Island to engage in
the fur trade. In 1613 Cornelius May was also sent over. The next year
Fort Nassau, later named Fort Orange, was built near the present site of
Albany. An extensive exploration of the coast was also made, Block
sailing along the northern shore of Long Island, examining the lower
waters of the Connecticut River, and exploring Narragansett Bay and Cape
Cod. The result of these activities was the formation, in 1614, of the
New Netherlands Company, which was given the monopoly of the trade
between the fortieth and forty-fifth parallels. An important fur trade
was rapidly developed in the Hudson Valley and exploration of the coast
was continued. In 1616 Hendrickson examined Delaware Bay, and in 1620
the same region and Chesapeake Bay were visited by May. The southern
extremity of New Jersey still bears the name of the Dutch explorer.
The West India Company.--One of the most enterprising Dutch merchants
was William Usselincx, who had long hoped to profit by the opening of
West Indian trade. The idea was opposed by the East India Company and by
some of the Dutch statesmen, especially Olden Barnevelt, who feared that
it would bring about new difficulties with Spain. In spite of this,
Dutch vessels appeared in Guiana and the Antilles, and in 1613
settlements were attempted in Guiana at Essequibo and Berbice. In 1618
Olden Barnevelt fell from power and Usselincx immediately became active
in the formation of a company. In 1621 the West India Company was
chartered, receiving a monopoly of Dutch trade for twenty-four years on
the coast of Africa as far as the Cape, and for America and the islands
east of New Guinea. Usselincx, believing that the directors had too much
power and the shareholders too little, and desiring a colonizing rather
than a trading corporation, severed his connection with the company and
departed for Sweden, where he interested Gustavus Adolphus in commercial
enterprises.
Dutch settlements in Brazil, Guiana, and the Antilles.--Settlements were
now established by the "Beggars of the Sea" all the way from Brazil to
Hudson River, and there were prospects that the Caribbean Sea would
become a Dutch instead of a Spanish lake. Brazil was the most important
base. Bahia, taken in 1624, lost in 1625, and recaptured in 1627 by the
celebrated Piet Heyn, was again lost, but by 1637 Olinda, Recife and
Pernambuco had been captured in spite of determined resistance. Prince
Maurice of Nassau now took possession of Brazil from Bahia to the Amazon
River, and established there a Dutch state, with its capital at
Mauritiopolis. In spite of liberal Dutch rule, however, and of an
alliance now with Holland against Spain (1641), the Brazilians arose,
and after years of heroic fighting expelled the intruders (1661).
Meanwhile the Dutch had established colonies in Guiana at Berbice,
Aprouage, and Pomeroon, as well as at Essequibo. In the Antilles they
had settlements at Curacao, Buen Aire, Aruba (1634), St. Eustatius, Saba
(1635), and St. Martin (1638). During the same period the West India
Company had established a flourishing colony on the northern mainland
and called it New Netherlands.
NEW NETHERLANDS
Activities of the company.--Licenses were at once granted to several
traders, who in 1622 visited the Hudson, Delaware, and Connecticut
rivers and trafficked with the Indians as far east as Buzzard's Bay.
Thirty families of Walloons, Protestants from Flanders, were sent over
in 1623, these being the first colonists. Most of them settled on
Manhattan Island, at Brooklyn, and on Staten Island. A few migrated to
the vicinity of Fort Orange near Albany, and others settled near the
present site of Gloucester on the Delaware, where a new fort named
Nassau was erected. Other settlers soon followed; the fur trade was
developed; and by 1625 the success of the colony seemed assured.
Government of the colony.--The West India Company was governed by a
board of directors called the College of Nineteen; of these eight were
from Amsterdam, and to them was given the control of New Netherlands. In
the colony the chief officer was the director-general. To assist him was
a council invested with local legislative, executive, and judicial
powers, subject to the supervision and appellate jurisdiction of the
Amsterdam directors. There were two minor officials, the "koopman"
acting as commissary, bookkeeper, and secretary, and the "schout-fiscal"
as an attorney and sheriff.
Administration of Peter Minuit.--In 1626 Peter Minuit became the
director-general. One of his first acts was to secure a title to
Manhattan Island by purchasing it from the Indians at the nominal price
of twenty-four dollars' worth of goods. A fort, the location of which is
known to-day as The Battery, was immediately constructed. Near by was
built the stone counting house with a thatched roof, and thirty bark
houses straggled along the east side of the river, the meager beginnings
of a great metropolis. Fearing for the safety of the little groups of
settlers at Fort Orange and Fort Nassau, Minuit brought them to New
Amsterdam, leaving only a few soldiers and traders at Fort Orange.
