The Dutch-Indian Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the Dutch colony of New Netherland and neighboring Indian peoples, mostly Algonquin. The clashes developed for a number of reasons, primarily because the growing number of Dutch farmers created land disputes. The Dutch colonial administration widened the rift between settlers and Natives. The Dutch West India Company maintained friendly relations and traded (including selling of firearms) with the formidable Iroquois con-federacy—a long-standing enemy of the Algonquin tribes. However, due to security concerns, the Dutch refused to sell arms to their neighbors, the Algonquin. In addition, colonial authorities tried to impose various regulations and restrictions on the Indians.
The Dutch and Indians engaged in three major wars: the Algonquin (Kieft) War, the Peach Tree War, and the Esopus Wars. The Algonquin (Kieft) War (1641-45) began with Indian attacks on Dutch settlers in the summer of
1641. The attacks were provoked both by the mounting mutual accusations over a succession of interracial murders, and by the efforts of the director general (governor) of New Netherland, Willem Kielt, to impose a tax (payable in corn) on nearby tribes.
The campaign in Manhattan and Staten Island went badly for the Dutch, and a truce was arranged in March
1642. The war resumed in February 1643 when the Mohawk from the Iroquois confederacy attacked the Algonquin living along the lower Hudson River. Kieft sought to improve his shattered reputation as a military commander by attacking the Algonquin; Dutch soldiers subsequently massacred 80 people at the encampment at Pavonia. This outrage united 11 Algonquin tribes in common straggle against the Dutch and sparked off a new round of war that devastated the entire colony except New Amsterdam and Fort Orange (Albany). The plantations of the English settlers in nearby Westchester and Long Island were also ruined.
In 1644 the Dutch fortified New Amsterdam with a stone wall—present-day Wall Street takes its name from this wall—and strengthened the garrison with reinforcements from Dutch colonies in Brazil and the West Indies. Additionally, the Dutch hired the experienced English captain John Underhill, who had participated in the Pequot War in New England. In March 1644 150 soldiers under the new commander attacked the fortified Indian village north of Stamford. Of 700 Indian warriors, only eight escaped; the Anglo-Dutch force lost only 15 men. This appalling blow on the Indian stronghold destroyed the Algonquin alliance. Confronted with the successful European advance from the south and Iroquois pressure from the north, the Algonquin tribes accepted peace in August 1645.
The Peach Tree War of 1655 ended the temporary policy of coexistence that had been implemented by the Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant. In the atmosphere of mutual suspicion, one violent episode led to war. On September 6, 1655, a Dutch farmer killed an Indian woman who was stealing peaches. Nine days later, while Dutch soldiers commanded by Stuyvesant attempted to secure the colony of New Sweden, approximately 2,000 Indians raided Manhattan. Within three days Natives killed 100 settlers, captured 150 others, and destroyed the homes of 300 other Dutch people. The Dutch conducted a series of punitive raids in Manhattan and Long Island. Using military force and diplomacy, Peter Stuyvesant ransomed some hostages. While the resulting peace was fragile and short-lived, Manhattan was never again subjected to Indian attacks.
The Esopus Wars (1658-64) resulted from Indian resistance to Dutch encroachments on their lands in the Esopus Valley. In May 1658 Natives killed a Dutch farmer and burned two houses. The Dutch demanded that the Indians deliver the murderers. The Dutch also attempted to fortify their settlements in the valley. This led to increasingly hostile Indian response. The Dutch, supported again by the Mohawk, defeated the Indians. In July 1660 a peace preserving Dutch settlement in the Esopus Valley was concluded. Nevertheless, the Algonquin resentment over the peace terms led to the resumption of hostilities in June 1663. Despite several harsh blows on the Dutch (two villages were annihilated), the Indians were defeated and, by a treaty concluded in May 1664, forced to relinquish most of their lands and to accept Dutch control over the Esopus Valley.
The Dutch-Indian Wars brought about political changes in New Netherland when military failures, particularly Kieft’s incompetence, led to the introduction of a representative consultative body. Additionally, while the wars finished with Dutch victory, the state of almost permanent struggle exhausted the colony, making it an easier prize for their English neighbors.
Further reading: Joyce D. Goodfriend, Before the Melting Pot (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1994); Donna Merwick, The Shame and the Sorrow: Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006); Paul Otto, The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006).
—Peter Rainow
World History
