History of New York City (prehistory–1664) with the ethnic and racial balance of the community. The economic activity brought in a wide variety of ethnic groups to the fledgling city during the 17th century, including Spanish, Jews, and Africans, some of them as slaves. The Dutch origins can still be seen in many names in New York City, such as Coney Island (from "Konijnen Eiland" – Dutch for "Rabbit Island"), Bowery from "bouwerij" (modern Dutch "boerderij" = "farm"), Brooklyn (from Breukelen), Harlem from Haarlem (formalized in 1658 as "Nieuw Haarlem"), Greenwich Village (from Greenwijck, meaning "pine wood quarter"), Flushing (from Vlissingen) and Staten Island (from "Staaten
Harbor Defenses of New York colony was named for its nominal ruler, James, Duke of York, who later became King James II of England. Fort Amsterdam was renamed Fort James in his honor. Lingering resentment over the takeover was a cause of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665. This ended with the Treaty of Breda in 1667, which made the English takeover official. In 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch seized New York from the English, but the English regained the colony with the Treaty of Westminster that ended that war. The Signal Hill site on Staten Island at The Narrows, eventually known