In September 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman hired by the Dutch East India Company to find a way to Asia over the top of Russia, turned the Half Moon west instead and sailed up the river that now carries his name. Amsterdam's fur merchants followed him, and the West India Company planted New Netherland: Walloon families scattered along its rivers, a fort and a town on Manhattan, the patroonships, and a whaling post on the Delaware that was destroyed the year after it was built. Willem Kieft started a war with the river peoples that came close to destroying his own colony; Peter Stuyvesant rebuilt it into a crowded port of many languages, until an English squadron came into the harbour in August 1664 and New Amsterdam became New York. To the north Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608 and fought beside his Montagnais, Algonquin and Huron allies against the Mohawk. The Jesuits followed him into the Huron country and built Sainte-Marie, and in 1649 the Iroquois destroyed Huronia; the missionaries burned their own mission and, a year later, led the survivors to Quebec. New France held on. Jean Talon counted its people, its soldiers settled along the St Lawrence, Marquette and Jolliet went down the Mississippi in 1673, and on 9 April 1682 La Salle raised a column at the river's mouth and claimed the whole valley for Louis XIV.

What it covers: Hudson's voyages for the Muscovy Company and for the Dutch; the Half Moon's river and Juet's journal; the 1611 mutiny and the shallop set adrift; Adriaen Block and the New Netherland Company; the West India Company and Piet Heyn's silver fleet; the Walloon families and Peter Minuit's purchase of Manhattan; Rensselaerswyck and the patroons; Zwaanendael; Kieft's War, Pavonia and Pound Ridge; John Underhill and the death of Anne Hutchinson; the Nine Men and Peter Stuyvesant; the Jewish petitioners, the Quakers and John Bowne; the Esopus wars; Nicolls and the surrender of 1664; the winter on the island of Sainte-Croix and the founding of Quebec; the 1609 battle against the Mohawk; the Kirke brothers and the fall of Quebec in 1629; the Jesuits in Huronia, Brébeuf, Jogues and the Huron Carol; Sainte-Marie and the end of Huronia; Wendake; Talon, the census and the seigneuries; Tracy and the Carignan regiment; Frontenac; Marquette and Jolliet; La Salle, Tonti, Fort Crèvecoeur and the Illinois; and the claim of Louisiana.

Episode six of US History, a fifty-part history of America from the peoples who lived here before Columbus to the present day.

Chapters
0:00 Henry Hudson and the Half Moon, 1609-1611
16:50 Founding New Netherland. Block, the West India Company, Manhattan and the patroons
32:01 Kieft's War. Pavonia, Pound Ridge and the death of Anne Hutchinson, 1638-1647
46:13 Stuyvesant's New Amsterdam, the Flushing Remonstrance and the fall of New Sweden
59:09 The English seizure of 1664, the Dutch return and the end of New Netherland
1:10:12 Champlain, the founding of Quebec and the 1609 battle on the lake
1:26:50 The Jesuits in Huronia. Brébeuf, Sainte-Marie and Isaac Jogues
1:39:15 The Beaver Wars and the fall of Huronia, 1640-1656
1:54:53 The Long Sault, the royal takeover, Talon, the Filles du roi and the Carignan regiment
2:11:18 Toward the Mississippi. Jolliet and Marquette, the Griffon and Fort Crèvecoeur
2:27:00 La Salle's descent to the Gulf and the claiming of Louisiana, 1682

Made with AI. The narration is synthesised, and the research, script and assembly were done with AI assistance. Every picture is AI-generated except the photographs credited below, which are real, from Wikimedia Commons under free licences, and are listed again at the end of the film. The generated pictures are reconstructions, not records of events.

Photographs (Wikimedia Commons) by licence. Public domain: Jean-Adolphe Bocquin, Jeremiah Gurney (1812–1895), John Collier, Kaihsu Tai, Paul Ragueneau, Samuel Purchas, Samuel de Champlain, Unknown author, the Dutch deputies and English commissioners of 1664. CC BY-SA 4.0: Andre Carrotflower, Carl Young, Dave Ellis, Marc-Lautenbacher, Mnerina carm, Pierre5018, Pjposullivan, XeresNelro. CC BY 4.0: Quintin Soloviev, ajay_suresh. CC0: Rijksmuseum. CC BY-SA 2.0: Derek Harper. No restrictions: Henry Lewis. CC BY 2.0: Markus Daams. CC BY-SA 3.0: S Sepp.

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