WEBVTT NOTE 38. The Formation of New Netherland 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.240 Volume 1, Part 4 The Rise and Fall of New Netherland 2 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:10.400 Chapter 38 The Formation of New Netherland 3 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:15.960 The British seizure of New Netherland, the vast if thinly settled Dutch territory in 4 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:21.520 North America, wrought a permanent change in the pattern of English colonization in 5 00:00:21.520 --> 00:00:28.080 the New World. The grant of this vast area to the proprietorship of the Duke of York, 6 00:00:28.080 --> 00:00:35.080 Younger Brother of Charles II and its seizure by Colonel Richard Nichols in 1664 brought 7 00:00:35.660 --> 00:00:42.660 under English control a great land area that was much later to constitute the Middle Colonies. 8 00:00:43.660 --> 00:00:50.660 How had New Netherland been formed? 17th century Dutch policies cannot be fully comprehended 9 00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:58.040 without recognizing the fierce and continuing political divisions within the Dutch Republic 10 00:00:58.080 --> 00:01:02.080 Over Constitutional and Foreign Policies. 11 00:01:02.080 --> 00:01:12.080 Early in their long revolutionary struggle against Spain for religious toleration, freedom from taxation, and independence from central imperial rule, 12 00:01:12.080 --> 00:01:21.080 the seven northern Dutch-speaking Calvinist provinces of the Netherlands had established a loose confederation. 13 00:01:21.080 --> 00:01:30.080 Governing these United Provinces was a States General representing the completely autonomous provincial legislatures or states. 14 00:01:30.080 --> 00:01:46.080 Not being burdened by the overweening state power of the other European countries, the Dutch maritime cities, especially those in the provinces of Holland and Zealand, were able to forge the greatest economic progress in Europe. 15 00:01:46.080 --> 00:02:01.080 The Dutch freely engaged in trade throughout Europe, even after Spain's union with Portugal had cut off their supplies of spices, sugar and salt from the East Indies, Brazil and the West Indies. 16 00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:08.080 The war against Spain, however, continued even after Spanish troops had been driven from the northern provinces, 17 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:14.080 after the ten Catholic southern provinces had gained recognition of their rights by Spain, 18 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:19.080 and after France and then England had determined to make peace with Spain. 19 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:29.080 The struggle for national liberation thus became transformed into a war of Dutch aggression against the southern provinces. 20 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:42.080 A regular standing army was developed, serving to expand the executive power in the central government, as well as central government power over the constitutionally independent provincial governments. 21 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:52.080 Thus, the central executive, not to mention the officer class of the army, had a vested interest in continuing the war. 22 00:02:52.080 --> 00:03:12.080 This continuation of the war for the benefit of the executive military authorities forced the syndicates of merchants who had successfully and rapidly developed private trade to the East Indies to seek a means of mutual defense from attacks by the Spanish or Portuguese fleets. 23 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:24.080 Under the leadership of Amsterdam, these syndicates or chambers created the United East India Company in March 1602. 24 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:35.080 This company, under the control of the local chambers, organized joint voyages to the East Indies for their mutual protection during wartime. 25 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:40.240 After the war, however, the company became a monopoly for governing Dutch settlements 26 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:42.360 in the Indies. 27 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:48.280 The fundamental cleavage in the politics of the United Provinces developed when the merchants 28 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:56.360 of the cities of Holland and of other provinces, led by the foremost Dutch statesman, Johan 29 00:03:56.360 --> 00:04:03.760 van Olden-Bonvelt, successfully pursued peace negotiations with Spain despite the complete 30 00:04:03.760 --> 00:04:09.800 Opposition of the Dutch Military Leaders. The Dutch merchants desired peace in order 31 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:16.240 to end the threat of military dictatorship and the burden of taxes, and to gain access 32 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:22.880 to world markets through free and peaceful trade. These merchants formed the basis of 33 00:04:22.880 --> 00:04:29.820 the Republican Party, standing for liberal principles of peace, free trade, liberty, 34 00:04:29.820 --> 00:04:36.260 and in particular the maintenance of the original Dutch confederation of towns and provinces. 