From New Amsterdam to New York: The Founding of New York by the Dutch in July 1625

It is hard to imagine that today's New York started hardly 400 years ago as a tiny Dutch settlement named New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. The Dutch bought the place for US$ 25, a bargain they thought. For the Dutch, who ruled the world at that time, it was not an important place, but only a trading post for beaver and otter skins. The first Dutch governors were not very successful in developing New Amsterdam into a profitable trading or colonizing venture. The last governor, Pieter Stuyvesant, appointed in 1647, turned out to be the best. The one-leg governor proved to be cut from a different kind of wood as his predecessors. But it was not for long, treacherously English naval forces stole the colony, in the name of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles of England. He changed the name of New Amsterdam into New York. The Dutch fought back and recaptured the colony. In the end, however, they changed their northwest American property for more promising territories elsewhere in the world.