It was named after the Duke of York, of England, who organized a mission to capture the territory from the Netherlands.

Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant proved unpopular and his people refused to rally round him.

New Amsterdam was situated on the southern tip of modern day Manhattan Island. It was part of the New Netherlands which also included parts of Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.

The Dutch had bought Manhattan from the local tribe in 1626 where, legend has it, the tribe sold the islands for $24 worth of trinkets. They had clearly misunderstood the concept of property ownership brought over from Europe, and the arrangement led on to a war beginning in 1641 between the settlers and the local tribes.