New Amsterdam

The Dutch legacy in New York is not readily legible in cuisine or certain architecture that has existed through time. Little evidence of the thriving cultural and physical presence of the Dutch is able to be seen, however if you know where to look, their historic presence is everywhere. The ways in which the Dutch viewed their colonization as well as the way they treated the island of Manhattan has a lot to do with how the city has developed today. From 1625 until 1674, the Dutch West India Company, established New Amsterdam as a colony solely to ease the trade route between North America and Europe. This for-profit idea of a colony led to a different form of development and character that the other colonies established for religious or political reasons didn't embody. Although they primarily contributed a legacy of trade, the Dutch also gave Manhattan a "spirit of tolerance", allowing trading partners (whoever they wanted to trade with) to live on the settlement, along with many different people of different religions. The tolerance of the Dutch in Manhattan was partly due to their tolerance of religion in Netherlands where one's religion was not important to being Dutch. Although the Dutch culture and social impacts are not prevalent in the physical space of the city, their intellectual mindset for trade has allowed New York's port's to grow into the dominating force they are today. 

statue of henry hudson in the BX