2. The Anglo-Dutch Wars

The Battle of Texel during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, shortly after the incident in Sandy Hook. Photo by Willem van de Velde the Younger in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Image via Wikimedia: public domain

The Anglo-Dutch Wars began in the 1650s and did not end until the 1780s, with aspects of them continuing through the beginning of the nineteenth century with the Napoleonic Wars. It was during the course of the Second Anglo-Dutch War that England took control of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and the colony of New York was conceived. The rest is history, or that is what most people believe.

Excised from the most common narratives of New York City’s history is an incident during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. On August 7, 1673, the Dutch fleet anchored off the coast of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Over the course of the next two days, a contingent of 600 Dutch soldiers captured the British governor, Lovelace, took control of New York, and renamed the territory New Orange. New York would triumph once again. Per the terms of the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the British regained their colony and the Dutch were vanquished from New York for the last time.