Document Type
Book
Publication Date
2006
Abstract
"Just as word of Hudson's arrival must have spread among the Indians, so too did news of his discovery spread in Europe. Motivated by the 1deals of material acquisition and driven by economic forces in Europe, Dutch merchants in Amsterdam wasted no time in dispatching trade expeditions after learning of the newly discovered lands and the valuable supply of furs in the Hudson River region. The Munsees, already engaged in trade with other native peoples throughout northeastern North America, welcomed the new source and availability of goods and provided a nexus through which Europeans would have access to Indian markets in the interior. From 1610 to 1623, a new stage of the frontier developed in which the Indians of the Hudson River and the surrounding region met and traded with a variety of Dutch captains, sailors, and traders.2 Contact was never extensive; the period was not marked by the immigration of European settlers, a demand for native land, or the imposition of Dutch rule. Nevertheless, contact through trade led to broad crosscultural interaction. What would happen when the two groups learned more of one another? Would violence again erupt as it had between the Munsees and Hudson's men?"
Recommended Citation
Chapter 2 from The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley. New York: Berghahn Press, 2006, by Paul Otto, pp. 51-77