Dutch West India Company, 1621-1664
Jersey City's Colonial Background

Map of New Netherlands Circa 1650
Click on the image to go to an online exhibit of other 17th and 18th century maps assembled by the New Netherland Project using maps from the collections of Fordham University's Walsh Library

Map of Mannados (Manhattan) or New Amsterdam circa 1661.
Click on the image to see the enlarged view posted on the Images of American Political History website at The College of New Jersey. 

View of New Amsterdam Circa 1651
Click on the image to go to an online exhibit of other 17th and 18th century maps assembled by the New Netherland Project using maps from the collections of Fordham University's Walsh Library

In 1621, the Estates-General of the Netherlands founded the Dutch West India Company; its purpose was to open trade in North and South America and compete with Spain for resources in these areas. After 1624, it established forts at Manhattan Island, Fort Orange (Albany), and Fort Nassau on the Delaware River. It also developed a settlement on the western shores of the Hudson River that became the early settlements of Pavonia and Bergen Township and later the development of present-day Jersey City.

The manner of settlement of the Dutch claims in America was the patroon system. Members of the Dutch West India Company were eligible to receive an estate in America if the patroon settled it with fifty adults, over age fifteen, in four years. The patroon was, in effect, a landlord and local lawgiver, and the settlers were his tenants who paid rent during the length of a lease. The patroons were granted an eight-year exemption from taxes and the settlers a ten-year exemption. However, of the five patroonships in New Netherland, only that of Kiliaen Van Rennselaer in Albany County was successful. His patroonship was called Rennselaerswyck and was over one million acres in extent.

In 1630 Michael Reyniersz Pauw, a member of the Dutch West India Company, was granted an estate on the western shore of the Hudson River. He named it Pavonia, meaning "Land of the Peacock," which was a variation of his name. However, as a patroon he did not meet the obligation to obtain the required number of settlers and never left Amsterdam to personally supervise his land grant. The positive outcomes of the Pauw grant were the construction of two houses at Pavonia, the first homes on the west side of the Hudson River, and the appointment of a superintendent, Cornelius Van Vorst, who remained as a settler to continue the nascent community for future development.

The governance of all of New Netherland was from New Amsterdam at the lower end of Manhattan Island. Fort Amsterdam included a governor's residence, barracks, church and marketplace. "Bouweries" or farms were outside the fort. Peter Minuit (1626-1633) was the first director-general. After his tenure, three governors succeeded him: Wouter Van Twiller (1633-38); William Kieft (1638-1646); and Peter Stuyvesant (1647-1664).

Van Twiller offered no direction for the settlement, had a reputation for being quarrelsome, and was only noted for expanding the brewery business in New Amsterdam. Kieft embroiled New Netherland in Indian warfare that nearly dismantled the colony, and Stuyvesant, while somewhat cantankerous, worked to stabilize the Dutch settlements and established Bergen Township.

After Dutch rule in America for forty years, the Dutch failed to establish a successful colony. Several factors contributed to its demise and easy takeover by England in 1664. First, there were insufficient incentives for Dutch nationals to leave their homeland. As a result colonists from other countries and the surrounding area, who did not hold a strong allegiance to the colony, settled New Netherland. Secondly, commerce was a priority for the Company, and agriculture, which might have attracted more settlers, was not considered profitable. Finally, somewhat incompetent governance from New Amsterdam and the absence of local participatory democracy discouraged loyalty to the colony. The Dutch West India Company sent its orders to New Amsterdam and its selected members of the governor's council. The governor had an unofficial advisory council but this did not compensate for the tradition of self-rule experienced by settlers in the surrounding colonies.

References
:
Lovero, Joan D. Hudson County: The Left Bank. Sun Valley, CA: American Historical Press, 1999.
Savelle, Max and Darold S. Wax. A History of Colonial America. Hinsdale, Illinois: Dryden Press, 1973.