When Was New York Founded?

Short answer

• New York City is conventionally dated to 1624, the year Dutch colonists established a permanent settlement in the region that became New Netherland. That short answer needs a qualification, because 1624 was not the year a city called New York appeared on a map. The settlement on Manhattan took shape over the next two years, the community was named New Amsterdam in 1626 according to the New York City Municipal Archives, and it was renamed New York only in 1664, after England took control. If the question means the founding of the Dutch town that grew into modern New York City, 1624 is the conventional answer. If it means the year the name New York was first used, the answer is 1664. If it means the year the modern five-borough city was created, the answer is 1898. The rest of this article explains each date, so you can see which one fits the question you are really asking.

Why There Is No Single Founding Year

Cities rarely have a single birthday, and New York City is a good example of why. A founding date depends on what counts as the beginning: the first permanent settlement, the first use of a name, the first city charter, or the legal creation of the modern municipality. New York City has a different date for each of those milestones, and different sources emphasize different ones. Some sources give 1624, the year of the first Dutch colonial settlement in the region. Others give 1625, when work began on Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan. Still others point to 1626, when settlers gathered on Manhattan and the community took the name New Amsterdam. None of these sources is simply wrong. They are measuring different moments in the same early story.

That is why a one-word answer to this question can mislead. Saying only “1624” hides the fact that the place was not yet called New York, was not yet a chartered city, and did not yet cover anything like the modern five boroughs. Saying only “1664” hides the forty years of Dutch history that came before the English renaming. The honest answer is a short timeline, not a single year, with 1624 as the conventional shorthand for the founding of the Dutch settlement that became New York City.

This article follows that approach. It starts before European settlement, because the land already had a long human history, then works through the Dutch years, the English takeover, and the later milestones that shaped the modern city. Along the way it flags the points where historians disagree or where the popular story goes beyond the surviving evidence, especially the famous story of the purchase of Manhattan.

Before the Europeans: The Lenape and Lenapehoking

Long before any Dutch ship reached the harbor, the region was home to Lenape people. The Lenape lived in the area between the Delaware and Hudson rivers, in a homeland often called Lenapehoking. They farmed, fished, hunted, and traded, and they lived in villages and seasonal camps across what is now New York City and the surrounding region. Any history of the founding of New York that starts in 1624 therefore starts in the middle of the story. European settlement did not begin on empty land. It began on land that was already inhabited, used, and understood by its Indigenous residents.

This point matters for the founding question in two ways. First, it corrects the idea that the city was founded from nothing. The Dutch settlement grew up alongside, and often in tension with, Lenape communities that were already there. Second, it matters for the famous purchase story discussed later in this article. The Dutch and the Lenape appear to have understood land agreements differently, and that difference in understanding is central to why historians treat the 1626 transaction with caution. Keeping the Lenape presence in view from the start makes the later story easier to understand, and more accurate.

First European Contacts: 1524 and 1609

The first recorded European to enter New York Harbor was the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, sailing for France, who reached the area in 1524. Verrazzano did not found a settlement, and his visit left no permanent European presence. It did, however, put the harbor on European maps and begin a long period of exploration and growing European interest in the region. For the founding question, 1524 is a date of first contact, not a founding date, and it should not be confused with one.

The more consequential voyage came in 1609, when Henry Hudson, an English explorer working for the Dutch East India Company, sailed into the harbor and up the river that now bears his name. The New York City Municipal Archives notes that Hudson led this expedition under a commission from the Dutch East India Company. Hudson was looking for a northern route to Asia. He did not find one, but his reports of the region, its harbor, and its fur trading potential helped draw Dutch commercial interest. Hudson’s voyage explains why the Dutch, rather than another European power, became the first to settle the area permanently. It is the bridge between exploration and colonization.

Between 1609 and 1624, Dutch commercial activity in the region grew. Trading posts appeared, and the Dutch claimed the territory as New Netherland. A trading presence, however, is not the same as a settled colony. That change came in 1624, when the Dutch began sending colonists to live and farm in the region, not merely to trade and leave.

1624: The Conventional Founding Year

The year most often cited as the founding of New York City is 1624. In that year, the first colonists of New Netherland arrived, initially settling at Fort Orange, near present-day Albany, according to the New York City Municipal Archives. That detail surprises many readers, because Fort Orange is not in New York City. The reason 1624 still counts as the city’s conventional founding year is that it marks the start of permanent Dutch colonization in the colony of which the Manhattan settlement was a part. The settlers who reached Manhattan in the following years were part of the same colonial enterprise, and the town they built became the colony’s principal settlement.

This is a good example of how a conventional date works. Historians and reference works adopt 1624 as a convenient shorthand for the beginning of the permanent Dutch presence that led to New York City, even though the Manhattan town itself developed slightly later. When a quiz, a travel guide, or a short encyclopedia entry says New York was founded in 1624, this is the reasoning behind the answer. It is a reasonable convention, provided the reader understands what it stands for.

It is also worth noting what 1624 was not. It was not the year the name New York was used, since that name came forty years later. It was not the year the town received a city charter, since that came in 1653. And it was not the year the modern city was formed, since that came in 1898. The 1624 date marks a beginning, not a finished city.

1625 to 1626: New Amsterdam Takes Shape on Manhattan

In the years immediately after 1624, the center of Dutch settlement shifted toward Manhattan. Construction began on Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan in 1625, and a settlement grew around it. The New York City Municipal Archives states that in 1626 other settlers came to Manhattan Island and named their community New Amsterdam. This is why some sources give 1625 or 1626 as the founding year: they are dating the Manhattan town itself, rather than the wider colony.

New Amsterdam was the seat of government for New Netherland, and it grew slowly at first. Its early population included company soldiers, farmers, and traders, and over time it drew settlers from the Netherlands and from other parts of Europe. The town was a commercial settlement before it was anything else. Its purpose was trade, above all the fur trade, and its location at the mouth of the Hudson River gave it access to the interior as well as to the Atlantic. That commercial character shaped the city from the start, and it helps explain why New York later became a trading and financial center.

The name New Amsterdam itself tells part of the story. It honored Amsterdam, the great Dutch commercial city, and it signaled the town’s role as the Dutch colony’s capital in North America. The name lasted for nearly four decades, and it is still visible in New York today in street names, institutions, and historical markers that recall the Dutch period.

The 1626 Purchase of Manhattan: What the Evidence Actually Shows

No episode in New York’s early history is better known, or more misunderstood, than the purchase of Manhattan in 1626. According to the traditional story, Peter Minuit, the director general of New Netherland, bought the island of Manhattan from its Indigenous inhabitants for goods valued at 60 guilders, a sum later converted in popular retellings to about 24 dollars. The Library of Congress, in its Today in History entry for May 4, records that Minuit arrived on Manhattan on May 4, 1626, and is famous for purchasing Manhattan from resident Algonquin Indians for the equivalent of 24 dollars, while also noting that the Dutch had already established the town of New Amsterdam at the southern end of the island.

That Library of Congress wording already contains an important caution. The transaction was, in its words, a mere formality in one sense, because Dutch settlement was already underway. Other cautions run deeper. The original deed has not survived, so historians rely on later references to the transaction rather than on the document itself. The identity of the sellers is also debated: some accounts name the Canarsee, while others note that the people who made the agreement may not have held the rights the Dutch believed they were buying. Most importantly, the Dutch and the Indigenous parties appear to have understood the agreement differently. Many historians conclude that the Lenape sellers likely understood the arrangement as granting shared use of the land, such as hunting and fishing rights, rather than as a permanent transfer of ownership in the European sense.

The famous 24 dollar figure needs the same care. It is a later conversion of the reported 60 guilders into dollars, not a price anyone paid in dollars in 1626, since the dollar did not exist as United States currency at that time. The goods exchanged were trade goods, not cash. The New Netherland Institute notes that the 60 guilders were estimated as equivalent to about 25 dollars in 1626 dollars, and it places the exchange in May or July 1626. The popular version that Manhattan was bought for 24 dollars worth of beads and trinkets is therefore a simplification of a simplification. The underlying transaction, a transfer of trade goods valued at 60 guilders, is well attested in later references, but the colorful details of the popular story should not be treated as settled fact.

For the founding question, the purchase matters less as a real estate deal and more as a marker. It shows that by 1626 the Dutch were consolidating their hold on Manhattan and regularizing, in their own legal terms, the settlement they had already begun. It does not, by itself, found the city. The city was already forming, and the purchase was one step in that process.

