This is a list of Directors, appointed by the
Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...
, of the 17th century
Dutch province of
New Netherland (''Nieuw-Nederland'' in Dutch) in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. Only the last,
Peter Stuyvesant, held the title of Director General. As the colony grew, citizens advisory boards – known as the
Twelve Men
The Twelve Men was a council of citizens chosen by the residents of New Netherland to advise Director Willem Kieft on relations with the Native Americans in the wake of the murder of Claes Swits. Elected on 29 August 1641, the temporary council ...
,
Eight Men
The Eight Men was a group of eight residents chosen by the people of New Netherland in 1643 to advise Director Willem Kieft on his governance of the colony. An early form of representational democracy in colonial North America, it replaced the s ...
, and
Nine Men
The Nine Men was a council of citizens elected by the residents of New Netherland to advise its Director General Peter Stuyvesant on the governance of the colony. It replaced the previous body, the Eight Men, which itself had superseded th ...
– exerted more influence on the director and thus affairs of province.
There were
New Netherland settlements in what later became the US states of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, with short-lived outposts in areas of today's Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. The capital,
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...
, became the city of
New York when the
New Netherlanders provisionally ceded control of the colony to the
English, who renamed the city and the rest of the province in June 1665.
During the restitution to Dutch rule from August 1673 to November 1674, when New Netherland was under the jurisdiction of the City of
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, the first Dutch governor,
Anthony Colve, was appointed.
List of directors
From 1624–1664
Restoration of the colony, 1673–1674
In 1673, during the
Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch were able to recapture New Amsterdam (renamed "New York" by the
English) under
Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...
Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and Captain Anthony Colve. Evertsen renamed the city "
New Orange." Evertsen returned to the Netherlands in July 1674, and was accused of disobeying his orders. Evertsen had been instructed not to retake New Amsterdam but instead to conquer the English colonies of
Saint Helena and
Cayenne (now
French Guiana
French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...
). In 1674, the Dutch were compelled to relinquish New Amsterdam to the English under the terms of the
Second Treaty of Westminster.
[Prak, Maarten. The Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century: The Golden Age. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 116.]
See also
*
Joris Andringa
*
Johan Björnsson Printz
*
List of colonial governors of Delaware
*
List of colonial governors of New Jersey
*
List of colonial governors of New York
The territory which would later become the state of New York (state), New York was settled by European colonization of the Americas, European colonists as part of the New Netherland colony (parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, Connecticut a ...
*
Dutch colonization of the Americas
*
List of mayors of New York City
*
History of New York City
*
New Amsterdam judicial system
References
{{Reflist, 2
New Netherland
New Netherland
Governors of Delaware
Governors of New Jersey
Governors of New York (state)