biography
| name: |
Rensselaer, Kiliaen van
|
pronunciation:
[van rensuhlah(r)]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1586–1643)
|
| biography:
| Dutch merchant, born in Hasselt (Southern Netherlands), land developer and director of the Dutch West India Company (WIC). In 1629 the Company offered land for the foundation of colonies and, although he himself remained in Amsterdam, van Rensselaer was responsible for founding the colony of Rensselaerswijck on the Hudson in the New Netherlands, the only colony to become successful. It later served as a model for British ventures and for the development of large-scale landownership. Members of van Rensselaer's family later went out to America to take up its management, until the creation of the United States in 1776. |
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