1653: New Amsterdam Becomes a Chartered City

A settlement is not automatically a city in the legal sense. That step came in 1653, when New Amsterdam received its first city charter. The New York City Municipal Archives holds an almost unbroken set of records of city governance beginning in 1653, when the city of New Amsterdam first received its charter. The charter gave the town a municipal government, with officials, courts, and administrative structures modeled in part on Dutch practice. It is the date to use if the question means when New York first became a city in law, rather than when settlers first arrived.

The 1653 charter also helps explain the layout of early New York. A defensive wall built across Manhattan in this period gave its name to Wall Street, and the town’s southern tip, around the fort, became the core from which the later city grew. The chartered town was still small by modern standards, but it now had the institutions of a city: a government that could make rules, settle disputes, and manage public affairs. For readers who want a legal founding date, 1653 is the strongest candidate after 1624.

1664: The English Takeover and the Name New York

The most important single turning point in the city’s early history came in 1664. In March of that year, King Charles II of England granted the colony to his brother James, Duke of York. The New York City Municipal Archives records that New Amsterdam surrendered to the English on September 8, 1664, and was renamed New York. The Library of Congress gives the same sequence: when the British seized the territory in 1664, New Amsterdam was renamed New York City in honor of England’s Duke of York.

This is the answer if the question is taken literally: when was New York, under that name, founded? The answer is 1664, because that is when the name New York was first applied to the town. The renaming was a political act, marking the transfer of the colony from Dutch to English control. It did not erase the town’s Dutch past, and many Dutch residents remained, but it changed the town’s government, its official language of administration, and its place within a different empire.

The English period was not uninterrupted. The Dutch briefly recaptured the colony in 1673, during a war between England and the Netherlands, before the Treaty of Westminster returned it to English control in 1674. That brief reversal is a useful reminder that the 1664 transfer was contested, not inevitable. After 1674, however, English control held, and the city developed as part of the English colonial system until the American Revolution.

1686: The Dongan Charter

A second charter date often appears in histories of New York, and it deserves a brief explanation because it is sometimes confused with the founding. On April 27, 1686, Governor Thomas Dongan promulgated a new charter for the City of New York, known as the Dongan Charter. The New York State court system’s history of colonial New York records this date and notes that the charter permitted the citizens of each ward to elect an alderman, an assistant, and a constable. The Dongan Charter is the second English charter of the city, and an original copy is held by the New York Public Library.

The Dongan Charter did not found the city, and it did not rename it. It reorganized and confirmed the city’s government under English rule. Readers who encounter 1686 in a list of New York dates should read it as a charter milestone, not as a rival founding year.

City Versus State: Two Different Foundings

A common source of confusion is the difference between New York City and New York State. The city was founded in the seventeenth century. The state entered the Union in the eighteenth century, and the two events should not be merged. New York ratified the United States Constitution on July 26, 1788, becoming the eleventh state to do so, by a vote of 30 to 27, according to the United States Senate’s state timeline. That date is the founding of New York as a state in the federal Union, not the founding of the city.

The distinction also clears up a related confusion about capitals. New York City served as the first capital of the United States under the Constitution in 1789 to 1790, and it hosted Congress in the preceding years, according to the Library of Congress. That role came more than a century after the city’s founding, and it reflects the city’s importance in the new republic, not its origin. Similarly, when sources say New York became a state in 1788, they mean the state, and the city had already existed for more than 160 years by that point.

1898: The Modern Five Borough City

One more date completes the picture. The New York City of today, with its five boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, was created by consolidation on January 1, 1898. The New York City Municipal Archives traces its own collection to this event, noting that the modern city was formed by consolidating previously independent towns, villages, and cities. The Library of Congress gives the same date, stating that in 1898 Manhattan merged with Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island to form the five-borough metropolis known today as New York City.

If the question means when the modern city, as a single municipality covering all five boroughs, came into existence, the answer is 1898. This is the most recent of the candidate founding dates, and it is the one that best describes the city as it exists today. It does not replace 1624 as the conventional founding year, but it is the right answer for a different, and perfectly reasonable, version of the question.

