September 11 – "Discovering" Manhattan

nPosted on September 11, 2017

Key points

I’ve said it before, and I’ll have to say it again, but the word “discover” is really tricky when we are talking about European explorers. They “discovered” lands that they hadn’t known existed – but other peoples knew about these lands, of course. Usually, people were actually living in the lands that some white guy just claimed for his king!!

nHenry Hudson did not explore for his king. He was an Englishman, but he explored on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. His goal was to find a Northwest Passage to Asia, where valuable spices and silks and other trade items could be found.

nHudson explored the North Atlantic and what is now Canada and the northeastern U.S., in four different expeditions.

The map above shows all four Hudson voyages.

The map below is a close-up on the New World parts
of his voyages and can be understood more easily.

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nOn this date in 1609, Henry Hudson “discovered” Manhattan Island. Of course, people called the Lenape were already living there. Actually, a Florentine explorer named Giovanni da Verrazzano had already been there, as well. He was sailing on behalf of the French King, and he had given a variety of features French names.

This picture contrasts today’s Manhattan
with what it looked like in Hudson’s time.

nBut it turned out that the European colony later built on Manhattan Island was Dutch, not French, and the “very big river” Verrazzano had described was named the Hudson River, not the Verrazzano River. So being there first doesn’t always matter.

nBy the way, on Hudson’s last voyage, in 1611, his crew mutinied and put Hudson, his teenage son, and seven crewmen into a small boat with a few supplies – and Hudson and the rest of the marooned men were never seen again.