What role did the Dutch East India Company play in the founding of New York?

Question

What role did the Dutch East India Company play in the founding of New York?

Answer 1

The Dutch West India Company was an offshoot of the Dutch East India Company, which funded Henry Hudson's voyage to North America in 1609. If Hudson could find a secret shortcut to Asia, the Company thought, they would make even more profits.

Although Hudson failed at this mission, his dazzling reports of fur trading opportunities inspired merchants. About fifteen years later, the Company sent over some thirty families as colonists and workers. They called the colony they founded "New Amsterdam." Later renamed New York, it would grow into one of the greatest cities in the world.