As a result of Hudson's voyage, the Dutch claimed the area from the Hudson River Valley southward to Delaware Bay. They called this region New Netherland. In 1614 Dutch merchants established a fur trading post near Albany. Ten years later 30 families came to New Netherland. They were sent by the Dutch West India Company, to which the Dutch government had granted exclusive trading and colonizing rights in the New World. Most of settlers went up the Hudson River to the area of the first Dutch trading post, where they founded Fort Orange.
Within the next two years, additional colonists arrived. Many of them settled in New York Bay and on the lower Delaware River. A large settlement was made on Manhattan Island. This town, named New Amsterdam, soon became the seat of government and main trading center of New Netherland.