| New Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam) was the name of the 17th century town which grew outside of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island in the New Netherland territory (1614â??1674) which was situated between 38 and 42 degrees latitude as a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic since 1624. Provincial possession of the territory was accomplished with the first settlement which was established on Governors Island in 1624. A year later, in 1625, construction of a citadel comprising Fort Amsterdam was commenced. Earlier, the harbor and the river had been discovered, explored and charted by an expedition of the Dutch East India Company captained by Henry Hudson in 1609. From 1611 through 1614, the territory was surveyed and charted by various private commercial companies on behalf of the States General of the Dutch Republic and operated for the interests of private commercial entities prior to official possession as a North American extension of the Dutch Republic as an overseas province in 1624.The town of New Amsterdam became a city when it received municipal rights in 1653 and was unilaterally reincorporated as New York City in June 1665. The town was founded by New Netherland's second director, Willem Verhulst who, together with his council, selected Manhattan Island as the optimal place for permanent settlement in 1625. That year, military engineer and surveyor Cryn Fredericksz van Lobbrecht laid out a citadel with Fort Amsterdam as centerpiece. To secure the settlers' property and its surroundings according to Dutch law, the third director, Peter Minuit, created a deed with the Manhattan Indians in 1626 which offically authorized legal possession of Manhattan according to Dutch law.The city, situated on the strategic, fortifiable southern tip of the island of Manhattan was to maintain New Netherland's provincial integrity by defending river access to the company's fur trade operations in the North River, later named Hudson River. Furthermore, it was entrusted to safeguard the West India Company's exclusive access to New Netherland's other two estuaries; the Delaware River and the Connecticut River. New Amsterdam developed into the largest Dutch colonial settlement in the New Netherland province, now the New York Tri-State Region, and remained a Dutch possession until August 1664, when it fell provisionally into the hands of the English.The Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city "New Orange". New Netherland was ceded permanently to the English in November 1674 in the Treaty of Westminster. The 1625 date of the founding of New Amsterdam is now commemorated in the Official Seal of the City of New York (formerly, the year on the seal was 1664, the year of the provisional Articles of Transfer, ensuring New Netherlanders that they "shall keep and enjoy the liberty of their consciences in religion", negotiated with the English by Petrus Stuyvesant and his council) New Amsterdam | |