| August 27 |  |
Editor says, what if the Dutch had kept control of New Netherlands? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1664, on this day the Dutch defenders of Fort Amsterdam received first reports that the English invasion fleet had sunk in a storm. An article from the American Heroes thread.
Relief in the Big OrangeThe capital of the New Netherlands had miraculously survived. And to celebrate victory in the Third Anglo-Dutch War ten years later, the defense was renamed Fort Willem Hendrick (pictured) in honor of the Dutch leader who was Stadtholder and Prince of Orange. And New Amsterdam was renamed New Orange.
Due to the peaceful manner in which the region was later,transitioned to the United States, Dutch-American relationship remained warm. As a result, three hundred years later, the ten-lane elevated highway stretching from the East River to the Hudson River, connecting the Holland Tunnel on the west side to the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges to the east was named the Willem Hendrick Expressway [1].
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: American Heroes Source: Wikipedia Labels: Fort Amsterdam, New Netherlands, Dutch, New York, Anglo-Dutch War. Editor says, this article is re-purposed from a post by Lord Roel on Alternate History. In reality no shots were fired on August 27, 1664, when the Dutch surrendered the fort and Manhattan in what amounted to one of the skirmishes in the bigger Second Anglo-Dutch War. The fort was renamed Fort James in honor of James II of England. New Amsterdam was renamed New York in recognition of James's title as Duke of York.
[1] never built due to objections in 1962.
~ Actually, this would have caused a lot more turmoil as New Holland was entirely surrounded by English territory containing a much larger population. It is highly likely that English and Scots-Irish immigrants would have moved into Dutch territory and become the absolute majority within a generation.
~ I'm sad that the Dutch gave up New Amsterdam; I so would have loved another nation vying for the Americas...
~ Did any of the Dutch ships get ticketed by the NYPD's meter maids? :D
~ That could have put a whole different spin on the New York City we all know, and have our respective opinions on. Could be more flavors, food choices, beers, and culture from the Netherlands. Names could be different, and NYC could have other names like Orangetown or Willy.
~ New Amsterdam might very well share the progressive policies of OLD Amsterdam, like legal drug use and euthanasia. Sounds good to me. And the Nazis might not have been able to invade New Amsterdam since it was located across the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by American states. Sounds even better.
~ A more Dutch-influenced "New York" might have had interesting knock-on effects; among other things, people do tend to forget that the Netherlands was involved in the American Revolution. That said, I do think that the place was doomed to go under the British flag sooner or later.
~ With as much money as would be centered in the Hudson River area, it would be fortunate to have a peaceful transition. Boston would be a bigger city, too.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
