| Conquest of New Netherland | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theSecond Anglo-Dutch War | |||||||
 "The Fall of New Amsterdam" byJean Leon Gerome Ferris | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 England |  Dutch Republic | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Richard NicollsSamuel Maverick | Peter StuyvesantJohannes de Decker | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 4 warships | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 3 killed 10 wounded | ||||||
Theconquest ofNew Netherland occurred in 1664 as anEnglish expedition led byRichard Nicolls that arrived in New York Harbor effected a peaceful capture ofNew Amsterdam andFort Amsterdam, and theArticles of Surrender of New Netherland were agreed. The conquest was mostly peaceful in the rest of the colony as well, except for some fighting inNew Amstel.[1]
The commercial rivalry between the Dutch and the English, which provoked theFirst Anglo-Dutch War, was not resolved by theTreaty of Westminster (1654). Hostilities continued between the countries' trading companies. Religious and political differences between the Anglican royalists in England and the Calvinist republicans that ruled the Netherlands also hampered peace.[2] During theAnglo-Spanish War of 1654–1660, Dutch traders supplanted the English in trade with Spain and its possessions in Italy and America.[3]
Conflict developed between the States of Holland andCharles II of England's sisterMary, the widowed Princess of Orange, over the education and future prospects of her sonWilliam III of Orange.[4] Charles was influenced by his brotherJames andHenry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington as he sought a popular and lucrative foreign war at sea to bolster his authority as king. Many naval officers welcomed the prospect of a conflict with the Dutch.[5]
In the year before the invasion,Captain John Scott harassed several Dutch settlements on Long Island.
In March 1664, Charles granted American territory between theDelaware andConnecticut rivers to James. On May 25, 1664 ColonelRichard Nicolls set out fromPortsmouth with four warships led by theHMSGuinea,[6] and about three hundred soldiers. They arrived at Gravesend Bay on Long Island on August 27 and enlisted the support of militias from the English towns there as they moved west toBreuckelen.[7]Having arrived atFort Amsterdam onManhattan Island, Nicolls sentdirector-generalPeter Stuyvesant a letter offering lenient terms of surrender. James authorized generous terms because he preferred the profits of an intact colony to the spoils of a ruined one.[8] Despite Fort Amsterdam's limited supply of gunpowder, Stuyvesant was inclined to resist. On September 4, the English ships began to maneuver closer to the fort. Stuyvesant was confronted by ninety-three burghers and his own son, and conceded.[9]
A group of prominent merchants then met atStuyvesant Farm with Nicolls' officers to draftArticles of Capitulation.[9] The Dutch colonists were guaranteed in the possession of their property rights, their laws of inheritance, and the enjoyment of religious freedom. Article 2 specified that all"publick houses" would remain open.[7] The Articles were signed on September 6, 1664 onboard ship byJohannes de Decker, Stuyvesant's lawyer and chief negotiator. The following day being Sunday the transfer did not take place until September 8 when the Dutch forces marched downBeaver Street and embarked on board theGideon bound for Holland, and Nicolls assumed the position of deputy-governor.
On September 10, Johannes de Decker sailed north toFort Orange to warn them the English were coming and to rally opposition. Nicolls sent troops to demand the fort's peaceful surrender. Realizing that control of the mouth of the river controlled the settlement's future, on September 24, 1664 vice-director of New Netherland Johannes de Montagne surrendered the fort to the English and Colonel George Cartwright took command. The next day, Captain John Manning was given charge of the fort, which was renamed Fort Albany, after the Duke of York's title in the Peerage of Scotland. While he was there, Cartwright renewed the Dutch treaty with the Iroquois.
On his way back down river, Cartwright landed atEsopus and the settlement surrendered without resistance. Cartwright took the same precautions as at Albany to conciliate the residents and left the local Dutch officials to continue in power. A garrison of regular soldiers was placed in charge of the fort under the command of Captain Daniel Brodhead of the grenadiers.[10] Brodhead and his wife settled in the area; his grandson,Daniel Brodhead II, foundedDansbury, Pennsylvania.
Around the same time that Nicolls sent Cartwright north to Fort Orange, he dispatched Sir Robert Carr, a relative of the Earl of Arlington, south to the territory the Dutch had previously seized from Sweden. The English tookFort Altena peacefully. Alexander D’Hinoyossa director ofNew Amstel retreated with some followers toFort Casimir. Carr fired two broadsides into the fort, then took it by storm. His soldiers then pillaged the surrounding settlements,[11] even though the residents had made no resistance. He seized property, harvests, some 200 sheep, horses, and cows, destroyed a brewery, and a sawmill. He then proceeded further south and plunderedPieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy'sMennonite settlement near present dayLewes, Delaware.
Carr handed over Dutch soldiers to the merchantman as payment for services rendered and they were subsequently transported to Virginia to be sold.[12]
Carr's behavior angered Nicolls, whose policy had been to avoid conflict between the settlers and the new government. He was also outraged that Carr looked to profit from his excesses while the soldiers were in need. He visited New Amstel, renamed it New Castle, and appointed a new commander, but was unable to compel Carr to give up any of his spoils, and returned to New York without him.[13]
ThePeace of Breda that ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War left New York in English hands. But on 9 August 1673 (N.S.), during theThird Anglo-Dutch War, a Dutch naval squadron under the joint command ofCornelis Evertsen the Youngest andJacob Binckes retook New York in theReconquest of New Netherland and the Dutch held on to the colony under governorAnthony Colve for more than a year, until they exchanged it for the colony ofSuriname under theTreaty of Westminster (1674).
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.