Dutch Empire/Director-Generals of New Netherland

	Name	In Office	Notes
1	Cornelis Jacobszoon May	1624–1625	May was the captain of the ship New Netherland who delivered the first boat load of colonists to New Netherland on Governors Island in June of 1624. Having transformed the New Netherland territory to a province, he was named the province's first director.
2	Willem Verhulst	1625–1626	Oversaw the decision to locate the company's main fortress and town on the tip of Manhattan Island in the colony of New Netherland.
3	Peter Minuit	1626–1632	Was the founder of the Swedish colony of New Sweden in 1638, and purchased the Island of Manhattan from the Canarsee Native Americans on May 24, 1626.
4	Sebastiaen Jansen Krol	1632–1633	Was commander of Fort Orange(present day Albany) previous to this post.
5	Wouter van Twiller	1633–1638	Twiller purchased 'Noten Eylant', later called Governors Island from a tribe of Native Americans.
6	Willem Kieft	1638–1647	Started a war with the Native Americans in 1643(which became known as Kiefts War), and was fired in 1647.
7	Peter Stuyvesant	1647–1664	Last, greatest, and most famous, Director-General. Expanded the size of New Netherland, settled disputes with Native Americans and the English, and ordered the construction of the protective wall on Wall Street, the canal that became Broad Street, and Broadway. He did not want to surrender the colony to the English in 1664, but under pressure from the Colonists and overwhelming odds, he was forced to. See, "place names" for places named after Stuyvesant.
8	Anthony Colve	1673–1674	Anthony Colve was commissioned as the Governor of New York when the Netherlands reclaimed New York City after nine years of British rule.