New Amsterdam and New York
Almost half of all sailors, craftsmen, shipbuilders, merchants and soldiers in the service of the Dutch Republic in the Golden Age (17c.) were foreign – English, German, French, Polish. One of the most interesting of these personages was Henry Hudson (1570-1611) - English traveler, explorer, navigator. Charged by the Dutch Far East Company with the task of finding the passage through the North America to Asia, he described in 1609 and made first maps of the island inhabited by Indians Manna-Hatta, the piece of land which we call today Manhattan.
Within less than twenty years, a fort and a small urban settlement called New Amsterdam were established on the island. In 1625 the city became a seat for the Dutch West India Company. To make it all legal, the very same year the island has been purchased by the Dutch from the Indian tribe and the settlement received its city rights. Later, during the 17 c., the Dutch lost the island and the city to the English, who changed its name in New York. Nevertheless the year of 1625 - the date of the Dutch city rights incorporation of New Amsterdam is accepted as the year of New York beginning.
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