Fort Amsterdam is a historic fort on the island of Saint Martin, near the Sint Maarten town of Philipsburg. [1]
Fort Amsterdam is a historic fort on the island of Saint Martin, near the Sint Maarten town of Philipsburg. [1]
The triangular colonial stone fort was built by the Dutch in 1631 as defense for their colonial outpost and seaport at Sint Maarten. Located near Great Bay and Little Bay, it was captured by the Spanish only two years after it was built. The Spaniards occupied it as a military outpost supported by San Juan, Puerto Rico until the end of the long Eighty Years War in 1648.
In 1644 the Dutch attempted to recapture the fort. A sizeable expedition led by the Dutch Governor of Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire (later governor of New Amsterdam [New York]), Peter Stuyvesant made a bloody and unsuccessful attempt to retake the fort and colony but was repelled by the Spaniards. Stuyvesant led the charge, making it all the way to the top of the northwestern rampart, but was severely wounded in the attempt. As a result of the Attack on Saint Martin he lost his leg which was later replaced with a wooden peg leg.
At the end of the war the partition agreement and Treaty of Westphalia was signed by the Dutch Republic Spain and France in 1648. The island, and therefore the Fort, briefly changed hands many times between the Dutch Republic, England and France during the colonial era but has been primarily Dutch for most of its history. [2]
Today, the fort is small, and in a decaying state of repair, but still worth visiting and commands a great view of the harbor. There are several rusting 19th century cannons in place, and several informational maps and signs illustrating the development of the fort and its history.
The fort is on a peninsula about 2.5 km long and is a registered historical site, consisting of several ruins. There is a breeding colony of brown pelicans, of up to 60 nests, on the west side of the point, on a slope below the fort. The 278 ha site has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International. The vegetation is characterized by thorny scrubland of Acacia macracantha and A. tortuosa , reaching over 2 m in height. [3]
Peter Stuyvesant was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was split into New York and New Jersey with lesser territory becoming parts of other colonies, and later, states. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City and his name has been given to various landmarks and points of interest throughout the city.
New Netherland was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic located on the east coast of what is now the United States of America. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
The Netherlands began its colonization of the Americas with the establishment of trading posts and plantations, which preceded the much wider known colonization activities of the Dutch in Asia. While the first Dutch fort in Asia was built in 1600 in present-day Indonesia, the first forts and settlements along the Essequibo River in Guyana date from the 1590s. Actual colonization, with the Dutch settling in the new lands, was not as common as by other European nations.
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 300 km (190 mi) east of Puerto Rico. The 87-square-kilometre (34 sq mi) island is divided roughly 60:40 between the French Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but the Dutch part is more populated than the French part. The division dates to 1648. The northern French part comprises the Collectivity of Saint Martin and is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic. The southern Dutch part comprises Sint Maarten and is one of four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Even though the island is an overseas possession of two European Union member states, only the French part of the island is part of the EU.
The Dutch colonial empire comprised the overseas territories and trading posts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies—mainly the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company—and subsequently by the Dutch Republic (1581–1795), and by the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands after 1815. It was initially a trade-based system which derived most of its influence from merchant enterprise and from Dutch control of international maritime shipping routes through strategically placed outposts, rather than from expansive territorial ventures. The Dutch were among the earliest empire-builders of Europe, following Spain and Portugal and one of the wealthiest nations of that time.
This is a list of Directors, appointed by the Dutch West India Company, of the 17th century Dutch province of New Netherland in North America. Only the last, Peter Stuyvesant, held the title of Director General. As the colony grew, citizens advisory boards – known as the Twelve Men, Eight Men, and Nine Men – exerted more influence on the director and thus affairs of province.
Fort Casimir or Fort Trinity was a Dutch fort in the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland. It was located on a no-longer existing barrier island at the end of Chestnut Street in what is now New Castle, Delaware.
Philipsburg is the main town and capital of Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The town is on a narrow stretch of land between Great Bay and the Great Salt Pond. It functions as the commercial center of Saint Martin island, whereof Sint Maarten encompasses the southern half. As of 2017, it has 1,894 inhabitants.
The Treaty of Concordia, or the Partition Treaty of 1648, was signed on 23 March 1648, between the Kingdom of France and the Dutch Republic and divided the island of Saint Martin.
St. Martin's history shares many commonalities with other Caribbean islands. Its earliest inhabitants were Amerindians, followed by Europeans who brought slavery to exploit commercial interests.
The Collectivity of Saint Martin, commonly known as simply Saint Martin, is an overseas collectivity of France in the West Indies in the Caribbean, on the northern half of the island of Saint Martin, as well as some smaller adjacent islands. Saint Martin is separated from the island of Anguilla by the Anguilla Channel. Its capital is Marigot.
Sint Maarten is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of 34 km2 (13 sq mi), it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the northern 56% of the island constitutes the French overseas collectivity of Saint Martin. Sint Maarten's capital is Philipsburg. Collectively, Sint Maarten and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean.
The flag of Sint Maarten consists of a white triangle situated at the hoist charged with the constituent country's coat of arms, along with two horizontal bands of red and blue. Adopted in 1985 shortly after the territory was granted a coat of arms, it has been the flag of Sint Maarten since 13 June of that year. Since the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010, it has been the sole flag used in the constituent country.
Jan, Johan or Johannes van Walbeeck was a Dutch navigator and cartographer during a 1620s circumnavigation of the earth, an admiral of the Dutch West India Company, and the first governor of the Netherlands Antilles.
Part of the Eighty Years' War, the Capture of Saint Martin was a Spanish naval expedition against the island of Saint Martin, then occupied by the Dutch Republic. The island, claimed by Spain since Christopher Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, lies a few hundred miles east of Puerto Rico. Its capture prevented Dutch privateers using it as a base for operations in the Caribbean.
The Attack on Saint Martin was a failed attempt by the Dutch Republic to recapture the island and former base of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) from the Spanish. In 1633 the Spanish had invaded Saint-Martin and Anguilla, driving off the French and Dutch inhabitants. The French and Dutch banded together to repel the Spanish and it was during a 1644 sea battle that the Dutch commander Peter Stuyvesant, later the governor of New Amsterdam, unsuccessfully besieged Fort Amsterdam and was forced to retreat with the loss of hundreds of men. A stray Spanish cannonball shattered his leg, which had to be amputated. But luck was on the Dutch side, and when the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands ended, the Spanish no longer needed a Caribbean base and just sailed away in 1648.
Great Salt Pond is a 188 ha water body in the country of Sint Maarten on the island of Saint Martin in the Dutch Caribbean. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports a large seasonal aggregation of laughing gulls. It borders the capital city of Philipsburg and is the largest pond on the island. It has a high salinity and suffers pollution from landfill and urban runoff.
Little Bay is an 8-hectare (20-acre) coastal pond in the country of Sint Maarten on the island of Saint Martin in the Dutch Caribbean. It has a low salinity and lies near the capital, Philipsburg. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International because it supports threatened or restricted-range bird species. Birds for which the IBA was designated include green-throated caribs, Antillean crested hummingbirds, Caribbean elaenias, pearly-eyed thrashers and lesser Antillean bullfinches. Pied-billed grebes, common moorhens, American coots, white-cheeked pintails and ruddy ducks have been recorded nesting at the site.
The unification of Saint Martin is the proposed unification of the small island of Saint Martin, located in the Caribbean Sea. Currently, it is divided into Sint Maarten and the Collectivity of Saint Martin. The island has been divided since the signing of the Treaty of Concordia in 1648, which today remains as one of the oldest treaties still in effect.
18°00′53″N63°03′35″W / 18.0146°N 63.0597°W
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