Who's Who: New Amsterdam Trivia Quiz

Answer: Henry Hudson

Actually the entire area that had been claimed by Hudson's 1609 voyage was called New Netherland; New Amsterdam became the capital of the area in 1625. Looking for the Northwest Passage, Hudson's ship, the Halve Maen (Half Moon) touched on the modern-day sites of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Cape Cod, before exploring the Hudson River from the estuary to approximately the modern city of Albany.

The land had already been claimed by Giovanni da Verrazzano almost a century earlier for France, however, it had not yet been colonized.

A fur trading post was established by the Dutch in 1614 at Albany, and in 1625, New Amsterdam became the capital of the colony. For this voyage of discovery, Hudson, an Englishman, had been hired by the Dutch East India Company. Just a year later, he sailed under the flag of England for the Virginia Company and British East India Company, making important claims, such as Hudson Bay, while once again looking for the Northwest Passage.

Answer: Adrian Jorisszen Tienpoint

The lucrative fur trade was what had attracted the attention of the Dutch to the New World in the beginning. After Hudson wrote that the Native Americans he encountered were willing to trade their furs for the trinkets he offered to them, Dutch merchants raced to establish trading ventures.

In fact, there was such fierce competition that eventually the States General, the governing body of Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, became involved. Eventually a monopoly was given to the Dutch West India company in 1621. Tienpoint, a naval captain, served as deputy for both Cornelius Jacobsen May and Willem Verhust during the early years of the colony. Tienpoint is known for establishing a trading agreement with the Native Americans, such as the Mohawks, Seneca, and Iroquois, who lived in the Hudson Valley.

He later played an important role as captain of the ship in Sweden's first venture into the Delaware Valley that was led by Peter Minuit.

Answer: Adriaen Block and Hendrick Christiaensen

Block and Christiaensen surveyed and mapped the area between the 38th parallel and the 45th parallel. As a result, they were given a four year monopoly on trade in the region. They are given credit for naming the territory of New Netherland, and Block is credited with discovering that Manhattan and Long Islands were, in fact, islands.

He is also believed to have been the first European to sail down the Connecticut River. Christiaensen is credited with the construction of Fort Nassau in 1614, which was the first Dutch settlement in North America. Located near modern-day Albany, New York, Fort Nassau was replaced with Fort Orange in 1624.

Answer: Juan Rodriguez

Born in Santo Domingo (present day Dominican Republic) to a Portuguese father and African mother, Juan Rodriguez is believed to have been the first non-Native American to live on Manhattan Island, arriving before Dutch settlers did; in fact, according to a 2012 Sam Roberts article in the "New York Times", he was "the first immigrant, the first person of African heritage, the first person of European heritage, the first merchant, the first Latino, and the first Dominican to settle in Manhattan"! Apparently possessing language skills, Rodriguez was hired by a Dutch captain to serve as an interpreter on a trading expedition to New Netherland in 1613.

He learned the Native American language, married into the local tribe, and stayed behind when the others left, setting up his own trading post.

He was established in the area before New Amsterdam was technically even founded and might have been Manhattan Island's first trader/merchant! Today the section of Broadway from Broadway from 159th Street to 218th Street is called the Juan Rodriguez Way.

Answer: Cornelius Jacobsen May

After having spent many years exploring and surveying the area that was called New Netherland, May was the captain of the ship that brought the first settlers in the spring of 1624. While many of the settlers went to Fort Orange, some also established Fort Wilhelmus on the Zuidt River, present-day Delaware River, and others went to Nut Island, today's Governor's Island, which had been established as a fur trading base. May was named the first Director of New Netherland, appointed by the Dutch West India Company to run the colony. Cape May, which is in New Jersey today, was named for Captain May.

Answer: Peter Stuyvesant

Not only was Peter Stuyvesant the last Director of New Netherland, he was the only one who had been given the title Director General. After losing his right leg trying to regain the island of Saint Martin from the Spanish, he was selected by the Dutch West India Company to lead the colony of New Netherland.

As Director General, he expanded the settlement beyond the southern tip of Manhattan Island. His accomplishments include building the wall on Wall Street and a canal that became known as Broad Street.

When English ships appeared in the city's harbor in 1664, Stuyvesant turned over the city to them without incident, as the Dutch West Company had repeatedly refused to provide garrison protection for the colony. After traveling to the Netherlands to report on his tenure as Director General, he returned to his farm, Great Bouwerie, located outside of New Amsterdam, and lived there the remainder of his life.

Answer: Peter Minuit

Peter Minuit is best known for purchasing Manhattan Island from the Lenape Native Americans in the area of New Netherland in an attempt to protect the settlers who were living on the island. This transaction is interesting mostly due to the fact that it was actually another group of Native Americans who had control of the island at the time! Much has been written about the purchase price Minuit paid, said to amount to 60 guilders, or $24, worth of trade items. Minuit went on to found New Sweden in modern-day Delaware in 1638, after being removed from his office in New Netherland for reasons that are not especially clear.

Some historians believe that he might have been involved in some sort of fur trading venture that benefited the province's settlers more than the Dutch West Indian Company.

Answer: Anthony Colve

The Treaty of Breda, which ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, gave New Netherland to the English; this was not, however, the end of the Dutch story there. Throughout the third Anglo-Dutch War, from September 1673 to February 1674, the city was once again occupied by the Dutch; Anthony Colve served as the city's administrator at that time with the title of "Governor". Previous Dutch Directors had been appointed by the Dutch West India Company; Colve, chosen by the Netherlands, was a naval captain who went back to his military career after the Treaty of Westminster in 1674.

The city's new name was a reference to William of Orange, who was the stadtholder, or steward, of New Netherland at the time, the overseer of the land in the absence of the feudal lord.

The title itself was a holdover from the practice of feudalism which had been officially abolished in the Dutch Republic in the 1580s, even though some of the practices continued to be used into the early nineteenth century.

Answer: Willem Kieft

The Council of Twelve Men was the first representative government in New Netherland; in 1641 they were chosen by the residents of New Netherland to help the Director govern the colony. One of the residents, Claes Swits, was believed to have been murdered by the local Native Americans.

While Kieft wanted to declare war, the Council did not advocate such an action, wishing instead to request that the murderer be turned over to them. Consequently, the Council was disbanded, and Kieft used the soldiers of the Dutch West India Company to launch assaults on the Indians for two years, a period of time known as Kieft's War.

Intensely unpopular, Kieft was finally fired and replaced by Peter Stuyvesant.

Answer: Duke of York

The Second Anglo-Dutch War began shortly after the English sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam in 1664 and demanded that the city be relinquished to them. At the end of the conflict the Treaty of Breda (1667) maintained English ownership of the former Dutch colony, giving the Dutch the Island of Run and agreeing to their control of sugar factories on the coast of Suriname.

The Dutch briefly took the city again in 1673, renaming it Fort Orange during the Third Anglo-Dutch War; in 1674, however, the city was returned to the English and the name changed back to New York.

In return the Dutch were able to officially take control of Suriname.