New Amsterdam

So I got this idea in my head a few weeks ago when I was looking around dA and saw the whole family thing people got going with America, Canada, France, and England. I always found this a bit odd for there is no way I can see France being a 'Father' of America. I know most of you are probably going blasphemy!! But it's true. When you look at the creation of America, you cannot honestly link France to founding what is now America. I know most of you are like, but France helped us win our independence from England. This is true, but so did the Netherlands as well. Maybe they weren't sending us soldiers, but they gave us gold and were the first country to recognize USA as a sovereign nation. The French, though America's traditional ally, is not our longest standing ally. In fact they declared war on us a few years later after we gained our independence. Netherlands on the other hand has done no such thing and is our longest standing ally til this day.

I know the second argument is going to be, well we purchased all that land from France! Yes, the Louisiana Purchase was an handy thing that did double our size. But have any of you been there? We havent even really settled this land yet! Its for the most part empty with cities here and there and lots of farm land. (and theyre tiny compared to other cities in the USA) French is pretty much extinct in these parts as well. Furthermore, we purchased this land after we became a sovereign nation, in 1803. By this time pretty much all of Europe recognized us as a country besides possibly Great Britain. And Napoleon would not have sold us this land if he didnt need to fund his war he was about to unleash on all of Europe.

Compared to the Dutch, who were in America with established settlements in what is now New York, New Jersey, and parts of Pennsylvania and I'm sure I forgetting other areas actually partook in forming this land before we tried to become a nation. France as someone who founded our nation begins to crumble when compared. America could have very easily became New Amsterdam, but the Dutch gave up their colony and moved onto bigger plans. However, there was a big Dutch population in America at founding of our nation. Ever read Rip Van Winkle in school? Not only do we have stories that is based on the Dutch being in America, we even built our nation after the Netherlands.

I know many believe that we founded our government after the Greeks and Romans, but that is not the full story. America was not the first people to rebel against its overlords and win, in fact the Dutch did that first and they formed a government we copied once we won our war. And hell we even STOLE their name. Back then they were called 'The United Provinces of Netherlands' also known as 'The Republic of Netherlands. See what we did there? We also framed a lot of our constitution after these guys.

So knowing that, I cannot accept France to be America's father. Sorry it has to be Netherlands!