Roger, that's no rush the FBI

Welcome to True Spies Brief Histories.

Season 2, Spy Cities

Our cities are the arena in which the great game of espionage is played, providing all

manner of stage setting, from grand embassies to average-looking suburban homes.

In these bonus minisodes, we'll draw on the knowledge of our true spies' experts to

enhance your understanding of the secret forces that have always operated

in the places we call home. They were converted to gunships and troop carriers and escorts

across the Atlantic. Vincent Astor played a key role in organizing that effort.

I'm Joe Foley, series producer for true spies, and this is a brief history of New York.

It's a hot August day in Manhattan. The men on the street are slick with sweat, heavily armed and tired from the march.

But what they do here today is worth a discomfort, because they've just won a battle that will define this part of the world for centuries, without spilling a drop of blood.

The year is 1664, and these are Englishmen in New Amsterdam, an important trading post in the Dutch

colony of New Netherland.

As one of the other major imperial powers of the 17th century, you might have thought that

the Dutch would put up more of a fight, but they've more or less rolled over.

Because ever since four of King Charles of England's warships landed on Long Island,

their commander, Robert Nichols, has been waging an influence campaign,

making full use of the English settlers already present in the Dutch colony to start spreading the news.

Resistance is futile.

Nichols also promises religious freedom,

something the fiercely Calvinist governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, has been dead against.

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