Timeline of the Netherlands
and Scandinavia relating to North America
- 982-985 The Norseman Eric the Red founds a colony in
western Greenland; the settlement lasts until the fourteenth or
fifteenth century.
- c. 1000 Leif Ericsson, returning to Greenland from Norway,
is driven onto the North American coast, which he explores and
tries unsuccessfuly to settle.
- 1555 Abdication of Charles V in favor of his son Philip
and brother Ferdinand; Philip II inherits control over the Low
Countries
- 1566 Beeldenstorm: Iconoclastic fury. Calvinist destruction
of Catholic images begins in Flanders
- 1568 Dutch nobles Egmont and Hoorn beheaded at Brussels;
the Dutch revolt against Spain begins
- 1572 Capture of Den Briel, strategic city at the mouth
of the Rhine, by Dutch "Sea Beggars"
- 1573 Dutch defeat Spanish fleet at battle of Zuiderzee
- 1574 Relief of Leiden, lifting of the Spanish siege
- 1575 Founding of Leiden University
- 1577-1640 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter
- 1579 Union of Utrecht; mutual defensive pact of seven
northern provinces against Spain
- 1580 Crowns of Spain and Portugal united under Philip II
- 1579-1584 Willem I, prince of Orange-Nassau, serves as
first stadholder
- 1581 Act of Abjuration: representatives of the United
Provinces abjure their oath of allegiance to Philip II at The
Hague
- 1584 Willem I, prince of Orange-Nassau, assassinated
at his home in Delft
- 1584-1625 Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau assumes the
inherited stadholdership
- 1588 Spanish Armada defeated
- 1599-1641 Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter
- 1602 United East India Company chartered by the States
General of the United Provinces
- 1606-1669 Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter
- 1607 Dutch defeat Spanish fleet at Gibraltar
- 1609 Twelve years' truce with Spain; founding of the
bank of Amsterdam; Henry Hudson, in command of the East India
Company ship Halve Maen, explores from Delaware Bay to the upper
Hudson as far as present-day Albany
- 1614 The name New Netherland first appears in an official
document; New Netherland Company licensed by the States General;
fur trading post Fort Nassau established on Castle Island, present
day Port of Albany
- 1618 Synod of Dordrecht; beginning of Thirty Years' War
in Germany
- 1619 Beheading of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, leader of
the peace party, at the Hague
- 1621 End of the Twelve years' truce with Spain; chartering
of the West India Company [WIC] by the States General
- 1624 First colonists arrive in New Netherland where they
are settled at Fort Orange (Albany), the mouth of the Connecticut
River, and on High Island (Burlington Island) in the Delaware
River; Cornelis May, as senior skipper, becomes first director
of New Netherland science of international lawWillem Verhulst
arrives as director of New Netherland
- 1625-1647 Prince Frederik Hendrik becomes stadholder
upon death of Prince Maurits
- 1625 Publication of De Jure Belli et Pacis, by the Dutch
statesman and jurist Hugo Grotius, lays foundation for the 1626
Daniel van Crieckenbeeck, commander at Fort Orange, killed while
supporting a Mahican war party against the Mohawks; Peter Minuit
replaces Verhulst as director; purchases Manhattan Island; moves
settlers from Fort Orange, Connecticut, and Delaware to Manhattan
- 1628 Piet Heyn captures Spanish silver fleet for the
WIC
- 1629 "Freedoms and Exemptions," establishing the patroonship
plan of colonization, approved by the WIC
- 1631 Patroonships of Rensselaerswijck (upper Hudson),
Pavonia (Jersey City), Swaenendael (Lewes, Delaware), among others,
founded in New Netherland
- 1632 Minuit removed as director of New Netherland, replaced
by Bastiaen Jansz Crol; Swaenendael destroyed by Indians
- 1632-1675 Jan Vermeer, Dutch painter
- 1633-1638 Wouter van Twiller, director of New Netherland
- 1638 Peter Minuit hired by Swedish South Company, establishes
New Sweden on the Delaware River (Wilimington, Delaware); Minuit
lost at sea while returning to Sweden
- 1638-1647 Willem Kieft, director of New Netherland
- 1639 WIC opens fur trade to everyone
- 1642-1654 Johan Printz, governor of New Sweden
- 1643-1645 Kieft's war with the Indians around Manhattan
Island
- 1647-1650 Prince Willem II as stadholder
- 1647 Petrus Stuyvesant becomes director general of New
Netherland, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, and other dependencies
in the Caribbean; WIC ship Princess Amalia lost in Bristol Bay,
former Director Kieft and Domine Evardus Bogardus drowned with
82 others
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia, settling Eighty Years' War
with Spain; end of Thirty Years' War
- 1649 Swedish relief ship Kattan (The Cat) bound for New
Sweden lost off Puerto Rico
- 1650 States General, opposing authority of princes of
the house of Orange, assume control over Dutch general policy;
Hartford Treaty, settling boundary dispute between New Netherland
and New England
- 1651 Stuyvesant abandons Fort Nassau (Gloucester, New
Jersey); replaces it with Fort Casimir (New Castle, Delaware)
below Swedish Fort Christina
- 1652-1654 First Anglo-Dutch War
- 1653 Construction of defensive wall across Manhattan
Island (Wall Street) after threat of invasion from New England
- 1654 Swedes under new governor, Johan Rising, capture
the Dutch post Fort Casimir on Trinity Sunday, rename it Fort
Trefaltighet (Fort Trinity)
- 1655 Stuyvesant conquers New Sweden in the Delaware Valley;
Indians around Manhattan attack New Amsterdam, Pavonia, and Staten
Island in a conflict called the Peach War.
- 1656 Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish
parentage, exponent of pantheism, is excommunicated from the synagogue
- 1658-1663 Esopus Indian War in New Netherland
- 1664 English naval force funded by the duke of York and
Albany captures New Netherland in a surprise attack during peace
time
- 1665-1667 Second Anglo-Dutch War
- 1665 Admiral Michiel Adriaansz de Ruyter retakes most
of the WIC trading posts lost previous year to English in Africa;
De Ruyter's plans to retake New Netherland aborted
- 1667 Admiral Abraham Crijnsen retakes former Dutch colonies
in the Guianas (Wild Coast of South America) seized by the English
- 1672-1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War
- 1673 New York captured by Dutch naval force; New Netherland
restored as a Dutch colony
- 1674 New Netherland becomes New York again as a result
of the peace of Westminster
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