This is about New York when it was known as New Amsterdam, and the coveted island of Manhattan. The island was found by Hudson by disobeying orders from his company. An island strategically located to provide protection, nourishment, and trade access. The Dutch allied and traded with the Native American Indian neighbors. The Dutch culture was tolerant of foreign products, ideas, and people, making New Amsterdam a welcoming place, center of trade, which precipitated in created a melting pot of cultures. Initially a company town, but as the settlement grew, the people demanded a voice in their governance. When the city would change ownership to English and be known as New York, the people would get their voice and keep their diverse livelihoods.

During Hudson’s time with the Muscovy Company, his role was to find a shortcut to the East via a frozen Northeast passage. Hudson’s failed to find the route and the company dismissed the trade with Americas. Either because of Hudson’s personality or company’s financial circumstances, the Muscovy Company dismissed Hudson. The Dutch East India Company recognized his mariner abilities and hired Hudson. Disobeying the company’s instruction to go northeast, Hudson went in the opposite direction. Going to the America’s, Hudson had come across an island that the local Indians called mannahata. The company, rather than be outraged by the disobedience, found what Hudson brought back to be intriguing.

The initial Dutch settlement established relationships with some Native American Tribes. The Native American Tribes were not allies with each other and had conflict with each other. Mahicans chose to relocate near the Dutch for trade and defense. Manhattan was a very strategic island. Large enough to support a population, while small enough for a fort to defend. Nearby areas provided access to various food sources. Nearby waterways that enabled easy transportation. Close to an Indian fur-trade.

New Amsterdam was a company town rather than a city. The inhabitants were employees rather than citizens. The port acted as a way station for many traders, with the company facilitating in transactions. The problem was that New Amsterdam was not financially viable like other company towns which were able to repay their investment. When the West India Company made New Netherland a free trading zone by giving up its monopoly on trade in the region, the port became profitable. Although New Netherland started to grow as many entrepreneurs saw it as a base for Atlantic trade, the company struggled.

Although the Dutch wanted military-trading posts and did not want to establish permanent colonies, New Netherlands refused to remain a trading post. The governors of New Netherlands used autocratic rule while the people asked for democratic rule. Military dictatorship usually worked for the Dutch, but not at New Netherlands. The company denied representative government to the people, but the people enjoyed many other rights such as religious liberty which was a rarity during the era. The Dutch were able to keep New Amsterdam because they had the military and naval power to protect it. Over time, the company did not send requested reinforcements even with increased threats. It was the English that gained enough naval power to threaten the city, and were willing to provide its people with a representative government. Many New Amsterdam people flipped their allegiance to the English. The government relented and surrendered the city rather than fight, turning New Amsterdam into New York. The city would change ownership a few times before becoming an American city. The peoples variety of races, religions, and language were allowed to coexist and thereby maintain their way of life because the place worked.

Seeing the purchase of Manhattan for $24 which was commercially worth trillions from hapless Indians is wrong for many reasons. Rather than the price for Manhattan of $24, it was actually products worth sixty guilders. Products that might not have had much value in Amsterdam, would have been more valuable for the settlers, and extremely valuable for the Indians. The Dutch had tacit knowledge of the Indians, and knew them as very skilled, cunning, curious, pig-headed, and cruel like the Europeans who met them. The Indians saw land ownership differently than the Europeans. As Shorto points out, while Europeans consider permanent property transfer, the Indians saw the real estate deal as a rental agreement, and a treaty or alliance between two groups. Indians continued to use the land even years later after the purchase. When present, Dutch authorities treated Indians to hospitality and gave them more presents. Over the years, the Dutch also provided protection to Indians. Contact with Indians was complex. Many were friendly, while many being vengeful. Previous clashes created bloodier reprisals. Protecting Indians with which agreements were made from enemy tribes. The stereotype of primitive and defenseless were engrained after the separation on European and Indian villages, because they did not know the Native American Indians tacitly.

