Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 38, The New Sweden Company.

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In our last episode, we looked at the exploration of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson,

as well as the founding of New Netherland, a series of colonies founded around the modern New York by the Dutch West India Company.

Now that we have this colony founded, we can begin to take a better look at its history.

I cannot over-emphasise was a perfect location new Amsterdam was in.

It was a settlement almost guaranteed to be a success.

It just required time.

It was the English who would be the main beneficiaries,

and this period of the history of the region is characterised

by growth, which, while steady, was slow. Perhaps it could have been quicker, but the Dutch

had a problem of attracting colonists. While Massachusetts Bay would be filled by religious dissidents, fleeing persecution,

the Dutch weren't really inclined to leave the Netherlands. Most of the free population were

Walloons and Frenchmen, not to mention African slaves. To try and encourage migration,

the Dutch West India Company tried creating something approaching a feudal setup, in which a colonist,

who brought 50 settlers with them, would be given a strip of land. They would have a feudal title with this land,

and have complete feudal control. This wasn't a great success, and the autonomy of the feudal

lords created complications with the ban on foreign trade. This ban had to be sort of lifted,

and the lords could acquire a license from the company

as long as they paid a customs fee.

While not the main industry,

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