[Illustration: Van Der Donck's Map of New Netherland, 1656.]
Minuit's preparations for defence were not confined to fortifying the
land. Conscious of foreign danger, inspired perhaps by the victories
which Heyn was just now winning over Spaniards and Portuguese in the
southern waters, and aided by two Belgian shipbuilders, the governor
built and launched the _New Netherland_, a vessel of eight hundred tons
and carrying thirty guns. The ship cost more than had been expected, and
the bills were severely criticized by the West India Company.
The patroon system.--The returns from the southern raids made the small
income from New Netherlands appear paltry, and the company decided to
attempt an extensive colonization with a view to larger profit. A type
of feudalism known as the patroon system was decided upon. The company
reserved Manhattan Island, but other regions were opened to settlement.
Each patroon was to receive lands four leagues along one side of a
navigable river or two leagues on both sides and extending "so far into
the country as the situation of the occupiers will permit," provided
that within four years he settled fifty people over fifteen years of age
upon his lands. Patroons were forever to "possess and enjoy all the
lands lying within the aforesaid limits, together with the fruits,
rights, minerals, rivers, and fountains thereof," and were to have
complete control over "fishing, fowling, and grinding."
The fur trade was reserved by the company, but the patroons were allowed
to trade on the coast from Newfoundland to Florida and to ship goods to
neutral powers; they could also engage in fishing and the making of
salt. They were to satisfy the Indians regarding land titles and were
given the right to establish their own courts, from which appeal might
be made to the director-general and his council. The colonists were
exempt from taxation for ten years, but they could not leave the service
of the patroon without his consent. The system was not intended to
exclude other colonists who might come over and take up as much land as
they could improve, but no colonists were to "be permitted to make any
woolen, linen or cotton cloth, nor weave any other stuffs there."
Patroons and colonists were "to find out ways and means whereby they
may support a Minister and Schoolmaster." The company promised to defend
the colonists and to endeavor to supply them "with as many Blacks as
they conveniently can."
The patroons.--While the details of the charter were being discussed,
several directors took advantage of the intended system to secure large
grants. Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert and several associates secured
practically all of what is now Delaware and that part of the Jersey
shore extending twelve miles north from Cape May and twelve miles
inland. Kiliaen van Rensselaer obtained the lands about Fort Orange,
comprising what is now a large part of Albany and Rensselaer counties.
Michael Pauw received title to Staten Island and the region where Jersey
City is now situated. Godyn and Blommaert sent colonists to Swannendael
on the present site of Lewiston, but they were massacred by the Indians,
the colonization of the grant was abandoned, and in 1635 the company
purchased the lands of the patroons on the Delaware. In 1637 Pauw sold
his holdings to the company. The Van Rensselaer tract remained in the
possession of that family until after the American Revolution.
Jealousies in the company, due to the securing of patroonships by some
of the directors, and to the fact that the patroons attempted to obtain
a share in the fur trade, and that Minuit appeared to be working in the
interest of the great land holders, led to the recall of the
director-general.
Attempts to secure the frontiers.--The new director-general was Wouter
van Twiller. He had been a clerk in the West India Company's warehouse
at Amsterdam, and probably owed his appointment to the fact that he was
married to a niece of Van Rensselaer. One of his first acts was to
secure possession of the Delaware. In 1633 a tract along the Schuylkill
was purchased from the Indians and a trading house was erected, the
first in the present state of Pennsylvania. In 1635 a party of
Virginians attempted to gain a foothold on the Delaware, but were
expelled. On the Connecticut the Dutch had profited by the fur trade,
but had never sent colonists to that region. In 1633 lands were
purchased from the Indians, and Fort Good Hope was built at modern
Hartford, but the Puritan migration soon secured the Connecticut Valley
for the English.
Reforms.--Van Twiller and other officials appear to have profited by
securing extensive land holdings on the islands at the mouth of the
Hudson, Governor's Island deriving its name from the fact that Van
Twiller owned it. Complaints began to be heard in the Amsterdam chamber
and in 1637 Van Twiller was removed from office, his successor being
William Kieft, who arrived in 1638. The new director-general immediately
set about correcting abuses. Illicit fur trading and the sale of
firearms to the Indians were prohibited. The Amsterdam chamber removed
some of the trade restrictions and made easier the acquisition of land.
