If Russell Shorto’s theories are correct we should all send postcards to the Netherlands thanking their ancestors for their ill-fated attempts at empire building in the New World during the 1600s. All sorts of recently uncovered and translated documents point to Shorto’s conclusion that everything cool about New York and America in general has its roots in the fifty-or-so years the Dutch held the New Netherlands and New Amsterdam before the British took over. If those first colonists weren’t primed in the “Dutch tradition,” and the later British colonies would have consisted merely of New Englanders and Virginians, God knows how world history would have turned out. America, Shorto posits, would not have been the legendary “melting pot” it became in later centuries, and probably would have mutated into a hotbed of insane religiousity (the Puritans sure gave the Taliban a run for their money.)
This book is also a fabulous read. There are some fascinating characters presented from history: Henry Hudson, Peter Minuit (the purchase of 60 guilders, the later conquest of Delaware on behalf of New Sweeden!), Willem Kieft, Peter Stuyvesant (dude had a wooden leg and owned parrots!), various Mohawk, Mahican, Canarsee and other Indian tribes, and the soul of New Amsterdam, a man with the terrific name Adriaen van der Donck. There are new revelations on almost every page — “oh, so that’s why that is!” was my most recurring comment. The Dutch weren’t perfect — they may be solely responsible for kicking slavery into high gear (although some Africans lived in New Netherlands — indeed, some owned slaves!) and they had a tendency to go to war with the Native Americans (but at least some of them protested!) but this book shows, perhaps somewhat inadvertantly, how unique a culture the Dutch created compared to the rest of Europe in the 1600s. New Amsterdam sounds like a cool place to live.
