Exploration and Early Settlement of New Jersey

European Exploration

• 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano (France) coasts the region, names it "New France."
• 1609 – Henry Hudson (Dutch East India Co.) sails up the river later named for him, claiming the hinterland for the Dutch.

Early Settlement

• 1664 – Dutch colonists from New Amsterdam establish Bergen (today's Jersey City), the first permanent European settlement.
• 1664–65 – English seize the territory, rename it Nova Caesarea (New Jersey) for Sir George Carteret.
• Late 1600s – Quakers found Burlington (1677); German Lutherans found New Brunswick (1688).

Economy & Society

Early settlers farmed wheat, corn, raised livestock, and fished the Hudson and Atlantic. By 1700, population exceeded 20,000. The colony's diversity—Dutch, English, Quaker, German, African (enslaved)—foreshadowed its pivotal Revolutionary War role.