The result was a considerable increase in the number of settlers, who
came not only from the Netherlands, but from New England and Virginia as
well. Restrictions on manufactures were abolished and the Dutch Reformed
Church was established.
Difficulties.--Kieft's administration was beset by difficulties. In the
Connecticut Valley and on Long Island the English settlements were
increasing, and on the Delaware the Swedes had gained a footing. In the
colony a disastrous Indian war brought devastation and ruin. The Indians
on the lower Hudson and on Long Island had watched the growing
settlements with alarm, an alarm which turned to resentment when they
found the Iroquois supplied with firearms from Fort Orange, a privilege
which was denied to them at New Amsterdam. Kieft increased the
ill-feeling by demanding a contribution of corn, fur, and wampum. He
also accused the Raritans of attacking fur trading vessels, and sent an
expedition to punish them. In 1641 the Indians retaliated by killing
several settlers.
Kieft and the twelve men.--Kieft promptly called together the settlers,
who chose a committee of twelve to advise the director-general. Much to
his disappointment, they counseled delay. In January, 1642, he again
summoned the twelve, who consented to send an expedition against the
Indians, provided Kieft should command it. At the same time they
demanded that the council should contain at least five members and that
the inhabitants should be allowed greater freedom of trade. To these
demands Kieft assented grudgingly, and to save further embarrassment,
dissolved the committee. An expedition was sent against the Indians, but
it accomplished nothing.
Indian hostilities, 1643-1645.--Early in 1643 the Mohawks attacked the
river Indians who sought refuge near New Amsterdam. Kieft determined to
attack the fugitives, and eighty of them were massacred. The Long Island
Indians were also plundered. Aroused by these acts, the Indians united
and attacked the settlers. The colonists who escaped fled to Fort
Amsterdam. A lull occurred in the fighting while the Indians planted
their crops, but hostilities were soon renewed. Kieft again summoned the
people and a committee of eight Was chosen who counseled war. Settlers
and servants of the company were drilled, and fifty English also
enlisted. A series of expeditions were despatched against the Indians,
whose villages were ruthlessly destroyed. In 1645 treaties were made
with the various tribes, and the long war came to an end. One of the
incidents of the war was the building of a wall across the lower end of
Manhattan Island. It is from this that Wall Street takes its name.
Stuyvesant, 1647.--Both in New Amsterdam and the Netherlands Kieft was
blamed for the war. The West India Company decided to remove him, and
Peter Stuyvesant, the director of Curacao, was appointed to succeed him.
The first important act of Stuyvesant was to organize the council.
Police regulations were made to control Sabbath-breakers, brawlers, and
the sale of liquors. The court of justice was also organized, but the
director-general required that his opinion be asked in all important
cases, and reserved the right to preside in person when he saw fit.
Popular representation.--While Kieft was director-general, he had
appealed to the people on several occasions. In answer to the public
demand for representation, the council recommended to Stuyvesant that it
be granted. Accordingly, the director-general ordered an election at
which eighteen were chosen, from whom Stuyvesant and the council
selected nine. The nine were to advise and assist, when called upon, in
promoting the welfare of the province, and were to nominate their
successors. The director-general retained the right to preside at
meetings.
Struggle for municipal rights.--The trade restrictions of the West India
Company were irksome to the people of New Amsterdam, who hoped to right
conditions by obtaining a larger share in the government. After
considerable trouble with Stuyvesant, the nine men submitted to the
States General a remonstrance setting forth their grievances and a
memorial suggesting remedies. They asked that the States General
establish a citizens' government, that colonists be sent over, and that
the boundaries of New Netherlands be definitely established. The
Amsterdam chamber opposed the petitioners, but in 1652 it decided to
make concessions. The export duty on tobacco was removed, the cost of
passage to New Netherlands was reduced, and the colonists were allowed
to procure negroes from Africa. A "burgher" government was allowed for
New Amsterdam, the citizens being allowed a schout, two burgomasters,
and five schepens, who were to form a municipal court of justice. They
were not to be popularly elected, however, Stuyvesant being allowed to
appoint the members. No sooner were municipal rights granted to New
Amsterdam than the settlements at the western end of Long Island
demanded a larger share in government. A convention was held at the
capital to formulate grievances. This was brought to an end by
Stuyvesant, but a little later municipal rights were granted to several
of the towns.
