Settlers

• Many of the immigrants to New Amsterdam were not Dutch, but Scandinavians, Germans, French, Protestants from Belgium known as Walloons and other people dissatisfied with Europe. According to the National Humanities Center, in 1668, one colonist complained: "Our chiefest unhappiness here is too great a mixture of Nations, & English the least part."
  
  

History

• England claimed New Netherland, and King Charles II gave the country between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers to his brother, the Duke of York in 1664. That year an English fleet appeared in the New Amsterdam harbor, and Governor Peter Stuyvesant was forced to surrender.
  
  

Government

• The first English governor guaranteed the rights of property, citizenship and religious liberty to the polyglot citizens. Stuyvesant had been an autocratic ruler who opposed popular government. In the Dutch towns, there were no popular elections, while English settlers on Long Island chose their own officials. Governor Thomas Dongan convened a popular assembly in 1683, which adopted a "Charter of Liberties," stating that representatives of the people should coordinate with the government, and no taxes could be laid without their consent.
  
  

Taxation

• New York subsequently suffered under England's attempts to control trade. The Provincial Assembly of New York refused to comply with some laws, causing Parliament in 1767 to prohibit "the governor, council, and Assembly of New York passing any legislative act for any purpose whatsoever,"according to Son of the South.net. The Congress of New York approved the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776.