35 00:04:36.260 --> 00:04:42.460 In that confederation, each level of governmental power was strictly limited by the application 36 00:04:42.460 --> 00:04:50.340 of a virtual unanimity principle. The Republicans, furthermore, tended to be Armenians, following 37 00:04:50.340 --> 00:04:57.580 the liberal Dutch Protestant theologian, Jacobus Arminius, who emphasized free will, natural 38 00:04:57.580 --> 00:05:04.740 for Law and Religious Toleration as over against the Calvinist doctrines of predestination 39 00:05:04.740 --> 00:05:09.540 and state enforcement of religious conformity. 40 00:05:09.540 --> 00:05:14.980 Opposition to the peace negotiations with Spain was centered in the Orange Party, composed 41 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:21.700 largely of gentry, depending upon their lucrative and powerful military positions and whose 42 00:05:21.700 --> 00:05:27.500 leader was the Prince of Orange, the military commander of the Netherlands. 43 00:05:27.500 --> 00:05:32.500 The Orange Party sought greater powers for the central government, a strong standing 44 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:40.060 army, and ultimately the substitution of an orange monarchy for the Republican confederation. 45 00:05:40.060 --> 00:05:45.420 Aligned with the nobility and military in the Orange Party was the great part of the 46 00:05:45.420 --> 00:05:52.700 Calvinist ministers. The Orange Party, in fact, was often termed the Calvinist Party. 47 00:05:52.700 --> 00:05:59.620 The Calvinist ministers found the discipline of war more suitable to Calvinist practices 48 00:05:59.620 --> 00:06:05.260 than was the increased standard of living resulting from peaceful trade. 49 00:06:05.260 --> 00:06:12.980 Furthermore, a strong central government resulting from war was seen as the best means of enforcing 50 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:19.380 religious conformity, especially against the Armenians who were protected by the provincial 51 00:06:19.380 --> 00:06:26.380 Independence of Holland. Holland was the center of strength of the Republican Party, containing 52 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:31.960 as it did the least influence by nobles or the military and the greatest commercial and 53 00:06:31.960 --> 00:06:38.960 maritime strength. The Orange Party, however, had strong support even in the cities of Holland 54 00:06:39.380 --> 00:06:45.680 from Calvinist émigrés from southern Netherlands, largely French-speaking Walloons who formed 55 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:52.040 is an important and wealthy part of the population. Like most emigres throughout history, the 56 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:56.840 bulk of the southerners were not content to live in the free atmosphere of their newfound 57 00:06:56.840 --> 00:07:03.540 home. Instead, unable to persuade the majority of their original countrymen of the justice 58 00:07:03.540 --> 00:07:10.200 of their cause, they tried to win by dragging their new fellow citizens into war and thus 59 00:07:10.200 --> 00:07:21.200 Emigres always tend to constitute a menace to those who graciously welcome their migration. 60 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:26.240 In the Dutch Republic, the Orange Party had strong support from the southern emigres, 61 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:31.640 whooping for a war of aggression against the Spanish Netherlands to liberate the reluctant 62 00:07:31.640 --> 00:07:35.280 Catholics in behalf of Calvinism. 63 00:07:35.280 --> 00:07:43.120 The peace negotiated by the Dutch Republicans, the Twelve Year Truce of Antwerp, April 1609, 64 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:49.640 gained the recognition by Spain of the virtual independence of the United Provinces and of 65 00:07:49.640 --> 00:07:55.160 the right of the Dutch to engage in Eastern trade similar to the right won by England 66 00:07:55.160 --> 00:07:58.120 in the Treaty of 1604. 