Dutch colonization of the Americas in the context of "Manhattan Island"

Manhattan is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan is centrally located in the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world.

Present-day Manhattan was originally part of Lenape territory. European settlement began with the establishment of a trading post by Dutch colonists in 1624 on Manhattan Island; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The territory came under English control in 1664 and was renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. New York, based in present-day Lower Manhattan, served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor greeted millions of arriving immigrants in the late 19th century and is a world symbol of the United States and its ideals. Manhattan became a borough during the consolidation of New York City in 1898, and houses New York City Hall, the seat of the city's government. Harlem in Upper Manhattan became the center of what is now known as the cultural Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, part of the Stonewall National Monument, is considered the birthplace in 1969 of the modern gay-rights movement, cementing Manhattan's central role in LGBTQ culture. Manhattan was the site of the original World Trade Center, which was destroyed during the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

The Dutch West India Company (Dutch: Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie) was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the Dutch West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over Dutch participation in the Atlantic slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America.

The area where the company could operate consisted of West Africa (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope) and the Americas, which included the Pacific Ocean and ended east of the Maluku Islands, according to the Treaty of Tordesillas. The intended purpose of the charter was to eliminate competition, particularly Spanish or Portuguese, between the various trading posts established by the merchants. The company became instrumental in the largely ephemeral Dutch colonization of the Americas (including New Netherland) in the seventeenth century.

Marble Hill is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Although once part of Manhattan Island, a large modern shipping canal was dug to its south over a small earlier canal in the late 19th century. The neighborhood was then connected by land reclamation to the mainland in the early 20th century. The Bronx surrounds the neighborhood to the west, north, and east, while the Harlem River is its southern border.

The area of Marble Hill became a Dutch colonial settlement in 1646. It served as a crossing point to the mainland when the colonial British had the King's Bridge constructed in 1693 to span the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. It gained its current name in 1891 from the Tuckahoe marble deposits discovered underneath the neighborhood.

Dutch Brazil (Dutch: Nederlands-Brazilië; Portuguese: Brasil Holandês), also known as New Holland (Dutch: Nieuw-Holland), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas. The main cities of the colony were the capital Mauritsstad (today part of Recife), Frederikstadt (João Pessoa), Nieuw Amsterdam (Natal), Saint Louis (São Luís), São Cristóvão, Fort Schoonenborch (Fortaleza), Sirinhaém, and Olinda.

From 1630 onward, the Dutch Republic conquered almost half of Brazil's settled European area at the time, with its capital in Recife. The Dutch West India Company (GWC) set up its headquarters in Recife. The governor, John Maurice of Nassau, invited artists and scientists to the colony to help promote Brazil and increase immigration. However, the tide turned against the Dutch when the Portuguese won a significant victory at the Second Battle of Guararapes in 1649. On 26 January 1654, the Dutch surrendered and signed the capitulation, but only as a provisional pact. By May 1654, the Dutch Republic demanded that New Holland be given back. On 6 August 1661, New Holland was formally ceded to Portugal through the Treaty of The Hague.

The architecture of the United States demonstrates a broad variety of architectural styles and built forms over the country's history of over two centuries of independence and former Spanish, French, Dutch and British rule.

Architecture in the United States has been shaped by many internal and external factors and regional distinctions. As a whole it represents a rich eclectic and innovative tradition.

The Touro Synagogue is a synagogue built in 1763 in Newport, Rhode Island. The building has been occupied by several different congregations over the years. The current occupant is known as Congregation Ahavath Israel (Hebrew: ק״ק אהבת ישראל). As the only surviving synagogue building in the U.S. dating to the colonial era, it is the oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States and North America. In 1946, it was declared a National Historic Site.

Touro Synagogue represents a profound symbol of religious freedom, a cornerstone of Rhode Island’s founding principles under Roger Williams. Rhode Island was established as a haven for those seeking freedom of conscience, and the synagogue’s existence is a testament to the colony’s early commitment to religious tolerance. The first congregation was composed of Sephardic Jews, believed to have migrated from the West Indies, where they had been part of the thriving trade networks connecting Dutch and English colonies. They followed the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish liturgy and customs, preserving their distinct cultural and religious heritage.