WI Virginia was on the Hudson- New Netherlands was on the Chesapeake?

raharris1973

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What if the Jamestown settlers landed and settled at or near Manhattan in 1607?

Would they have less harsh early years than the Jamestowners? Less heat and swampiness could be healthier.

Would tobacco grow in profitable amounts? If not, what becomes the colony's leading exports?

Perhaps they name the Hudson the James River instead, and as time goes on, OTL's New York and New Jersey are most identified with the name Virginia.

Would Henry Hudson attack them when exploring 2 years later?

If Henry Hudson, and then navigators and mappers working for the Dutch in later years, Adriaen Block, Hendrick Christiaensen, Cornelisz Mey and Symon Willemsz Cat, find English settlements dotting New York and New Jersey, but no English settlements in the Chesapeake, might the Dutch West India Company seek to establish New Netherlands in the Chesapeake in 1621?

How would a New Netherlands focused on OTL's Virginia and Maryland develop?

Were the early tribulations of the Jamestown settlers simply a consequence of the climate in the Chesapeake, or simply the consequences of picking a particularly unhealthy spot within the Chesapeake?

If the Dutch had similar death rates in Virginia as the English, would they have persisted or given up?

How would things in a a Dutch Virginia and an English New York-New Jersey go down through the rest of the 1600s?
 

raharris1973

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If we are imagining a somewhat convergent European and North American situation, the Dutch can probably make their colony in the Chesapeake stick for awhile. I'd assume the right tobacco blend would be found to make profit. New Sweden might be completely butterflied away in the Delaware Valley, or absorbed early by Virginians from New Jersey or Dutch from OTL's Baltimore.

I would assume New England and Virginia (NY-NJ) would be demographically larger than Virginia and the Anglo-Dutch wars would still occur over trade. Maybe Lord Baltimore is given a grant in the Delaware/Philadelphia area.

The English would still be favored to conquer Virginia (possibly this late English rule in the Chesapeake slows the English foundation of Carolina....or not).

The Dutch would be as motivated to recapture New Netherlands on Chesapeake as they were to recapture New Amsterdam in OTL. Because of its more valuable plantations, the Dutch might be more inclined to keep it if recaptured, but if offered a choice between Virginia tobacco and Surinam sugar, they would probably still favor the the Caribbean territory.

A New York on the Chesapeake will take longer to become politically prominent among the British colonies than OTL's Virginia did. Some of the larger impacts of this alternative are a more ethnically diverse southern British colonies, and a much larger share of African-Americans in the colonies will have Dutch rather than English or Scottish surnames and given names.

I think meanwhile with Virginia developing on the Hudson and New Jersey from an early point, 1607, either Virginia or Virginia spinoffs will have firm control over eastern Pennsylvania long before William Penn becomes eligible for a land grant (if that is not butterflied away). If Penn gets a grant to run his Quaker experiment it is more likely further south on the seaboard, or perhaps up in Maine.

Your thoughts?
 
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