Timeline: The Dates That Answer the Question

1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano, sailing for France, becomes the first recorded European to enter New York Harbor. No settlement follows.

1609: Henry Hudson, working for the Dutch East India Company, explores the harbor and the Hudson River, opening the way for Dutch commercial interest.

1624: The first Dutch colonists of New Netherland arrive, the conventional founding year for New York City.

1625: Construction begins on Fort Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan.

1626: Settlers gather on Manhattan and name the community New Amsterdam. Peter Minuit’s purchase of Manhattan, for trade goods valued at 60 guilders, is traditionally dated to this year.

1653: New Amsterdam receives its first city charter.

1664: England takes control. New Amsterdam surrenders on September 8 and is renamed New York, after James, Duke of York.

1673 to 1674: The Dutch briefly recapture the colony, then return it to England under the Treaty of Westminster.

1686: The Dongan Charter, the second English charter of the City of New York, is promulgated on April 27.

1788: New York ratifies the United States Constitution on July 26, becoming the eleventh state.

1789 to 1790: New York City serves as the first capital of the United States under the Constitution.

1898: The five boroughs consolidate on January 1 into the modern City of New York.

How to Answer the Question in One Sentence

If you need a single sentence, use this one: New York City traces its founding to the Dutch settlement of 1624, became the town of New Amsterdam in 1626, and took the name New York in 1664. That sentence is longer than a single year, but it is accurate, and it prevents the most common misunderstandings. It keeps the conventional date, names the Dutch origin, and gives the renaming its proper place. For most purposes, it is the best short answer available.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was New York founded in 1624 or 1626?

Both dates are used, for different milestones. The year 1624 marks the arrival of the first Dutch colonists of New Netherland and is the conventional founding year for New York City. The year 1626 marks the naming of the Manhattan community as New Amsterdam and the traditional date of the Manhattan purchase. If you must choose one year for the founding of the city, choose 1624, and note that the Manhattan town took shape in 1625 to 1626.

Who founded New York?

The Dutch founded the settlement that became New York City, through the Dutch West India Company and the colony of New Netherland. The town was first called New Amsterdam. The English later took control in 1664 and renamed it New York. No single person founded the city. Peter Minuit is associated with the 1626 Manhattan purchase, but he did not single-handedly found New York, and the settlement already existed when the purchase took place.

Was Manhattan really bought for 24 dollars?

Not in the way the popular story suggests. The reported transaction involved trade goods valued at 60 guilders, a figure later converted to about 24 or 25 dollars in popular accounts. No dollars changed hands in 1626, the original deed has not survived, and historians disagree about who held the rights that were transferred and how the Indigenous sellers understood the agreement. Treat the 24 dollar version as a popular simplification, not as a precise historical fact.

When did New York get the name New York?

In 1664, after England took control of New Amsterdam. The city was renamed in honor of James, Duke of York, the brother of King Charles II, who had received the grant of the colony. The Dutch briefly retook the city in 1673, but it returned to English control in 1674 and kept the name New York.

When did New York become a city?

New Amsterdam received its first city charter in 1653. Under English rule, the city received a further charter, the Dongan Charter, in 1686. If the question means the first legal city government, 1653 is the answer. If it means the modern five-borough municipality, the answer is 1898.

When did New York become a state?

New York became a state in the federal sense on July 26, 1788, when it ratified the United States Constitution as the eleventh state, by a vote of 30 to 27. The city of New York had already existed for more than 160 years by then. Do not confuse the statehood date with the city’s founding date.

Is New York City the same as New York State?

No. New York City is a municipality within New York State. The state is much larger and includes many other cities, including Albany, the state capital, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. The city was founded in the seventeenth century, while the state joined the Union in 1788.

Sources & references

• Library of Congress, Today in History, May 4: Early Manhattan. Consulted and read 26 October 2026.
• New York City Department of Records and Information Services, Municipal Archives, For the Record blog, American Colonial History entries. Consulted and read 26 October 2026.
• New York State Unified Court System, history of colonial New York under British rule, Dongan Charter entry. Consulted 26 October 2026.
• United States Senate, New York state timeline, ratification entry. Consulted 26 October 2026.
• New Netherland Institute, Peter Minuit biography and Manhattan purchase entry. Consulted 26 October 2026.