Dutch in Americas--from wiki

Main articles: New Netherland, New Amsterdam, New Holland (Acadia), and New Netherland settlements A 1685 reprint of a 1656 map of the Dutch North American colonies showing Dutch territorial claims from Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna River in the south and west, to Narragansett Bay and the Providence and Blackstone rivers in the east, to the St. Lawrence River in the north

In 1602, the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands chartered a young and eager Dutch East India Company (VOC) with the mission of exploring North America's rivers and bays for a direct passage through to the Indies. Along the way, Dutch explorers were charged to claim any uncharted areas for the United Provinces, which led to several significant expeditions. Over time, Dutch explorers founded the province of New Netherland. By 1610, the Dutch East India Company had already commissioned English explorer Henry Hudson who, in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage to the Indies, discovered and claimed for the VOC parts of the present-day United States and Canada. Hudson entered the Upper New York Bay by sailboat, heading up the Hudson River, which now bears his name. . . . In 1614, Adriaen Block led an expedition to the lower Hudson River in the Tyger, and then explored the East River aboard the Onrust, becoming the first known European to navigate the Hellegat in order to gain access to Long Island Sound. Block Island and Block Island Sound are named in his honor. Upon his return to Amsterdam in 1614, Block compiled a map, and applied the name "New Netherland" for the first time to the area between English Virginia and French Canada, where he was later granted exclusive trading rights by the Dutch government. Block quickly ascended and became Manhattan's first monopolist. Area settled by the Dutch in 1660

After some early trading expeditions, the first Dutch settlement in the Americas was founded in 1615: Fort Nassau, on Castle Island along the Hudson, near present-day Albany. The settlement served mostly as an outpost for fur trade with the native Lenape tribespeople, but was later replaced by Fort Orange. Both forts were named in honor of the House of Orange-Nassau.

By 1621, the United Provinces had charted a new company, a trading monopoly in the Americas and West Africa: the Dutch West India Company. The Dutch West India Company sought recognition as founders of the New World – which they ultimately did as founders of a new province in 1623, New Netherland. That year, another Fort Nassau was built on the Delaware River near Gloucester City, New Jersey. In 1624, the first colonists, mostly Walloons and their slaves-bound servants, arrived to New Netherland by the shipload, landing at Governors Island and initially dispensed to Fort Orange, Fort Wilhelmus and Kievits Hoek. In 1626, Director of New Netherland Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape natives and started construction of Fort Amsterdam, which grew to become the main port and capital, New Amsterdam. The colony expanded to outlying areas at Pavonia, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Long Island.

On the Connecticut River, Fort Huys de Goede Hoop was completed in 1633 at present day Hartford. By 1636, the English from Newtown (now Cambridge, Massachusetts) settled on the north side of the Little River. In the Treaty of Hartford, the border of New Netherland was retracted to western Connecticut and by 1653, the English had overtaken the Dutch trading post.

Expansion along the Delaware River beyond Fort Nassau did not begin until the 1650s, after the takeover of a Swedish colony which had been established at Fort Christina in 1638. Settlements at Fort Nassau and the short-lived Fort Beversreede were abandoned and consolidated at Fort Casimir. By 1655 Fort Christina, sitting in what is today Wilmington, had already been renamed Fort Altena. Losses to England