Without the Dutch something important would be missing from America. The Dutch gave us New York. While the English and the French were defying the Spanish with their settlements, the intrepid Dutch appeared to intrude their own agenda. A small nation with great wealth, Holland wanted to establish the bases of a great commercial empire. Discovering the Hudson River and Manhattan, the Dutch founded New Amsterdam. The prevailing passion of the new settlement was not religion. It was trade and commerce. From the beginning it had its own unique personality.