Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition, Part 1

From now on I will write my posts in English, although there still might be an occasional post in Dutch.

I decided to do this because nowadays English, and not Dutch, is pretty much the only language that is known and spoken by people all over the world. We have British imperialism and, of course, the United States to thank (or blame, that depends on your point of view) for that.

However, had there been some small changes in the course of history I could have kept writing in Dutch and still reach people worldwide.

Here's a short history lesson.

In the 17th century New Netherland (in Dutch: Nieuw-Nederland, or in Latin: Nova Belgica or Novum Belgium) was the colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the east coast of North America. The settled areas are now part of the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut.

The colony was founded to exploit the North American fur trade in the Hudson valley. The settlements of New Sweden developed on its southern flank and its northern border was re-drawn in recognition of early New England expansion. In the 1650's the colony experienced dramatic growth and became a major port for trade in the North Atlantic.

The capital, New Amsterdam (Fort Amsterdam), was located on the strategic southern tip of the island of Manhattan.

The inhibitants of New Netherland were Native Americans, Europeans and Africans. Descendants of the original settlers played a prominent role in colonial America. For two centuries New Netherland Dutch culture characterized the region. The concepts of civil liberties and pluralism introduced in the province became mainstays of American political and social life.

After three Anglo-Dutch Wars the Dutch surrendered New Netherland to the English in 1674. They, in return, got the colony of Suriname and the islands of Tobago, Saba, St Eustatius and Tortola.

The English changed the name of the capital to New York, after the Duke of York.

A lot more information about this subject is to be found on Wikipedia: New Netherland and New Amsterdam

Many of the former settlements are now part of New York City. Early settlers and their descendants gave many names to places, that are still in use throughout the region today.
Examples are the districts of Harlem (from the Dutch town of Haarlem), Brooklyn (Breukelen), Flushing (Vlissingen), Staten Island (from the Dutch Staten-Generaal) en Coney Island (from Konijneneiland, meaning Rabbit Island).
The farm and plantation of Jonas Broncks was built in 1639 in a place that is now known as The Bronx.
Hoboken in New Jersey got its name from the district Hoboken in the Belgian city of Antwerp.
Many street names such as Bridgestreet (Brugstraat), Broadway (Breede Wegh) and Wall Street (Walstraat, a fortified wall to protect New Amsterdam against the Indians and the English was built along this road) have their origins in Dutch.
The American word Yankee probably is a corruption of the common Dutch names Jan and Kees, which are sometimes combined into a single name, Jan-Kees. Cookie comes from the Dutch word koekje or koekie.

But possibly the biggest influence the Dutch had on modern American culture is the introduction of the tradition of Santa Claus. The gift-giving feast of Saint Nicholas is still celebrated on December 6 each year in the Netherlands and Belgium. The Dutch Sinterklaas was Americanized into Santa Claus, a name first used in the American press in 1773. At first only the Dutch settlers celebrated Sinterklaas, but as other colonists started celebrating as well, the feast got moved to Christmas. In the early days of the revolution Nicholas was also used as a symbol of New York's non-British past.

In the early days of the European colonization of North America a fairly big part of it was done by the Dutch. Obviously the English won in the end, but if only a few small things went differently, the world wouldn't be the same today. My point is that America could have been a Dutch speaking country! Unfortunately for me that's not the case, so this is the main reason for this major change on the blog.

Another good example of a close call in history is Australia, where the French arrived only a few days after it had been claimed by the English. But that's another story...

The decision to make this change actually wasn't a difficult one at all. I like reading and writing in English a lot. It also is really necessary if you want to communicate with the rest of the world.

My previous posts won't be translated in English though. It would take me weeks to do that. There is a translate button on the sidebar on the right to take care of that. I'm aware of the fact that it is Google translate and as a result, some sentences may be hilarious or make no sense at all. But it should suffice and you should be able to understand what I'm talking about.

This is the first of two big changes I had planned on this blog. The next one will take a little more time and can be expected in a few weeks or months.