| History of New York City |
|---|
 Manatus Map of the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary in the 17th century |
| Timeline |
| Lenape and New Netherland, to 1664 New Amsterdam British and Revolution, 1665–1783 Federal and early American, 1784–1854 Tammany and Consolidation, 1855–1897 (Civil War, 1861–1865) Early 20th century, 1898–1945 Post–World War II, 1946–1977 Modern and post-9/11, 1978–present |
| See also |
| Timelines:New York City • Manhattan • Bronx • Brooklyn • Queens • Staten Island Transportation Category |
Thehistory of New York City has been influenced by the prehistoric geological formation during thelast glacial period of the territory that is todayNew York City. The area was shortly inhabited by theLenape; after initial European exploration in the 17th century, the Dutch establishedNew Amsterdam in 1624. In 1664, the British conquered the area and renamed it "New York".
According to archaeological digs, the first humans arrived in the region as early as 9,000 years ago. However, the area was abandoned, perhaps as a result of the local extinction of many large game species that were a source of food for the first settlers due to the warming climate of the area.
A second wave of inhabitants entered the region approximately 3,000 years ago and left behind more advanced hunting implements such as bows and arrows. The remains of approximately 8,000 such early encampments have been found throughout the city. The region has probably remained continually inhabited from that time.
By the time of the arrival of Europeans, theLenape were cultivating fields of vegetation throughslash-and-burn agriculture.[1][2][3][4][5][6] This extended the productive life of planted fields. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area[7] and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round.[8] The success of these methods allowed the inhabitants to maintain a larger population thannomadichunter-gatherers elsewhere could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape total in approximately 80 settlement sites around much of the New York City area alone.[9]: 5–6 In 1524, Lenape in canoes metGiovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enterNew York Harbor, who called the areaNew Angoulême to honor his patron, KingFrancis I of France.[10]
In 1613, the Dutch established a trading post on the western shore ofManhattan Island.Juan Rodrigues was the first documented non-native to live on Manhattan Island.[11]
In 1614, the New Netherland company was established, and consequently they settled a second fur trading post in what is todayAlbany, calledFort Nassau. It was not until 1623, however, that the Dutch interests in the area were other than commercial, and under the auspices of the newly formedDutch West India Company they builtFort Amsterdam in 1624, a crude fortification that stood on the location of the presentAlexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House onBowling Green. The fort was designed mainly to protect the company's trading operations further upriver from attack by other European powers. Within a year, a small settlement, calledNew Amsterdam had grown around the fort, with a population that included mostly the garrison of company troops, as well as a contingent ofWalloon, French andFlemishHuguenot families who were brought in primarily to farm the nearby land of lower Manhattan and supply the company operations with food.Sarah Rapelje (b.1625) was the first European born in the future New York City. Later in 1626,Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island andStaten Island from native people in exchange for trade goods.[12]
The Dutch took heavy advantage of the Indigenous reliance onwampum as a trading medium by exchanging European-made metal tools for beaver pelts. By using such tools, the Indigenous greatly increased the rate of production of wampum, debasing its value for trade. Lenape men abandoned hunting and fishing for food in favor of beaver trapping. Moreover, the Dutch began manufacturing their own wampum in order to further dominate the trading network among themselves and the Indigenous (a practice undertaken by the settlers inNew England as well). As a result of this increase, beavers were largely trapped out in theFive Boroughs within two decades, leaving the Lenape largely dependent on the Dutch. As a result, the Indigenous population declined drastically throughout the 17th century through a combination of disease, starvation, and outward migration.
As the beaver trade shifted toUpstate New York,New Amsterdam became an increasingly important trading hub for the coast of North America. SinceNew Netherland was a trading operation and not viewed as colonization enterprise for transplanting Dutch culture, the directors of New Netherland were largely unconcerned with the ethnic and racial balance of the community. The economic activity brought in a wide variety of ethnic groups to the fledgling city during the 17th century, including Spanish,Jews, and Africans, some of them as slaves.
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The Dutch origins can still be seen in many names in New York City, such asConey Island (from "Konijnen Eiland" – Dutch for "Rabbit Island"),Bowery frombouwerij (modern Dutchboerderij = "farm"),Brooklyn (fromBreukelen),Harlem fromHaarlem (formalized in 1658 asNieuw Haarlem),Greenwich Village (from Greenwijck, meaning "pine woodquarter"),Flushing (fromVlissingen) andStaten Island (from "Staaten Eylandt").
Willem Kieft became director general in 1638 but five years later was embroiled inKieft's War against the Indigenous.[13] ThePavonia Massacre, across the Hudson River in present-dayJersey City resulted in the death of eighty Indigenous in February 1643. Following the massacre, elevenAlgonquian tribes joined forces and nearly defeated the Dutch. Holland sent additional forces to the aid of Kieft, which took part in the overwhelming defeat of the Indigenous, leading to a peace treaty on August 29, 1645, to end the war.[14]
Manhattan Island was in some measure self-selected as a future metropolis by its extraordinary natural harbor formed byNew York Bay (actually the drowned lower river valley of theHudson River, enclosed byglacial moraines), theEast River (actually atidal strait) and the Hudson River, all of which are confluent at the southern tip, from which all later development spread. Also of prime importance was the presence of deep fresh wateraquifers near the southern tip, especiallythe Collect Pond, and an unusually varied geography ranging from marshland to large outcrops ofManhattan schist, a hardmetamorphic rock that is ideal forfoundations of large buildings.
In 1664, British ships enteredGravesend Bay in modernBrooklyn, and troops marched to capture theferry across the East River to the city, with minimal resistance: the governor at the time,Peter Stuyvesant, was unpopular with the residents of the city. Articles of Capitulation 1664 were drawn up, theDutch West India Company's colors were struck on September 8, 1664, and the soldiers of the garrison marched to the East River for the trip home to the Netherlands. The date of 1664 appeared on New York City's corporate seal until 1975, when the date was changed to 1625 to reflect the year of Dutch incorporation as a city and to incidentally allow New York to celebrate its 350th anniversary just 11 years after its 300th.
The British renamed the colony "New York", after the king's brotherJames, Duke of York and on June 12, 1665, appointedThomas Willett the first of themayors of New York. The city grew northward, remaining the largest and most important city in the colony of New York.
HENRY HUDSON'S PRECISE WHEREABOUTS in his first week in the vicinity of present-day New York have long caused debate and disagreement. A major challenge in deciphering the events of theHalf Moon voyage is the fact that the geographic tableau has changed enormously in four centuries
| Preceded by N/A | History of New York City (prehistory–1664) | Succeeded by |