In the past rival claims to New Netherland were laughable, the Dutch had control over the Hudson (North), the Delaware (South) and and the Connecticut (Fresh) river. Then New Sweden stole the Delaware, and the English took the Connecticut. Peter Stuyvesant destroyed New Sweden with the largest professional army ever assembled in that part of the world up until that point. Stuyvesant also negotiated a treaty establishing a border with the New England colonies, only giving up on paper what he already had no plans to recover. New Netherland was now stable and the population exploding under Stuyvesant, in less than 20 years growing to be ten times in size.
Still the English Colonies outnumbered the Dutch colony 10:1, and the tides were turning...