A provincial assembly.--In 1664, during the war between England and the
Dutch, so great was the alarm at New Amsterdam, that a provisional
assembly was elected, composed of two delegates from each of the Dutch
settlements, twenty-four representatives in all. Little was accomplished
by this body, however, for shortly afterward the colony passed into
English hands.
Economic development.--During the administration of Stuyvesant the
material prosperity of New Netherlands steadily increased. He found New
Amsterdam a town with straggling fences and crooked streets, and
containing about five hundred people. Under his supervision it took on
the appearance of a well-kept Dutch town. In 1656 it contained a hundred
and twenty houses and a thousand people. By 1660 it had three hundred
and fifty houses. By 1664 the population increased to fifteen hundred.
The area of settlement in New Netherlands had gradually expanded,
covering Manhattan and Staten islands, the opposite Jersey shore, the
western end of Long Island, both banks of the lower Hudson, a
considerable district about Ft. Orange, and scattering settlements on
the Delaware. The chief source of wealth was the fur trade which was
carried on largely with the Iroquois who were friendly to the Dutch and
hostile to the French. In 1656 Ft. Orange alone exported thirty-five
thousand beaver and otter skins, but soon afterward the trade began to
decline and agriculture increased in importance. When the province
passed into English hands, the population had reached ten thousand.
THE DUTCH AND THE SWEDES ON THE DELAWARE
Swedish territorial and commercial expansion.--In the first half of the
seventeenth century Sweden rose to the position of a first class power.
When Gustavus Adolphus ascended the throne in 1611, Sweden was at war
with Denmark, Russia, and Poland. After defeating each power, the king
entered the Thirty Years' War as the champion of Protestantism, his
victorious career coming to an untimely end at Luetzen. Until 1654
Christina was queen but the real ruler was Oxenstierna, who piloted
Sweden through the closing years of the war and secured advantageous
terms in the treaty of peace. From 1648 until 1654, Sweden enjoyed
peace, but the frivolities of the court ruined the possibilities of
greatness and the decline began. Charles X became king in 1654, and his
brilliant but disastrous military ventures reduced his country to a
third-rate power. At the beginning of the period of Swedish greatness,
her commerce was confined to the Baltic, but when nearly all the lands
on its shores had been acquired, Swedish statesmen looked forward to a
wider commerce, a policy which brought them into rivalry with Holland
and England. Numerous trading companies were formed, among the most
important being the African and Russian companies, and the various
organizations which operated on the Delaware River and in the West
Indies.
Usselincx.--The attention of Sweden was drawn to the Delaware by
Usselincx, the promoter of the Dutch West India Company, who had left
Holland in disgust and who hoped to interest the Swedes. In 1624 he laid
his plans before Gustavus Adolphus; this resulted in the granting of a
charter to The South Company to establish trade "for Asia, Africa,
America and Magellanica." Usselincx experienced great difficulty in
raising money, and the directors ruined his schemes by diverting the
capital to commercial enterprises in Sweden. In 1629 the company was
reorganized and an attempt was made to trade with Spain, but this ended
in disaster. Usselincx continued his endeavors, and in 1633 The New
South Company was organized, but this like its predecessors came to
naught.
The New Sweden Company.--The settling of the Swedes on the Delaware was
directly due to the Dutchmen, Samuel Blommaert and Peter Minuit.
Blommaert held out the idea that the West Indies would be a market for
Swedish copper; Minuit that the Delaware region offered a place for the
fur trade and colonization. Several other Dutch merchants were
interested, and half of the capital of the Swedish company was furnished
by Hollanders. By 1637 the company was organized and the first
expedition set sail.
Fort Christina.--The two vessels arrived in the spring of 1638, lands
were purchased from the Indians, fur trade opened, and a fort
established on Christina Creek two miles from the Delaware. The Dutch at
Ft. Nassau protested, but were too weak to oust the newcomers. In 1640
two boats arrived with settlers and goods, large tracts of land at
various points on both sides of the bay and river as far as Trenton were
purchased, and farms and tobacco plantations were started.
