Answer: New York, originally named NEW NETHERLAND.
Explanation:
The Dutch colony was older than New England, having been planted when the two Protestant powers allied in opposition to Catholic Spain. The Dutch East India Company (organized in 1602) had hired an English captain, Henry Hudson, to explore America in hopes of finding a northwest passage to the spice-rich Indies. In 1610 the Dutch established lucrative fur-trading posts on Manhattan Island and upriver at Fort Orange (later Albany). The Dutch then built a fort at the lower end of the island. The village of New Amsterdam, which grew up around the fort, became the capital of New Netherland and developed into a rollicking commercial powerhouse.
