To capitalize on the opportunities presented by Henry Hudson's discovery, the Dutch West India Company established the colony of New Netherland in 1624. Settlements soon appeared at Fort Orange, near present-day Albany, and at several points along the Hudson River. The colony’s capital, New Amsterdam, occupied the southern tip of Manhattan Island, where a deep natural harbor offered extraordinary advantages for shipping and commerce.
Sources
Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. Vintage Books, 2004.
Wikipedia. "New Netherlands." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Netherland.
Further Reading
Jacobs, Jaap. The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America. Cornell University Press, 2009.
New York State Archives. "Researching New York's Dutch Heritage." https://www.archives.nysed.gov/research/research-guide-dutch.
Rink, Oliver. Holland on the Hudson: An Economic and Social History of Dutch New York. Cornell University Press, 1986.
Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America. Vintage Books, 2004.
van den Hout, J. Adriaen van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth-Century America. Albany: Excelsior Editions, 2018.
Van der Donck, Adriaen. A Description of the New Netherlands. 1655.