USA New York - The History : USA  

USA New York - The History - Travel guide

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USA New York - The History

The History

The 1st Europeans was Giovanni da Verrazano (an Italian-born navigator sailing for France) who entered New York Bay in 1524. Henry Hudson (an Englishman employed by the Dutch) reached the bay and sailed up the Hudson River in 1609. Samuel de Champlain explored and claimed northern New York for France in 1609.

In 1624 the first permanent Dutch settlement was established at Fort Orange (now Albany); one year later Peter Minuit is said to have purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for trinkets worth about $24 and founded the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City), which was surrendered to the English in 1664.

For a short time, New York City was the U.S. capital, and George Washington was inaugurated there as the first president on April 30, 1789.

New York City has been the most ethnically diverse city in the world since the 1640s, when fewer than 1,000 total residents spoke more than 15 languages. Between 1880 and 1919, more than 23 million Europeans immigrated to the United States. At least 17 million of them disembarked in New York. No one knows how many remained there, but as early as 1880, more than half the city's working population was foreign-born, providing New York with the largest immigrant labor force on earth.

New York became the 11th State to Unite under America on July 26.