[Music] Hey there students. In this next segment of my series on the colonial encounter, I'm going to talk to you about New Netherland. What were the Dutch doing in North America and why were they here and how did they get along with the Indians that they encountered? Now, in order to understand New Netherland, first we need to understand the Dutch. And the Dutch were the most prominent trading empire in the early modern period. And they were kind of Adam Smith before Adam Smith even existed. They realized that you were going to make the most money if you lifted all restrictions on trade. So they had the lowest shipping rates of anybody in Europe. And also domestically, they were some of the first to allow private worship for Jews and Catholics as long as they weren't disruptive, as long as they're contributing to the economy. When you look at Dutch art at the time, most of the art you see is of people being productive. The Dutch are all about productivity, making money, personifying this Protestant ethic, and just taking the whole colonialism thing to a whole new level. It's about money for everybody, but for the Dutch, it's really just straight up all about the Benjamins, baby. And here is a map of New Netherland. And as you can see, it is around New York and New Jersey. And there's a bit of a problem here because on one side you see the Chesapeake and the English colonies there in Virginia, and on the other side you see New England. So the Dutch are already kind of sandwiched between two different English colonies which is going to kind of be their demise later on. And the largest city built by the Dutch was New Amsterdam, today known as New York City. And the Dutch were involved primarily in the fur trade, but there were also some settlers that came in that were engaged in agriculture as well. You see some towns uh and even some cities certainly more colonists than the French or the Spanish, but not as many as the English. But they're engaged in the fur trade, which of course necessitates a collegial relationship with the Indians because they're being looked at like business partners and not people who need to be made into servant workers or people that need to be gotten out of the way. They are people that are business associates. And you might want to know Peter Styverson if you're wanting to learn about New Ne Netherland. Peter Stonent was the most visible figure and the last director general of New Netherland. And one of his most distinguishing characteristics was his peg leg. All right. So Peter Styent, he was Dutch. He was the governor and he had a peg leg. And here is Wall Street. Now, of course, Wall Street today is the place where people trade stocks, but where did that come from? Well, the wall used to be there. Okay, I wish there were a more interesting story, but there isn't. It's just that used to be the street where the wall was and that's why they call it Wall Street today. So, if you're ever at Wall Street and you tell your friends like, "Hey, I know why this is Wall Street." Then you tell them that and they're like, "Oh, you think like that was so profound, right?" And the Dutch uh in doing business with the Indians were largely in contact with the Irakcoy Confederation who were um around upstate New York uh what is today upstate New York. and the Irakcoy were five different tribes, later six. Each of them retaining their tribal identity, but all in a perpetual union, a perpetual confederation, pledging mutual defense to each other and mutual friendship. Not only did this keep them from constantly being at war with one another, but also allowed them to present a united front to their enemies. that Irakcoy lived in long houses and they saw their confederation as one big long house. And in fact, when they ran into the Dutch, they thought, "Hey, maybe the Dutch are interested in joining our long house. You know, these can be our friends, our business associates. Maybe bring them in." Now, the Dutch, of course, didn't feel that way. They didn't see themselves becoming the next Confederated Indian tribe. But at the same time, the Dutch did go through certain ceremonies with the Irakcoy. uh when the Irakcoy wanted to observe uh what they called condolences and uh go through these ceremonies where they would trade uh wampom beads and that sort of thing. The Dutch would participate. Not that they liked participating, but it's the cost to do in business. If your business partner wants you to participate in this ceremony and be up all night or something like that, then you're up all night because you're here to make money. and you make money by making your business partner happy. We can learn a lot of marketing from the Dutch and New Netherland. Now, of course, General Patton said, "Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way." Uh, the Dutch, they're telling the you know, "Follow me. Show us how to relate to you." Now, there were times where, you know, like the French would freely give out ammunition to their Indian allies, and the Irakcoy expect the same from the Dutch. And the Dutch are like, "Uh, that cost money. You need to pay us." And the Indians are like, "Hey, but what about uh we're friends, right? And friends help friends." Yes, friends help friends. Um, and they pay money. Okay. The Dutch really didn't understand this uh Indian concept of hey you're my business partner and my friend and when I go to war I want you to help me and I should kind of expect that of you. So there there is certainly some tension there but for the most part the Dutch were able to preserve this trading relationship that they had with the Irakcoy and preserve friendly relations cost of doing business. Now this worked with the Irakcoy but eventually the Dutch are going to run into England which is an ascended military power at the time and the Dutch you know certainly had a vibrant economy but did not have the military power to maintain this Dutch wedge as the English called it that here is a Dutch colony in between our colonies. So the English believed uh that strategically this needed to be taken care of and in 1664 the English took New Netherland and renamed it New York and also named the city of New Amsterdam, the city of New York. Um after the king's brother who was the Duke of York but would later become King James I. Now for a little review, let's take a look at a graphic organizer that's just going to put the Dutch into perspective for us in nice neat little boxes. The Dutch were colonizing New Netherland, which is today New York, New Jersey, that sort of area, maybe a little bit into Connecticut. Their religion was Protestant, typically Calvinist, and these people were all about nononsense work, Protestant ethic. The interested parties would have been fur traders and settlers that you have a combination of people coming in to engage in the fur trade and people coming in to settle in towns and to build farms and that sort of thing. Their primary economic activity was the fur trade but also supplemented by uh their agricultural ventures. Their settlements uh would be trading post and towns and uh once in a while a city. As far as the number of colonists, I would say some not few like the Spanish and the French, but certainly not coming in droves like the English are going to. As far as evangelism goes, while there might have been some isolated efforts by Dutch missionaries, there was certainly not an organized program of evangelism like you had with the Spanish and the French and their advice to the natives that they encountered. Lead me. All right? Let me know how to how to do this and how to do business with you and how to keep you happy as a customer. And if I've kept you happy as a customer, please go ahead and subscribe to my channel, visit my website, follow me on Twitter, Instagram, like me on Facebook. Also, keep in mind that I have some more lectures in this series on the colonial encounter. So, definitely invite you to look at those as well. That'll be in the credits. So, I'll be back with some more US history and all kinds of history in general. So, hope to see you again. Until next time. [Applause] [Music] Heat.