1614 | Fort Van Nassau is built on Westerlo Island. Map showing Dutch explorations of region and the fort is presented to States General in Holland, who grant permission for further trading voyages. Hendrick Christiaensen is named fort commander. |
1617 | Onkwehon:we slay Hendrick Christiaensen for fancied wrong. Flood washes out Fort Van Nassau, which is then rebuilt at foot of Normanskill. |
1618 | ![]() ![]() |
1621 | Dutch West India Company is formed at Amsterdam to develop trade in America. |
1626 |
The Dutch Slave trade commenced when the Dutch West India Company imported 11 African slaves to New Amsterdam in 1626. According to tradition, Peter Minuit ‘purchased’ the island of Manhattan from Onkwehon:we on May 24, 1626 for goods to the value of 60 Dutch guilders, which in the 19th century was estimated to be the equivalent of $24 (or $1000 USD in 2006). The Mahikans seek Dutch support against the Mohawks and Fort Orange commander Daniel Kriekebeck is killed by Mohawks for aiding Mahikans and the settlement is largely evacuated. Peter Minuit, (Pieter Minuit, Pierre Minuit or Peter Minnewit) was a Walloon from Wesel, (in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), then part of the Duchy of Cleves was the Director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1633. |
1629 | Approximately 1 million acres, is acquired for Patroon Kiliaen Van Rensselaer and known as Rensselaerswijck (now Albany and Rensselaer Counties). On orders from Holland, patroonships are created for those who would establish settlements. |
1630 | Ship Unity sets sail from Amsterdam with 30 settlers for Van Rensselaer’s colony. Unity arrives in early June. |
1636 | Albert Andriesen Bradt rents a sawmill on the Normanskill Creek from the Patroon. |
1640 | First Dutch minister Domine Johannes Megapolenis arrives. Hendrick Albertsen establishes first ferry to Greenbush. |
1648 | Treaties of Westphalia ends Thirty Years’ War. |
1649 |
The New England Company is founded by an Act of Oliver Cromwell’s Parliament on 27 July 1649. Originally known as “The Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the Parts Adjacent in America”, its mandate was to propagate the Christian religion to and amongst “heathen natives” and for “civilizing, teaching and instructing the said heathen natives and their children, not only in the principles and knowledge of the true religion and in morality, and the knowledge of the English tongue and in other liberal arts and sciences…”. In 1650 the first schoolhouse is erected, Andreas Jansen teacher. |
1652 | Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant has soldiers pull down Patroon’s flag and orders the removal of Patroons’s trading post and houses from vicinity of Fort Orange; creates free village of Beverwyck.
1655 First slave auction held in New Amsterdam |
1658 | Record beaver trade: more than 57,000 skins are shipped to Holland. |
1660 | Beverwyck and Fort Orange are enclosed in wooden stockades as defense against Indians. |
1661 | Arent Van Curler leaves Fort Orange (Albany) to found Schenectady, and satellite communities are developed. |
1662 | Governors of Boston, Nova Scotia and New York meet in Fort Orange to make peace with League of Great Peace. |
1663 | Small pox epidemic breaks out at Fort Orange and Beverwyck, killing many Onkwehon:we and settlers. |
1664 | Dutch surrender New Netherland to the English Duke of York. Beverwyck becomes Albany, an English community by conquest. Area is named for Scottish title of Duke of York and Albany. John Shutter is appointed the first English schoolmaster. |
1666 | Parliament passes the Navigation Acts to regulate mercantilist balance of trade with British Colonies. |
1673 | The Dutch recapture Albany, and rename it Willemstadt. It will be returned to English by treaty in 1674. |
1676 | Fort Frederick is built on hill. State Street is called Jonkheers’s or “Gentlemen’s” Street. |
1677 | Commissioners from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia come to Albany to make peace with League of Great Peace. |
1683 | Albany County is established by New York Provincial Assembly |
1684 | Mohawks and the League of Great Peace declare Albany their “House of Peace,” or treaty capital. Fur trade fades, grain becomes cash crop. |
1686 | ![]() |
1690 | Massacre of Schenectady by French and French-aligned Onkwehon:we. Simon Schermerhorn rides all night to warn Albany. |
Home » 1614 – 1690