After some early trading expeditions, the first Dutch<span> settlement in the Americas was founded in 1615: Fort Nassau, on Castle Island along the Hudson, near present-day Albany. The settlement served mostly as an outpost for trading in fur with the native Lenape tribespeople, but was later replaced by Fort Orange.</span>
Most Dutch came to America simply because they calculated that the future promised more prosperity for them and their children in America than in Holland.
