Dutch Influences on American Food

The history of the Dutch colony New Netherland begins in 1609. In that year Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River, as it was later named, on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. His aim was to find a northern passage to Asia. Through his explorations the Dutch claim to a vast area between New England and Virginia was established. This claim reached from the Connecticut River to Delaware Bay. In 1621 a charter with exclusive trading rights in the Western Hemisphere was given to the Dutch West India Company. In 1626 the island of Manhattan was purchased, and in 1664 the English took over New Netherland, and, with the exception of a brief interlude in 1673–1674, the area remained in British hands until the American Revolution. In only seven brief decades, those persistent settlers managed to entrench themselves in their new homeland.