British Conquest of New Netherland
The British Conquest of New Netherland refers to the seizure of the Dutch colony in North America by the British in the mid-17th century, culminating in 1664. This event was driven by the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy and a desire to expand British colonial territory and unify colonial administration. New Netherland, located strategically between British colonies such as New England and Chesapeake, posed a challenge to British mercantile ambitions and communication between these regions. Key figures, including James, Duke of York, sought to eliminate Dutch influence, viewing the takeover as a way to recover lost fortunes through land grants and trade.
In August 1664, British forces, led by Colonel Richard Nicolls, demanded the surrender of New Amsterdam, which was ultimately given up by Director-General Peter Stuyvesant due to lack of support from residents. Following the conquest, the territory was renamed New York. The British aimed to secure alliances and stabilize their hold in the region, which included treaties with the Iroquois. The conquest had lasting implications, forming a continuous English presence that would contribute to future conflicts, such as the rivalry with France for dominance in North America. The British maintained control over New York following the Treaty of Breda in 1667, marking a significant shift in colonial power dynamics.
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Subject Terms
British Conquest of New Netherland
Locale New Netherland (now New York City area)
Date March 22, 1664-July 21, 1667
Mercantile and territorial ambitions led to the dominance of the British in colonial North America, eliminating the Dutch as commercial rivals on the continent. The British conquest of New Netherland led to an English colonial presence stretching from what is now Canada to what is now the state of Florida.
Key Figures
James, duke of York and Albany (later, king of England as James II) (1633-1701), proprietor of New York after March, 1664Richard Nicolls (1624-1672), James’s deputy and first governor of New YorkPeter Stuyvesant (c. 1610- 1672), Dutch director general of New Netherland, 1647-1664
Summary of Event
The restoration of the Stuart monarchy to the British throne in 1660 ushered in an era of colonial expansion in the Americas. This expansion was driven by a rigorous mercantilism that called forth efforts to make colonial administration more unified. New Netherland’s existence as an alien wedge between Great Britain’s New England and Chesapeake colonies threatened not only English territorial and mercantile ambitions but also plans for strengthening imperial government. Playing an important role in all of this, James, King Charles II’s brother and heir to the throne, was at the center of a group of merchants and noblemen who were deeply concerned by the Dutch in North America and exercised considerable influence over the king.
Charles II, James, and their supporters viewed land grants in America as a device for recouping their lost fortunes, and the region occupied by the Dutch enticed such land-grabbers. Furthermore, the Crown’s attempt to unify colonial administration was frustrated by the situation of New Netherland, for its strategic geographic location impeded communications between the Chesapeake and New England colonies and made more difficult the task of defending those colonies from the French. The stubborn independence demonstrated by Puritan New England particularly disturbed the Restoration government. Following upon the earlier policy of Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth government, King Charles and Parliament continued to enact trade regulations against their commercial rivals, the Dutch. However, New Netherland’s existence rendered enforcement of the Navigation Act ineffective.
England’s mainland colonies used New Netherland as a means of circumventing the British navigation system, and the Dutch colony became a breeding ground for smugglers. Despite laws to the contrary, Dutch merchants did a thriving business in tobacco from Virginia and Maryland, and Boston regularly had Dutch ships carrying goods to and from Boston’s harbor. In fact, officials in the British colonies would not enforce the trade acts against the Dutch, and it was argued that if New Netherland were in England’s hands, it might well generate ten thousand pounds annually in uncollected customs revenues. The prospect of acquiring an American colony that could make him money appealed mightily to debt-ridden James.
The Crown eventually concluded that the only effective remedy for these difficulties lay in wresting control of New Netherland from the Dutch. As early as 1663, the Council for Foreign Plantations—an advisory board of merchants and privy councillors, several of whom were close advisers to James—investigated the matter of Dutch power and examined the possibility of a military operation against New Netherland. Information from English residents on the eastern end of Long Island suggested that such a military undertaking would meet with little resistance from the Dutch garrison at New Amsterdam. Plans were even made to enlist the New England militia against the Dutch.
Based upon the council’s recommendations, Charles moved swiftly. March 22, 1664, he gave brother James a proprietary grant of all the land between Delaware Bay and the Connecticut River, which included the Dutch colony. Parliament approved the grant, and in April, the king nominated Colonel Richard Nicolls as lieutenant governor of the proprietary, put him in charge of a small military force, and sent him to America. Nicolls was charged with more than seizing New Netherland: He headed a special commission whose members were instructed not only to take over lands claimed by the Dutch but also to settle boundary disputes among the New England colonies and make sure that the New England governments understood they were expected to enforce the navigation acts. With the duke of York in firm control of the colony next door, it was generally thought by the Council for Foreign Plantations that New Englanders would be more likely to fall into line behind imperial policy.
