January 1, 2024: 2024 Anniversaries: New Netherland in 1674

[As I’vedone for each of thelast few years, this week I’ll start 2024 by AmericanStudying a fewanniversaries for the new year. Leading up to a special post on the 200thanniversary of a frustratingly familiar election.]

On twoimportant legacies that endured when New Netherland became a permanent part ofAnglo America with the 1674Treaty of Westminster.

1674 wasonly the final moment in a decade-long back and forth between the English andthe Dutch over who would take control of the mid-atlantic region known as NewNetherland. In 1664, at the outset of the continental as well as transatlantic conflictthat became known as the SecondAnglo-Dutch War (1665-1667), the Englishgained control of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island and thus of NewAmsterdam, the de facto capital of New Netherland. But the Dutch held onto muchof the rest of the region at that time, and when the ThirdAnglo-Dutch War (1672-1674) began a few years later, the Dutch retook thefort and island as well. It was only at the culmination of that latter conflictwith the Treaty of Westminster that the Dutch permanently ceded not justManhattan Island/New Amsterdam but the entirety of their New Netherland colonyto the English, essentially trading it for the South American colonyof Suriname.

As usualwhen a place officiallychanges hands from one national entity to another, however, a great deal ofthe existing community of New Netherland remained after the handover. One ofthe most defining elements of New Netherland society was its striking level ofdiversity, particularly religious diversity due to the Dutch Republic’soverarching policy (from the1579 Union of Utrecht) that “everyone shall remain free in religion andthat no one may be persecuted or investigated because of religion.” That meantfor example that New Netherland had a sizeable Jewish community, which was grantedfullresidential rights in 1655. But the community, like the Dutch coloniesthroughout the Western Hemisphere, was also notably diverse in terms of bothnationality and ethnicity: on the first note, the term “New Netherland Dutch”referred to immigrants from a variety of European cultures; while on thesecond, New Netherland included a significant refugeepopulation from Brazil as well as sizeable Native American and African communitiesamong others. The diversity of modern Manhattan is truly a legacy of its NewAmsterdam roots.

The policyof religious freedom didn’t just help create that foundational diversity,though—it also reflected a broaderculture of tolerance (in the Dutch Republic overall, but certainly extendedto its colonies as well) that was at least somewhat unique among Europeancolonies in the Americas and served as an inspiration for future U.S. ideals. TheDutch Republic’s Constitution, which guaranteed such liberties as well ascitizenship to most of its residents, was cited by Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers No.20 as a direct influence on the proposed U.S. Constitution. Likewise,the 1581Act of Adjuration through which the Dutch Republic declared itsindependence from Spain was similar enough to the American Declaration ofIndependence that JohnAdams later declared, “the origins of the two Republics are so much alikethat the history of one seems but a transcript from that of the other.” Allways that New Netherland remained very much part of the evolving United Stateslong after the 1674 handover.

Nextanniversary tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?