New York City

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For more than three centuries, England and Holland had been closest of friends. But now, at the close of the long and bloody Thirty Year War, which ended with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the power of Spain was crushed, and the Dutch, no longer having anything to fear from his Catholic Majesty, rose to dispute with the English, the dominion of the seas. This brought about and unfriendly rivalry between the two nations, and the unfriendliness was increased by the fact that the Dutch of New Netherlands traded freely with the English colonies.
The first Navigation Law was in 1651. It was that only English ships could transport trade goods to the England from outside Europe and trade goods from inside Europe could be shipped by English ships and ships from the originating country. This act was aimed mainly at the Dutch trader, but the Dutchman ignored the law and continued as before. This was one of the causes that determined the English on the conquest of New Amsterdam. Another reason was that the Dutch colony on the Hudson separated New England from the other English colonies and threatened British dominion in North America.
The English claimed New Netherlands on the ground of the Cabot discoveries. In 1664 Charles II gave the entire country, from the Connecticut to the Delaware, to his brother James, Duke of New York, ignoring the claims of the Dutch colony, and even disregarding his own charter of two years before his younger Winthrop. Peter Stuyvestant was replaced by Richard Nicolls and Governor, and New York City became the capital of the new British province of New York. Richard Nicolls of the royal navy set out with a small fleet and about five hundred of the king’s veterans. Reaching for New England, he was joined by several hundred militia of the Connecticut and Long Island, and he sailed for the mouth of the Hudson.
Stuyvestant had heard of the fleet’s arrival at Boston, but he was made to believe that’...