Fort Orange (New York)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fort Orange (actually Fort Oranje or Fort Oranije ) was the first settlement in North America established by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands . The fort was founded in 1624 as a replacement for Fort Nassau (1614-1618) south of today's Albany , which was built on the nearby Castle Island in the Hudson River .

history

Nassau was abandoned in 1617 due to constant flooding, the crew moved to Fort Oranje. Both names go back to the mansion of Orange-Nassau ( Orange ).

New Netherlands and New Sweden

The actual fort was completed in 1624. It served the Dutch West India Company as a trading post in the upper Hudson Valley . In that year the colony of New Netherlands ( Nieuw Nederland ) was founded, which from 1626 also included the city ​​of New Amsterdam ( Nieuw Amsterdam ) , which was built on the southern tip of Manna-hata , as its headquarters.

Several competing groups of fur traders sent ships to North America as early as 1610. On March 27, 1614, a monopoly assigned by the States General to the Compagnie van Nieuwnederlant (New Netherlands Company) ended the competitive situation that was considered harmful, because the dealers had outbid each other on prices. The company used the monopoly for three years, but did not succeed in renewing it in 1618.

Instead, the Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie ( Dutch West India Company ) received the monopoly. But it wasn't until 1623 that the company's first ship, the Maackreel , arrived , and the next year the first settlers arrived on two ships. In order to mark the largest possible area against English claims, forts were hastily built, Fort Oranje among them.

The first settlers were Protestant Walloons who had fled the Spanish Netherlands . They built a place on the island of Pagganack off Manhattan (now Governors Island ). Their trading partners were the resettled Mohawk .

But the interests were very conflicting. While a settler faction attached great importance to agricultural activity, a trader faction emphasized the lucrative trade in fur . As early as 1624, 5,000 furs at 27,000 guilders came to the Netherlands, in 1635 there were already 16,000 furs at 135,000 guilders. Since the traders also exchanged rifles for furs, they endangered the settlers by arming the Indians , especially since the Dutch still poured fuel on the fire and brutally attacked the Indians on the river. The settlements in the hinterland went under in conflicts from 1639, especially since it was never possible to recruit enough settlers. Only Rensselaerswijck at Fort Orange remained.

Although the fort focused on the beaver fur trade , some settlers lived inside and outside the fort to provide food. In 1652 a court was appointed to settle disputes in nearby Beverwyck , a place that increasingly dwarfed the fort.

The conflicts with the Indians were connected with the fact that the trading company gave up its trade monopoly for furs in 1638 in view of falling profits, increasingly shifted to tobacco and brought settlers into the country. The war escalated from 1643 to 1645. Nonetheless, immigration increased, so that by 1664 around 7 to 8,000 settlers came from the Netherlands.

In 1652, 60 to 70 settlers moved from Fort Orange to where Rondout Creek meets the Hudson River , where Kingston is today. For several years they worked the land in the floodplain of Esopus Creek together with the Esopus Indians living there who belonged to the Munsee . But land disputes soon arose, and in 1657 Stuyvesant sent soldiers from New Amsterdam against the Esopus. The conflict escalated in two wars. The settlers built a fort for 40 houses on a hill where they moved their houses. They holed up behind a 5 m high wall around 400 by 400 m in length in this settlement called Wiltwyck, halfway between Orange and New Amsterdam. Not until 1664 was there a peace agreement with the Esopus (see Esopus Wars ).

Fort Oranje had to struggle with floods again and again, but efforts were made here to keep peace with the neighboring Iroquois . The particularly severe flooding of 1654 destroyed part of the reconstruction work that Petrus Stuyvesant had initiated. On October 7, 1663, warnings reached the fort that it should be besieged, and on the 20th, 7,000 Indians from five tribes have gathered.

On August 27, 1664, New Amsterdam surrendered to four English ships; Fort Oranje had probably already been abandoned at that time.

While the English built a fort on safer ground ( Fort Frederick ) in 1676 , Fort Orange fell into disrepair. In 1687 the site was sold to the Dutch Reformed Church . On November 4, 1993, the Fort Orange Archeological Site was recognized as a National Historic Landmark . On the same day it was entered in the National Register of Historic Places .

literature

Source editions
  • Charles T. Gehring (ed.): Fort Orange Court Minutes, 1652-1660 . Syracuse University Press 1990. ISBN 0815624689
  • Charles T. Gehring (ed.): Fort Orange Records, 1656-1678 . Syracuse University Press 2000. ISBN 0815628218
  • Charles T. Gehring, Janny Venema (ed.): Fort Orange Records, 1654-1679 . Syracuse University Press 2009. ISBN 0815632320
Secondary literature on history
  • Donna Merwick: Possessing Albany, 1630-1710: The Dutch and English Experiences . Cambridge University Press 2003. ISBN 0521533244

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: New York. National Park Service , accessed August 20, 2019.
  2. ^ Fort Orange Archeological Site on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 20, 2019.

Coordinates: 42 ° 38 ′ 41.5 ″  N , 73 ° 45 ′ 1.1 ″  W.