Governor Printz.--In 1642 the company was reorganized, the Swedish
government taking part of the stock, the Dutch being eliminated. At the
request of the Swedish council of state Johan Printz, a prominent
officer in the army, became governor, a post which he filled until 1653.
He erected Ft. Elfsborg and established his capital at New Gothenborg,
where a fort was built. A blockhouse was also erected on the Schuylkill,
other vantage points were occupied, and the Swedes soon secured the fur
trade of the Delaware. From the first the weakness of the Swedish
project was the lack of colonists, a few hundred being the total
migration in the first ten years. In 1644 there were only one hundred
and twenty men and a few women and children in the colony. During the
next five years not a vessel arrived, and when Printz retired in 1653
there were only two hundred people in the colony.
[Illustration: New Sweden.]
End of Swedish power on the Delaware.--Stuyvesant determined to get
control of the river trade. In 1651 he went to the Delaware with a
considerable force. In spite of protests from Printz, lands were
purchased from the Indians, and Ft. Casimir was built near the present
site of New Castle, the other Dutch forts being abandoned. In 1653 the
Swedish crown planned to help New Sweden. In the spring of 1654 about
three hundred and fifty colonists were sent over under John Rising. He
immediately seized Ft. Casimir. At Ft. Christina a town was laid out,
new tracts were purchased from the Indians, and lands were assigned to
the colonists. The action of the Swedes in seizing Ft. Casimir angered
Stuyvesant, and he urged the West India Company to occupy New Sweden. In
September, 1655, a Dutch fleet appeared in the Delaware, and the forts
surrendered, thus ending the colony of New Sweden.
ABSORPTION OF NEW NETHERLANDS BY THE ENGLISH
Boundary treaty with New England.--On the eastern frontier Stuyvesant
had another difficult problem. English settlers were crowding into the
Connecticut Valley and onto Long Island. In 1647 Stuyvesant informed the
New England officials that the Dutch claimed all lands between the
Connecticut and Delaware rivers, but the New Englanders ignored the
claim. In 1650 Stuyvesant visited Hartford, where commissioners were
appointed who agreed that Long Island should be divided by a line
running along the western part of Oyster Bay; that on the mainland the
fine was "to begin at the west side of Greenwich Bay, being four miles
from Stamford and so to run a northerly line twenty miles up into the
country, and after as it shall be agreed by the two governments of the
Dutch and New Haven; provided the said line come not within ten miles of
Hudson's River;" and that the Dutch were to keep their holdings at
Hartford.
The end of Dutch rule.--In 1659 Massachusetts asserted her claim to a
sea to sea grant, and in 1662 the charter of Connecticut extended the
bounds of the colony to the Pacific. In 1663 Stuyvesant visited Boston
to attempt a settlement of existing difficulties, but to no avail, and
upon his return he found that some of the Long Island settlements west
of the line claimed to be under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. Dutch
commissioners were sent to Hartford, but without result, and the
following year Connecticut asserted her rights to the whole of Long
Island. In 1664 Charles II granted to his brother, James, the Duke of
York, the whole of Long Island and all the lands from the Connecticut
River to Delaware Bay. A fleet was despatched to New Amsterdam, which
surrendered without bloodshed, and Dutch rule in North America came to
an end three years after it had failed in Brazil.
READINGS
THE DUTCH
Blok, P.J., _History of the People of the Netherlands_, III, 267-303;
Brodhead, J.R., _History of the State of New York_, I; Channing, Edward,
_History of the United States_, I, 438-484; Fiske, John, _The Dutch and
Quaker Colonies in America_, I; Goodwin, M.W., _Dutch and English on the
Hudson_; Innes, J.H., _New Amsterdam and its People_; Jameson, J.F.,
ed., _Narratives of New Netherlands_; Janvier, T.A., _Dutch Founding of
New York_; MacDonald, William, _Select Charters_. 43-50; O'Callaghan,
E.B., _History of New Netherlands_; Roberts, E.H., _New York_, I,
10-119; Van Loon, H.W., _The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators_.
THE SWEDES
Acrelius, Israel, _History of New Sweden_ (Pennsylvania Historical
Society, Memoirs, XI); Holm, T.C., _Description of the Province of New
Sweden_ (Pennsylvania Historical Society, _Memoirs_, VII); Johnson,
Amandus, _The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware_; Keen, G.B., in
Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, III, 469-495.