Q 01/05

Albany sits on the Hudson about ten miles south of its confluence with which other river?

A) The Mohawk

B) The Delaware

C) The Susquehanna

D) The Genesee

Answer · why

A) The Mohawk

The Mohawk River joins the Hudson near Cohoes, roughly ten miles north of Albany; the city grew at the head of tidewater navigation just below that ju...

Q 02/05

Which people originally inhabited the Albany area, calling it their nation's 'fireplace'?

A) The Mohawk

B) The Mohicans

C) The Oneida

D) The Seneca

Answer · why

B) The Mohicans

The Mohicans, an Algonquian people, called the site 'the fireplace of the Mohican nation'; their villages lined both banks of the upper Hudson when Eu...

Q 03/05

Which explorer reached the Albany area in 1609 aboard the Half Moon and claimed it for the Netherlands?

A) Giovanni da Verrazzano

B) Samuel de Champlain

C) Henry Hudson

D) Adriaen Block

Answer · why

C) Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Netherlands' East India Company, anchored near present-day Albany in September 1609; the river carries his...

Q 04/05

The Dutch fort built in 1624 to replace flood-wrecked Fort Nassau was named for which royal house?

A) Habsburg

B) Bourbon

C) Stuart

D) Orange

Answer · why

D) Orange

Fort Orange honoured the House of Orange-Nassau, whose princes led the revolt against Spain; the 1624 fort stood on the Hudson's west bank just south ...

Q 05/05

Before the English renamed it in 1664, the Dutch village at Albany was called what?

A) Beverwijck

B) Nieuw Haarlem

C) Wiltwyck

D) Rensselaerswyck

Answer · why

A) Beverwijck

Beverwijck, set up as a separate village in 1652, means 'beaver district'; its fur trade with the Iroquois made it the colony's chief inland market.