Nicolls and his squadron of four ships carrying three hundred soldiers arrived off New Amsterdam in August, 1664. The lieutenant governor immediately demanded the surrender of the colony, offering liberal terms as bait. Among the terms were guarantees to the inhabitants of all the rights of Englishmen, trading privileges, freedom of conscience, the continuance of Dutch customs and inheritance laws, and up to eighteen months for the settlers to decide whether to leave. At first, Director-General Peter Stuyvesant, who had led New Netherland for the Dutch West India Company since 1647, refused to surrender and began to make preparations for the defense of his colony. However, the peg-legged Stuyvesant, having angered his people with his high-handed rule, received little support from the residents, who felt they would be no worse off under the British. Moreover, the English villages on Long Island were in full-scale revolt, and the British had spread rumors that if Stuyvesant did not surrender, New Amsterdam would be brought under siege, burned, and sacked. Bowing to the inevitable, Stuyvesant surrendered the town and its garrison of 150 soldiers on August 26, 1664. New Amsterdam was immediately renamed New York , in honor of James, duke of York.
Nicolls sent British forces both north and south to secure the surrender of the rest of New Netherland. Sir George Cartwright went up the Hudson River and obtained the surrender of Fort Orange without a fight. Cartwright renamed the town Albany, after James’s other dukedom. The inhabitants there were pleased that the British were willing to allow them to have a monopoly on the fur trade. Nicolls also instructed Cartwright to negotiate a treaty with the Iroquois, whose friendship the English needed if the French and their American Indian allies were to be bested. This first British-Iroquois treaty was signed on September 26, 1664.
Contrary to his expressed orders, Sir Robert Carr, who had been sent with British soldiers to the South River (Delaware Bay), provoked a fight and stormed the small fort there, killing and wounding several and plundering the settlement of New Amstel. Outraged by Carr’s violence on the Delaware, Governor Nicolls wanted erstwhile New Netherlanders to remain in New York, understanding full well that the province’s most valuable resource was its settlers. In fact, most of New Netherland’s estimated population of nine thousand did remain, including Stuyvesant. Against the advice of Nicolls, however, James gave away choice lands and settlements in what became New Jersey, thereby inhibiting the demographic and economic progress of his own colony.
Significance
On July 21, 1667, the Treaty of Breda, which ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War, confirmed the British conquest. Except for a brief loss of control during the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674), the British retained a firm grip upon the former Dutch colony that they called New York. The acquisition of New York was part of a more extensive effort to centralize government that led, in the 1680’, to the creation of the Dominion of New England , which included New York, New Jersey, and the New England colonies.
Great Britain’s conquest of New Netherland plugged the breach between the British colonies, thus forming a continuous English presence from Canada to Florida. It eliminated the Dutch as commercial rivals on the continent, gained an alliance with the Iroquois, and ultimately brought the British and the French into confrontation for continental supremacy.
Bibliography
Andrews, Charles M. England’s Commercial and Colonial Policy. Vol. 4 in The Colonial Period of American History. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1964. Discusses Anglo-Dutch rivalry and relates the conquest of New Netherland to overall British efforts to create a self-contained colonial empire.
Canny, Nicholas, and Alaine Low, eds. The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise at the Close of the Seventeenth Century. Vol. 1 in The Oxford History of the British Empire, edited by William Roger Lewis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. A collection of essays by noted historians exploring numerous aspects of Britain’s worldwide colonial expansion. Explains the founding and governance of individual American colonies, with several essays focusing on British colonies in New England, the Carolinas, the mid-Atlantic, and the Chesapeake Bay area.
Kammen, Michael. Colonial New York: A History. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the reasons for the British conquest, the Articles of Capitulation, and adjustments under Governor Nicolls.
Kessler, Henry H., and Eugene Rachlis. Peter Stuyvesant and His New York. New York: Random House, 1959. Chapters 14 and 15 consider the British conquest from the perspective of Stuyvesant and the Dutch in New Netherland.
Merwick, Donna. Possessing Albany, 1630-1710: The Dutch and English Experiences. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. A provocative work, less concerned with the British conquest than with the cultural differences that emerged between the Dutch and English in New York, particularly Albany.
Rink, Oliver A. Holland on the Hudson: An Economic and Social History of Dutch New York. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986. Chapter 8 relates the stresses and strains that weakened the Dutch West India Company’s hold on New Netherland.
Ritchie, Robert C. The Duke’s Province: A Study of New York Politics and Society, 1664-1691. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977. Chapter 1 deals extensively with reasons for the British conquest.
Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America. New York: Doubleday, 2004. Shorto argues that the social and political practices of New Amsterdam’s inhabitants powerfully influenced the development of American democracy.