Strong Orange

Fort Orange (“ Fort Oranje ” in Dutch and often quite simply referred as “ Orange ” in News-France) was a military fortified town but especially commercial set up in 1624 by the Compagnie Dutchwoman of the Western Indies to replace the fort (Strong Nassau) which had been previously builds on the island of Castle (now Van Renslaer gold Westerlo) 1614 by tradesmen, on the accesses of the river Hudson. This construction had quickly fallen in disuse due to the frequent floods having damaged the built foundations of wood and had been consequently abandoned in 1617. The Dutch thus named the establishment in the honor of the princely Orange-Nassau House. It was about the one of the turntables commercial of the fur skins in North America of the 17th century. The fort was not rebuilt on the island, but indeed a little more in north, on bank is of Hudson. Today, the fort is not any more, the site is now occupied by “Steamboat Square” of the town of Albany

Strong Orange, completely surrounded by a semi-private stronghold (Rensselaerswijck) bought by one of the shareholder of the Company, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, saw, during the Années 1650, the erection of a village in its periphery: Beverwijck which was going to be renamed Albany following the English conquest of the New-Country-Low in 1664.

References

Van Laer, A.J.F. Annals off New Netherland . Edited and annotated by Dr. Charles T. Gehring, Albany, 1999. Document available on Internet at this address: New Netherland Project
Venema, Janny. Beverwijck. In Dutch Village one the American Frontier, 1652-1664 . Hilversum, Netherlands, Verloren/Albany, State University off New York Near, 2003. 528 pages.

Random links: