• Source: Willem Kieft

Willem Kieft, also Wilhelm Kieft, (September 1597 – September 27, 1647) was a Dutch merchant and the Director of New Netherland (of which New Amsterdam was the capital) from 1638 to 1647.




Life and career



Willem Kieft was appointed to the rank of director by the Dutch West India Company in 1638. He formed the council of twelve men, the first representative body in New Netherland, but ignored its advice.
He tried to tax, and then drive out, local Native Americans. He ordered attacks on Pavonia and Corlears Hook on February 25, 1643, which erupted into a horrific massacre (129 Dutch soldiers killed 120 Indians, including women and children). The Dutch local citizen advisory group had been specifically against such a raid, and were aghast when they heard the details. This was followed by retaliations resulting in what would become known as Kieft's War (1643–1645). The war took a huge toll on both sides, and the directors of the Dutch West India Company dismissed him in 1647. Peter Stuyvesant succeeded Kieft in office.
Kieft died on September 27, 1647, in the Princess Amelia shipwreck near Swansea, Wales, en route to Amsterdam to defend himself, along with many of his opponents, including the Rev. Everardus Bogardus. His archive was also lost, so his exact role cannot be established apart from what his opponents wrote of him. He is depicted in the Gods of Manhattan series by Scott Mebus.




See also


Land of the Blacks (Manhattan)
Colonial America
Dutch colonization of the Americas
Dutch Empire
List of colonial governors of New Jersey
List of colonial governors of New York




References






Further reading


William Elliot Griffis The Story of New Netherland. The Dutch In America. (Chapter IX. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. 1909)
Allen Johnson, Ed. Dutch and English on the Hudson (Chapter IV. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1919)
Jaap Jacobs (2005), New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, ISBN 90-04-12906-5.
Journal of New Netherland 1647. Written in the Years 1641, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, and 1646. 1641–1647.

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Johan van de Kieft
• Willem Drees
• Peter Stuyvesant
• Sejarah Kota New York
• Piala KNVB
• Kementerian Keuangan (Belanda)
• Willem Kieft
• Kieft's War
• Twelve Men
• Fort Amsterdam
• Abraham Pietersen van Deusen
• Peter Stuyvesant
• Kieft
• Willem Verhulst
• Wim Kieft
• Wouter van Twiller