Enlightenment · Europe · Politics

1667

Treaty of Breda

July 21, 1667

The Second Anglo-Dutch War ended with a swap: the Dutch kept Suriname, captured during the war, and let the English keep New York. Contemporaries thought the Dutch had the better of the bargain, since Suriname grew sugar and Manhattan merely traded furs. History would take a different view, and the island that the Dutch surrendered would become the commercial capital of the world.