67 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:04.760 Also in 1609, the Dutch East India Company hired the English explorer Henry Hudson to 68 00:08:04.760 --> 00:08:09.040 to Find a Northeast Arctic Route to the Orient 69 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:15.240 Hudson was instructed not to seek a northwest passage through North America, as the Republican-run 70 00:08:15.240 --> 00:08:21.880 company was anxious to avoid any danger to peace with Spain by challenging Spain's imperial 71 00:08:21.880 --> 00:08:29.840 claims in the New World. Disobeying his instructions, Hudson, on failing to find a northeast route, 72 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:36.840 sailed to North America and explored, among other areas, Delaware Bay and the Hudson River, 73 00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:43.040 as far north as the fur trading region near Albany. Since fur was a leading commodity 74 00:08:43.040 --> 00:08:49.880 in Dutch trade from Scandinavia and Russia, the new possibility of a cheaper American 75 00:08:49.880 --> 00:08:56.720 source spurred the remarkably enterprising Amsterdam merchants into action. During the 76 00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:03.000 In the next four years, many Amsterdam merchants outfitted small ships and engaged in very 77 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:09.920 profitable fur trade with the Indians in exchange for beads and cloth. These individual traders 78 00:09:09.920 --> 00:09:17.920 also founded a settlement on Manhattan Island, explored first by Adrian Bloch in 1613. In 79 00:09:17.920 --> 00:09:25.000 1614, thirteen of the Amsterdam merchants there engaged in the American trade, banded 80 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:31.400 together and managed to secure from the states of Holland and Friesland a monopoly of all 81 00:09:31.400 --> 00:09:37.760 trade in America for the space of six voyages. Soon afterward, these merchants strengthened 82 00:09:37.760 --> 00:09:44.480 their hold by forming the United New Netherland Company and obtaining from the States General 83 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:51.120 a three-year monopoly of all American trade in the area between New France in the north 84 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:54.300 and the Delaware River. 85 00:09:54.300 --> 00:09:59.240 One of the first acts of the New Netherland Company was to found a settlement vital to 86 00:09:59.240 --> 00:10:06.640 the fur trade far up the Hudson River at Fort Nassau, later Fort Orange, now the site of 87 00:10:06.640 --> 00:10:11.720 Albany, near the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers. 88 00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:17.080 The fort was built on the site of an old ruined trading post which had been erected about 89 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:28.320 In 1618, the commandant of Fort Nassau came to a significant agreement with the chiefs 90 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:33.400 of the mighty Iroquois Indians, the Five Nations. 91 00:10:33.400 --> 00:10:40.080 In this durable treaty, the Dutch and Iroquois agreed to trade peacefully in muskets and 92 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:43.760 ammunition in exchange for fur. 93 00:10:43.760 --> 00:10:50.060 The New Netherland Company tried to renew its monopoly in 1618, but heated opposition 94 00:10:50.060 --> 00:10:56.100 by excluded merchants, blocked an extended grant, and the American fur trade was then 95 00:10:56.100 --> 00:11:04.000 thrown open again to the competition of individual merchants, albeit under license of the government. 96 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:08.920 To its pleased surprise, the New Netherland Company found that it prospered even more 97 00:11:08.920 --> 00:11:15.800 were under the bracing air of competition and the company now laid plans for further expansion. 98 00:11:15.800 --> 00:11:21.840 At this point, however, Dutch affairs took a fateful turn. The Orange Party, rallying 99 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:29.680 the army officers, largely gentry, dependent upon military post, used the theological disagreements 100 00:11:29.680 --> 00:11:36.600 between Armenians and Calvinists to effect a coup and overthrow the Republican Constitution 101 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:44.320 In 1619, using its narrow 4-3 majority in the States General, based on control of the 102 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:50.240 rural Calvinist provinces, the Orange Party had convoked a national synod of the Dutch 103 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:56.480 Reformed Church. When the synod condemned and ordered the persecution of the Armenian 104 00:11:56.480 --> 00:12:02.820 theologians, the state of Holland refused to approve, using its well-founded constitutional 105 00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:32.820 A Reign of Terror was instituted by the Orange Party. The venerable Olden-Barnfeld was tried illegally with no permission from the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States, 106 00:12:32.820 --> 00:12:41.160 provision for defense and executed for treason in May 1619. The Armenian leaders, moreover, 107 00:12:41.160 --> 00:12:48.740 