New Amsterdam facts for kids
New Amsterdam (Dutch: [Nieuw Amsterdam] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The factorij became a settlement outside Fort Amsterdam. The fort was situated on the strategic southern tip of the island of Manhattan and was meant to defend the fur trade operations of the Dutch West India Company in the North River (Hudson River). In 1624, it became a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic and was designated as the capital of the province in 1625.
By 1655, the population of New Netherland had grown to 2,000 people, with 1,500 living in New Amsterdam. Prior to 1664, the population had exploded in nine years to almost 9,000 people in New Netherland, 2,500 of whom lived in New Amsterdam, 1,000 lived near Fort Orange, and the remainder in other towns and villages.
New Amsterdam was renamed New York on September 8, 1664, in honor of the Duke of York (later James II of England), in whose name the English had captured it. After the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665–1667, England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands agreed to the status quo in the Treaty of Breda. The English kept the island of Manhattan, the Dutch giving up their claim to the town and the rest of the colony, while the English formally abandoned Surinam in South America, and the island of Run in the East Indies to the Dutch, confirming their control of the valuable Spice Islands. Today much of what was once New Amsterdam is New York City.
Images for kids
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A map of the Hudson River Valley c. 1635 (north is to the right)
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The First Slave Auction at New Amsterdam in 1655, by Howard Pyle
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Depiction of the wall of New Amsterdam on a tile in the Wall Street subway station
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The 1954 unveiling of a stained-glass depiction of Peter Stuyvesant in Butler Library at Columbia University. It commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, though it was actually dedicated on its 329th anniversary according to the date on the Seal of New York City, or on the 301st anniversary of the city receiving municipal rights.
See also
In Spanish: Nueva Ámsterdam para niños