Monday night - PJ-time!
When I came home I read Craig's blog and got interested in some Dutch history involving New York. We all know that it was once Dutch but how did we loose it? Many people believe the Dutch sold it but that's not true... The English just walked in and took over. Without a single shot ever fired. Holland should've invaded the bloody UK for that! But then again, the Dutch deserved it for being incredibly apathetic. They still are. And in a way, the English are conquering Amsterdam again with all their disgraceful hen parties and stag nights.Anyway, here's an interesting link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Netherlands.
5 comments:
Hi Vincent,
A few details: the English send over 450 soldiers while the Dutch had only 150 and where short of ammunition. NY itself had a 250 citizens capable of bearing arms, 300 slaves had just arrived, food shortage etc.
People were not willing to sacrifice their property for Stuyvesant (who wasn't very popular anyway for various reasons) or the West India Company. (most info coming from page 73 of Gotham: a history of New York City to 1898)
And we took some revenge later on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Dutch_War
Ah. That was another very entertaining read! What screwed up times those were!
.. yeah like it's always puzzled and faintly bothered me why the "Haarlem" North of Manhattan should be labelled Spanish Harlem ... I mean: why?!?!
Coz the majority is Spanish?
A really great book to read on NY history is 'The island at the centre of the world'. Brilliant book that describes the story of the founding of NY.
Jolanda
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