The biggest influence of the Dutch Republic was its culture. The Dutch were primarily traders which meant that they were exposed to many different peoples. Rather than be antagonistic to foreign people and their ideas and products, the Dutch were tolerant of them. Tolerance was good for business. Tolerance during this time period meant putting up with rather than celebrating diversity. Publishers were mainly uncensored which gave rise to intellectual life resulting in the production of many books. In New Netherlands, the Dutch were traders rather than trappers, that meant a need to rely on Indians for their skills. Cooperation was preferable to fighting.

Dutch cultural attitude of tolerance was in contrast to other European and England’s cultures. England during the time was engaged in religious wars. Intolerant to differences and going as far as persecuting differences. The Puritans were a persecuted group but they themselves were also intolerant and persecuted those who were not their type of Puritan. Many Puritans were persecuted by other Puritans, but were welcomed by Dutch communities.

The book is generally well written but has a problem with flow. The transitions between ideas, people, places, and chronology prevented a coherent understanding in many parts. Part of the problem is that the surviving documents that the author is using are not complete.
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This is a fascinating book about the creation, growth, development & overtaking by Britain of the colony of New Amsterdam. The information about several main characters in this tale was eye-opening & completely new to this reader. I heartily recommend this book. ( )

This is one of those nonfiction books that is somewhat boring at times but contains so much fascinating material that it pays to power through. The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto examines the colony of New Netherlands and takes the perspective that history has skimmed over the Dutch influence on the United States. Shorto gives readers the background on known figures like Minuit and Stuyvesant, but also some forgotten figures like van der Donck through forgotten documents previously untranslated. He weaves in European history and world events to place the founding of New York solidly in history. ( )

I just finished reading The Island at the Center of the World::The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto. The book is an excellent history of an overlooked but apparently crucial period of American history; the Dutch heritage of New York City, Albany and other adjacent lands. Most American history assumes an Anglo-centric perspective. That perspective is far from wrong, since the English dominated even the earliest colonization of what is now the United States, from the Georgia-Florida border through Virginia and to some extent Maryland, and from Maine partway through modern Connecticut. In between lay "the Middle Colonies", or what became New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Maryland is a special case, a Catholic island in the middle of Protestant America but I digress.

The Middle Colonies also featured a strong Swedish presence in what is now Delaware, southern New Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania. The tumultuous history of "New Sweden" is discussed extensively in the book.

The book's main geographic focus is what was known as "Nieuw Amsterdam", later New York City and Fort Orange, later Albany. The book's main human focus is Adriaen van der Donck, of whom I was aware mostly for the fact that Yonkers, a city bordering New York City was named after him. In modern terms he would be understood as a "lawyer's lawyer." The profession of law did not exist in a modern sense in those days. He was dogmatic in his insistence on the rule of law. He was sometimes an ally and sometimes a bitter enemy of the far more famous Peter Stuyvesant.

The book's main argument is that while Dutch rule did not survive, New York City's underlying tradition of tolerance did survive and indeed spread throughout the nation, though imperfectly. The author states, on Page 125-6 "(w)e should be clear, however, about the meaning of tolerance, which had nothing to do with 'celebrating diversity' -- a concept that would have been seen as sheer loopiness in the seventteenth century. 'Putting up with' was probably closer to the mark. If this sounds wan, consider that in Germany as of the time an estimated forty percent of the populated died due to the unholy enmeshment of religious intolerance and politics that gave rise to the 'Thirty Years' War' (in the city of Magdeburg only, thirty thousand were killed in a single day." The book does argue that the flood of people coming to the New World, and largely to New York, came as a result of the mindless massacres and the narrow-mindedness that spawned those.

My minor quibbles, and why I give it "four stars"; certain literary flourishes are clearly invented. How does he know, for example, that after giving a presentation of various "Remonstrances" Adriaen van der Donck turned with a "pirouette" as he departed? This historical device is common, and somewhat lamentable. However, it does add to the book's readability. I highly recommend this book. ( )

Really fun look at pre-British New York. ( )