Peter Minuit: New World Colony Developer

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Peter Minuit was a Dutch explorer and businessman who was instrumental in the development of both New Netherland and New Sweden, two early European colonies in North America.

Peter Minuit

Minuit was born in 1580 in Wesel, in what is today the Duchy of Cleves, in Germany. His parents, who were Protestants, were Dutch but had moved to Germany in order to avoid religious prosecution by the Dutch Catholic Church. Not much is known of Peter's early life. He took over the family business in 1609, when his father died. He married Gertrude Raedts on Aug. 20, 1613; her family helped set him up in business. He is known to have been a diamond cutter, among other things. They moved to Utrecht in 1615, and Minuit joined the Dutch West India Company, the charge of which was to establish and maintain colonies in hew New World.

New Netherland

Minuit sailed for North America in 1625, landing in the colony of New Netherland. At the direction of colony director Willem Verhulst, Minuit explored land in and around the colony, up and down what are now the Delaware River and the Hudson River, and set up trade deals with local Native American tribes; he then returned home. In May 1626, he was back with a new mission: replace as Verhulst as the director of the West Indies Company. Tasked with expanding the colony, he engineered the famous purchase of Manhattan Island (said to have been for the equivalent of $24) and set about expanding the colony. His wife later joined him.

New Netherland

He introduced an element of democracy by establishing a five-person advisory body for the governor of the colony and oversaw expansion efforts that included construction of houses, a horse-powered mill, a warehouse, and a church. To boost population, he set up the patroon system: anyone who could persuade 50 or more Dutch people to relocate to New Netherland would get free land in the colony. He also set up a system of farms, which were called bouweries. The road that ran through these farms was called Bouwerie Lane; the road is The Bowery. In the diplomatic realm, Minuit set up diplomatic and economic discussions with the Plymouth Colony in 1627.

New Netherland and New Sweden

The residents of the Dutch New World colony engaged in illegal trading, of furs and tobacco, and Minuit, as effectively the colony's governor, was fired. He stayed on in the colony until 1638, when he returned to Europe and gained a new charge: create the colony of New Sweden, near what is today Wilmington, Del.

In March 1638, Minuit sailed from Sweden to North America and helped establish New Sweden. The inevitable fort he named Fort Christina, after Sweden's royal princess. Most of the Swedish colonists who had built the fort returned home to report on their progress. Subsequent explorations followed, but the Dutch eventually took over New Sweden.

In the meantime, Minuit was at sea again, this time in the Caribbean, trading in tobacco. He was presumed dead at sea in June 1638, his ship the victim of a hurricane. The ship made it back to Sweden, but his body was never found.

Minuit is remembered as the purchaser of Manhattan. He is also memorialized in buildings and sites around New York.

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