Willem Kieft

2025-09-28T20:29:12Z

46.193.57.2: split off modern connection into a new section

{{Short description|Dutch colonial governor (1597–1647)}}
{{For|the Dutch footballer|Wim Kieft}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Willem Kieft
| image = Willem (Wilhelm) Kieft (1597-1647) Director of New Netherland.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Willem (Wilhelm) Kieft, reproduction of a painting
| order = 6th
| office = Director of New Netherland
| term_start = 1638
| term_end = 1647
| predecessor = [[Wouter van Twiller]]
| successor = [[Peter Stuyvesant]]
| birth_date = September 1597
| birth_place = [[Amsterdam]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1647|09|27|1597||}}
| death_place = ''[[Princess Amelia (1634 ship)|Princess Amelia]]'', near [[Swansea]], Wales
| signature = Signature of Willem Kieft (1597–1647).png
}}
{{New Netherland}}
'''Willem Kieft''', also ''Wilhelm Kieft'', (September 1597 – September 27, 1647) was a Dutch merchant and the [[Director of New Netherland]] (of which [[New Amsterdam]] was the capital) from 1638 to 1647.

==Life and career==
[[File:Journal of New Netherland 1647. Written in the Years 1641, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, and 1646 WDL4060.pdf|thumb|The handwritten ''Journal of New Netherland 1647'' by an unknown Dutch colonist, from the manuscript collections of the National Library of the Netherlands, is an important source for the study of Kieft's governorship, the war, and New Netherland in the 1640s.]]

Willem Kieft was appointed to the rank of director by the [[Dutch West India Company]] in 1638.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4060/ |title = Journal of New Netherland 1647. Written in the Years 1641, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, and 1646 |website = [[World Digital Library]] |date = 1641–1647 |access-date = 2013-08-01 }}</ref> He formed the [[Twelve Men|council of twelve men]], the first representative body in New Netherland, but ignored its advice.<ref name="New Netherland Institute">{{cite web|url=http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/willem-kieft/|title=Willem Kieft|website=www.newnetherlandinstitute.org}}</ref>

He tried to tax, and then drive out, local Native Americans.<ref name="WDL"/> He ordered attacks on [[Pavonia, New Netherland|Pavonia]] and [[Lower East Side#Historical boundaries|Corlears Hook]] on February 25, 1643, which erupted into a horrific massacre (129 Dutch soldiers killed 120 Indians, including women and children). The Dutch local citizen advisory group had been specifically against such a raid, and were aghast when they heard the details. This was followed by retaliations resulting in what would become known as [[Kieft's War]] (1643–1645). The war took a huge toll on both sides, and the directors of the [[Dutch West India Company]] dismissed him in 1647. [[Peter Stuyvesant]] succeeded Kieft in office.<ref name="WDL"/>

Kieft died on September 27, 1647, in the ''[[Princess Amelia (1634 ship)|Princess Amelia]]'' shipwreck near [[Swansea]], Wales, en route to Amsterdam to defend himself, along with many of his opponents, including the Rev. [[Everardus Bogardus]].<ref name=island>[[Russell Shorto]], ''The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America.'' First Edition. [[New York City]]: [[Vintage Books]] (a Division of [[Random House]], 2004. {{ISBN|1-4000-7867-9}}</ref> His archive was also lost, so his exact role cannot be established apart from what his opponents wrote of him.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofstateof08newy/historyofstateof08newy_djvu.txt| first=Alexander Clarence|last=Flick|title=History of the State of New York, Volumes 1–10|publisher=New York State Historical Association|date=1935|access-date=July 10, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Governor Kieft's Personal War |first=Walter |last=Giersbach. |date= August 26, 2006 |url= https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/Century17th/KieftsWar |website=militaryhistoryonline.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605035923/https://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/Century17th/KieftsWar |archive-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref>

==Legacy==
He is depicted in the Gods of Manhattan series by [[Scott Mebus]].

==See also==
* [[Land of the Blacks (Manhattan)]]
* [[Colonial America]]
* [[Dutch colonization of the Americas]]
* [[Dutch Empire]]
* [[List of colonial governors of New Jersey]]
* [[List of colonial governors of New York]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[[William Elliot Griffis]] ''The Story of New Netherland. The Dutch In America''. (Chapter IX. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. 1909)
*Allen Johnson, Ed. ''Dutch and English on the Hudson'' (Chapter IV. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1919)
*Jaap Jacobs (2005), New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, {{ISBN|90-04-12906-5}}.
*''[http://www.wdl.org/en/item/4060/ Journal of New Netherland 1647. Written in the Years 1641, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, and 1646]''. 1641–1647.

{{S-start}}
{{S-gov}}
{{Succession box| before=[[Wouter van Twiller]]| title=[[Director of New Netherland]]| after=[[Peter Stuyvesant]]| years=1638—1647}}
{{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kieft, Willem}}
[[Category:1597 births]]
[[Category:1647 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch businesspeople]]
[[Category:People from New Netherland]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Amsterdam]]
[[Category:Directors of New Netherland]]
[[Category:Dutch merchants]]
[[Category:Kieft's War]]
[[Category:Dutch mass murderers]]
[[Category:Deaths due to shipwreck at sea]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in Wales]]
[[Category:Native American genocide perpetrators]]

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Willem Kieft