When Was New York City Founded?

When was New York City founded? It’s hard to imagine lower Manhattan as wilderness or as one big pasture for Dutch cattle, but that’s exactly what it was hundreds of years ago. And even after settlers began to arrive in the 1600s, New York was nothing more than a trading port for another century or more. Then it was a Dutch colony called New Amsterdam for several years before the British took it over and renamed it New York. So if you want to know when a city was founded where New York City is now, or if you want to know when that city became New York City, read on.

As you may have imagined, when the land that is now New York City was discovered, there was not much there. It was all wilderness when Henry Hudson found it in 1609. Hudson was a British explorer working for the Dutch East India Company. He discovered parts of Canada and New England as he was supposed to be finding an easterly route to Asia. He started out heading east, but when he discovered he could not complete the specified route due to ice, he turned his ship, the Halve Maen (Half Moon), around and headed west instead to try and get to Asia that way.Hudson’s exploration of the area that is now New York established Dutch claims to the region and the fur trading opportunities there.

When Did the First Settlers Arrive?

In 1623 (some say 1624), Dutch settlers began arriving in what is now New York City to set up a Dutch trading post there. They declared the region a Dutch province and named it New Netherlands.

By 1626, the settlers had spread out a bit, moving their cattle into what is now lower Manhattan, and it was in that year that Peter Minuit, Director-General of New Netherlands, purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape Native Americans who were living there at the time. The Lenape did not actually own the land; no one did. So in some sense, even the earliest residents, like most of New York’s modern ones, were renters.

Minuit paid the Lenape 60 Dutch guilders for the land, which amounts to roughly $1000 today, the monthly price of half a studio apartment in Greenwich Village.

When Was New Amsterdam Founded?

In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant took over as Dutch Director-General of New Netherlands, and it was under his leadership that the city was officially founded. The area was established as a Dutch trading port, and in 1653, it was formally chartered by the Dutch as the city of New Amsterdam.

When Was New York City Founded?

In 1664, King Charles II of Great Britain, disregarding the claim of the Dutch over New Netherlands, gave it to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany. James, the Lord High Admiral of England, set up an expedition, and when he got to New Amsterdam, he found the city’s defenses so weak that it was almost immediately surrendered. On that very day, August 29 on the Julian calendar (used by the British) or September 8 on the Gregorian calendar (used by the Dutch), the city and province were both renamed New York after James, Duke of York.

However, the city was not officially chartered by the king until 1686.

Why Does the City Seal Say 1625?

New York’s city seal has been revised a few times. Most notably the date on it has been changed twice. The first time, it was changed from 1686, when the English chartered it as an English city, to 1664, when the Dutch surrendered it to the British. Then, in the 1970s, there was a big push to change the city’s seal and flag, changing the date to 1625. Although it’s sort of an arbitrary date, it’s a nice round number, and it’s around the time when the Dutch founded it.

So in what was largely just an act of anti-British sentiment, the City Council voted unanimously in 1974 to pass a bill that would alter the date on the city seal and flag, and that would change the name of the Borough of Richmond to Staten Island.

There may have been other reasons for the changing of the date. Some have speculated that in the midst of financial crisis, New Yorkers wanted to go ahead and celebrate a big birthday (350 year) for the city just in case it didn’t exist the following year. Others have suggested that New Yorkers just wanted their city to have been founded before Boston was (in 1630). But whatever the reason for the date change on the city seal, the city was not actually founded in 1625.

A Timeline of New York City History

• 1609 - Henry Hudson explores what is now the Hudson River, a voyage that established Dutch claims to the entire region.
• 1623 - “New Netherlands” is declared a Dutch province. The first settlers arrive.
• 1625 - The Dutch settlers move their cattle from what is now Governor’s Island to what is now lower Manhattan.
• 1626 - Dutch Director-General Peter Minuit buys the island of Manhattan from the Lenape Indians, who did not actually own it.
• 1647 - Peter Stuyvesant takes over as Director-General.
• 1653 - The Dutch formally charter New Amsterdam as a Dutch city.
• 1664 - Peter Stuyvesant surrenders the city to the British, who rename it New York.
• 1686 - Governor Thomas Dongan grants the city an official charter from the king. The official city seal is created.
• 1784 - The city seal is revised, replacing the royal crown with an eagle and changing the date from 1686 to 1664.
• 1975 - Mayor Abraham D. Beame signs a bill to revise the city seal and flag, changing the date from 1664 to 1625.

So when was New York City founded? The city of New York officially became a city in 1686, but a city had officially existed there since 1653, and it had been inhabited by Dutch settlers since 1623. It’s a tricky question to answer, but now you have all the facts.