Orange (colour) in Portuguese, and "orange" in English. The House of Orange-Nassau was one of the most influential royal houses in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. It originated in 1163 the tiny Principality of Orange, a feudal state of north of Avignon in southern France. The Principality of Orange took its name not from the fruit, but from a Roman-Celtic settlement on the site which was founded in 36 or 35 BC and was named Arausio, after a Celtic water god; however, the name may have been slightly altered, and the town associated with the colour, because it was on
Dutch colonization of the Americas order to gain access to Long Island Sound. Block Island and Block Island Sound are befittingly named in his honor. Upon his return to Amsterdam in 1614, Block compiled a map, and applied the name 'New Netherland' for the first time to the area between English Virginia and French Canada, where he was later granted exclusive trading rights by the Dutch government. Block quickly ascended and became Manhattan's first monopolist. After some early trading expeditions, the first Dutch settlement in the Americas was founded in 1615: Fort Nassau, on Castle Island along the Hudson, near present-day Albany. The settlement served