SHOOT: It's incredible to think that the Dutch visited America 400 years ago, and South Africa 52 years after that. For such a tiny country to dominate the world, and produce the General Motors of its time [the DEIC]...quite extraordinary. And the Netherlands remain one of the world's most powerful economies and an innovative and sophisticated people.
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Dutch Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife, Princess Maxima, met dignitaries up and down the Hudson River, lunched with military cadets and lauded their country's long friendship with the United States as they marked the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's historic voyage.
Hudson was an Englishman working for the Dutch in September 1609 when he sailed up the river that would later bear his name. The Half Moon (called the Halve Maen in Dutch) made it to present-day Albany before heading back.
"We can only speculate about the feelings of a small group of men on board of the Halve Maen when they first arrived on these shores exactly 400 years ago," said the Crown Prince. "They must have been struck by the beauty of these islands and by the riches they behold."
"Even though I'm an American citizen, my heart is very much Dutch. I'm proud of that heritage. I'm proud of what Holland accomplished during those years." |
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