In exchange for 60
guilders of brass buttons, scarlet cloth and trade goods, Manhattan
Island was purchased from the Manhattan Indian tribe on MAY 6, 1626,
by Peter Minuit, Dutch Governor of the New Netherlands Province.
The Republic of the
Seven United Netherlands, during its Golden Age from 1568 till
Napoleon, was one of the few nations not to have a king.
The Dutch city of
Amsterdam, where Rembrandt painted masterpieces, was where the first
stock exchange and the first multinational corporations were invented.
It became Europe's leader in shipping, banking, insurance and commerce.
The Pilgrims stayed in the Netherlands before sailing to Massachusetts.
The Dutch opened trade with Japan, Jakarta, Mauritius and the Indonesian Spice Island of Maluku.
The Dutch sighted Fiji
and Australia, and colonized the Pacific islands of Tasmania and New
Zealand; the Caribbean Islands of Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Sint
Maarten; the South American settlements of Guyana, Recife and
Suriname; South Africa; and the North American colony of New
Netherlands, which included parts of present day Maryland, Connecticut,
Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York.
The Articles for the New Netherlands' Colony, issued by the Chamber of Amsterdam, 1624, stated:
"They shall within their
territory practice no other form of divine worship than that of the
Reformed religion...and thus by their Christian life and conduct seek
to draw the Indians and other blind people to the knowledge of God and
His word, without, however, persecuting any on account of his faith,
but leaving each one the use of his conscience."
New Netherlands' original Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, June 1, 1629, stated:
"Patroons and colonists
shall in particular, and in the speediest manner, endeavor to find out
ways and means whereby they may support a Minister and Schoolmaster,
that thus the service of God and zeal for religion may not grow cool
and be neglected among them, and they shall, for the first, procure a
Comforter of the sick there."
After a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars, the city of New Amsterdam was taken over by the British and renamed New York City.
In 1665, New York's Colonial Legislature stated:
"Whereas, The public
worship of God is much discredited for want of...able ministers to
instruct the people in the true religion, it is ordered that a church
shall be built in each parish capable of holding 200 persons; that
ministers of every church shall preach every Sunday, and pray for the
king, queen, the Duke of York, and the royal family...
Sunday is not to be profaned."
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment