New York City founded by the Belgians?

Those who are acquainted with history will have learned that the city of New York was founded by the Dutch.

Pierre Minuit bought the island of Manhattan from the indians for the small sum of 60 florins (now about 900 US dollar). He became the first governor of the republic of New Holland, which was later to become the city of New York.

According to a (Belgian) historicus, Pierre Minuit was born in Wallony, which is part of Belgium and his compatriots joined him in coming to the new land. The first settlers would thus have been Belgians.

Of course here everyone believes what Vander Cruyssen is saying. But the Dutch are more sceptic. They don't want to share the glory with us, it seems. They say the West-Indian Company was a multinational and the identity of its CEO is not important...

But all the Belgian media took over this newsfact as the truth and somewhere in New York there is also a memorial that quotes the Walloons who founded the city.

This tidbit was brought up again by a quiz at our local TV station. The public had to guess whether this statement was true or false.