were persecuted and exiled. The now-dominant Orange Party proceeded to renew its aggression 108 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:56.900 against the southern Netherlands upon expiration of the truce in 1621 and proposed to carry 109 00:12:56.900 --> 00:13:01.900 The War to the American Possessions of Spain and Portugal 110 00:13:01.900 --> 00:13:08.900 At this point, there came to the fore an eminent Walloon émigré, merchant, William Uselinks, 111 00:13:08.900 --> 00:13:14.900 who for 30 years had propagandized for the establishment of a Dutch West India Company 112 00:13:14.900 --> 00:13:20.960 to establish colonies in South America for reaping such valuable tropical products as 113 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:23.500 sugar and tobacco. 114 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:32.020 In June 1621, the States General charted the Dutch West India Company under orange control 115 00:13:32.020 --> 00:13:38.860 with the aim of plundering and conquering the Spanish and Portuguese colonies and monopolizing 116 00:13:38.860 --> 00:13:41.460 the slave trade. 117 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:47.820 Although modeled on the Dutch East India Company, the West India Company was a pure creation 118 00:13:47.820 --> 00:13:51.860 of the State to achieve military objectives. 119 00:13:51.860 --> 00:13:57.280 The state contributed half the capital and ships and forced the rest of the capital and 120 00:13:57.280 --> 00:14:00.660 ships from the reluctant Dutch merchants. 121 00:14:00.660 --> 00:14:06.220 In place of the independent Dutch merchants, such as the New Netherland Company, who had 122 00:14:06.220 --> 00:14:11.740 gained an important smuggling trade to Brazil and the Caribbean and a free trade to the 123 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:18.740 Hudson River, a monopoly of Dutch trade with and between the Atlantic coast of Africa and 124 00:14:18.740 --> 00:14:25.020 of the Americas was now granted to the new company. The company was also granted a monopoly 125 00:14:25.020 --> 00:14:31.280 of all colonization in America. A government in the form of a commercial company, this 126 00:14:31.280 --> 00:14:38.540 overseas instrument of orange aggression possessed governmental and feudal powers to rule its 127 00:14:38.540 --> 00:14:46.020 arbitrarily granted territories, to legislate, to make treaties, to make war and peace, to 128 00:14:46.020 --> 00:14:54.020 Maintain military forces and fleets of warships in order to plunder, conquer and colonize. 129 00:14:54.020 --> 00:14:59.500 Only the company's appointed governor general had to be approved by the state's general. 130 00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:05.340 Dominant on the board of 19 directors was the Amsterdam Chamber of the Company, which 131 00:15:05.340 --> 00:15:13.220 owned over 40 percent of the capital and thus became the effective ruler of New Netherland. 132 00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:19.780 Engaged in forming the huge Dutch West India Company, the States General had no interest 133 00:15:19.780 --> 00:15:26.820 in granting the request made in 1620 by the English Pilgrims residing in Leiden, Holland, 134 00:15:26.820 --> 00:15:32.860 for founding a colony on Manhattan Island. Their proposal rejected. The Pilgrims soon 135 00:15:32.860 --> 00:15:37.840 ended their wanderings by landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts. 136 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:45.320 The Dutch West India Company mostly concentrated on the Atlantic colonies of Portugal and Brazil 137 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:51.240 and Angola, for Brazil was the major source of European sugar and Africa supplied the 138 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:58.400 slaves who produced that sugar. The Company, in fact, temporarily captured Bahia in Brazil 139 00:15:58.400 --> 00:16:06.000 in 1624. When a Company fleet captured the Spanish Silver Fleet in 1628, the money was 140 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:26.000 was used to finance the Dutch conquest of northeastern Brazil, beginning with Recife in 1630 and of the Portuguese ports of Luanda near the lower Congo and Benguela in Angola, Gore and Elmina in West Africa. 141 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:43.000 The company established colonies on the Guiana coast and in the unoccupied islands in the Caribbean, St. Eustatius and Tobago in 1632 and Curaçao in 1634. 142 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:51.000 The governor at Curaçao for the next decade was Peter Stuyvesant, who had been in the military service of the company for many years. 143 00:16:51.000 --> 00:17:01.000 Thus, the Dutch West India Company had many valuable and important interests of which the colony of New Netherland was one of the least valued.