The English had their eyes on the New Netherland territory in the Americas from the moment it began. In 29 chapters, the Defragged History YouTube channel tells a captivating and compelling story of ambition, exploration, and adventure in the Dutch Colony of New Netherland. Click here for the 81-minute ninth and final episode of the story of New Amsterdam told on September 4, 2025.

When New England made serious plans to seize the colony from the Dutch, Old England, unhappy with New England’s increasing sense of independence, would do the job themselves as part of their grand operation to end the Dutch trade monopoly.

Apparently the Dutch West India Company, in charge of the Colony, believed their Director, General Peter Stuyvesant (above, left and right) could simply talk the English out of their hostile takeover, because they didn’t assist with troops or money. Sometimes referred to as “Pegleg Pete”, Stuyvesant had been nothing but a good soldier blindly carrying out the orders of a bankrupt bureaucracy.

The New Netherland colony changed hands five times in three decades under Charles II (above, right), but no matter who controlled them, its citizens never gave up their rights. The English didn’t fix what was apparently not broken, and adapted the Dutch culture instead. As a result, the transplanted Dutch concepts of tolerance, freedom, and diversity remained.