Dutch Heritage on Manhattan: Russell Shorto honored 6/9 [EN]

Today, Dutch Minister for European Affairs Frans Timmermans granted knighthood to Russell Shorto in New York. Shorto is author of The Island at the Center Of the World (2004), a history of the early colonization of Manhattan by Dutch settlers.

(Click and Buy the English version through Huibslog at Amazon.com)

Subtitle: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America.

I do not think that the Dutch settlers on the islands around the Hudson River really "shaped" the US. But their contribution to the fascinating adventure that are the United States of America is more substantial than is generally known.

It is 400 years ago, in September 1609, that captain Hudson and his small fleet, having sailed from Amsterdam, arrived at the river estuary, looking for a "North Western Passage" from Europe to Eastern Asia. In the following years, a small trading post and several farming villages were established in the region. Soon, after 45 years, the English occupied the settlement, but most of the originally Dutch settlers remained. Dutch names survive: Bleeker Street (Bleachers Street), Broadway (Bredeweg), Brooklyn (Breukelen, after a village near Amsterdam), etc.

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