Lower New York 1705

The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in New York, calling it New Amsterdam. Their provincial capital was in Lower New York, at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, between the Hudson and East Rivers. The first settlers were farmers, followed by beaver fur traders, who chose this area because it was fertile. Semi-nomadic Indians, the Manhattans, had already established a village there, farming the Harlem flatlands. These Indians coexisted with the Dutch who traded with them and other Native American tribes, exchanging beaver pelts for guns and ammunition. The Dutch also settled in the surrounding areas of Delaware and Connecticut with outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. In 1667, after the Second Anglo-Dutch war, New Amsterdam, along with the other Dutch North American territories, was formally ceded to the British in return for full control over the Spice Islands. In 1705, New York was still predominantly ethnically Dutch.