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The first European to explore New Jersey was Giovanni de Verrazano on his vessel named La Dauphine, around 1524. He was a Florentine explorer sailing under the French flag. New Jersey was founded by Verrazano searching for a Northwest passage to Asia in which he sailed along the coast and anchored off Sandy Hook. Verrazzano sailed on behalf of King François of France. Verrazzano's brother, Girolamo da Verrazzano, was a mapmaker who accompanyed Giovanni on his voyage, and mapped the voyage. Verrazzano thought that North America was a thin isthmus separating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Spanish records recount that he was captured in 1527, while cruising off the coast of Cadiz, and executed by order of the Emperor Charles V. During is voyage Verrazano kept a log-book of his experiences. In 1556 Ramusio published in his collection of voyages a letter written by Verrazano giving an account of his voyage to the coast of North America. It is the first post-Columbian description of the North Atlantic coast, and gives the first description of New York Bay and harbour and the present Hudson River.
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Henry Hudson sailed for a Dutch trading company on the ship named Half Moon eventhough he was British. On his third voyage in 1609 he set sail from Amsterdam and headed north, trying to find a way through the Arctic to the Far East. He sailed into New York Bay in September of 1609 and explored a river which became known as the Hudson River for about 150 miles. He was looking for the shortcut to the Pacific. It claimed the land for the Dutch in which it was called New Netherlands. The primary record of the voyage - and the only surviving English record - is the journal of Robert Juet, who had sailed with Hudson previously as mate, and would again in 1610. He noted numerous fights with the natives, killing, drunkenness, looting and even a kidnapping. The crew was generally negative towards native Americans, and somewhat afraid of them, which may have influenced later relations between native groups and European settlers. On his return, Hudson stopped in England, where he was arrested for sailing under another nation's flag, considered treason at the time. The Dutch, Swedes, and Finns were the first European settlers in New Jersey. In 1664, the Dutch lost New Netherlands to the British when they added it to their colonies. Some of the colonists had purchases their land of the Indians before the proprietary government was established and refused to pay it because it was unjust tax. In May 1672, there was an actual rebellion with the colonists in which they sent compliants to the Assembly. They ended dividing the land in half and gave control to two proprietors: Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkley. With this resolvement the settlers were alowed to have political and religious freedom. In which New Jersey was ethnically diverse and grew to have about 100,000 people. The land was officially named New Jersey after the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel.
Sources:
-Chadwick, I. (1992). Henry Hudson's Third Voyage1609: The New World. Retrieved September 5, 2008 from
http://www.ianchadwick.com/hudson/hudson_03.htm-Meehan, T. (1912). Giovanni da Verrazano. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Retrieved September 5, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15364a.htm
-Our Country. (1800). New Jersey colonial history: excerpt from volume 1. Retrieved August 30, 2008 from
-State of New Jersey. A Short History of New Jersey. New Jersey Office of Technology. Retrieved August 30, 2008 from