New Amsterdam
A trading post where eighteen languages were spoken
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The Dutch Republic was Europe's foremost trading nation in the seventeenth century, and its colonies were run by trading companies rather than by the crown. The colony was a company venture with no religious purpose, and its tolerance followed from trade rather than principle — but it left a lasting mark all the same. The Dutch also introduced slavery here, in a form of "half-freedom" that gave some limited standing. The street pattern south of Wall Street still follows the Dutch plan, and names such as Brooklyn, Harlem and Bowery are Dutch.
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The Dutch established a trading post at the southern tip of Manhattan. It was small but unusually mixed — a visiting priest counted eighteen languages in its streets. In 1664 the English took it without a fight and renamed it New York.
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