What does New Amsterdam refer to? [originaltext] For most of its life, New

For most of its life, New Amsterdam had fewer than 1,000 residents, but its influence would far outstrip its size. This was the first and most important multicultural base in colonial America. While Boston and, later, Philadelphia, developed along distinctly English lines, New Amsterdam was pluralistic from the beginning. In 1643, when barely 500 people called it home, director Willem Kieft told a visiting Jesuit priest that 18 languages were spoken. In fact, according to some estimates this "Dutch" city was never more than 50 percent Dutch in its population.  The other major groups included Germans, English, Africans, Scandinavians, French, and Jewish. From this tiny mix of peoples would come the structure of New York City. The so-called Castello Plan--a map drawn up in 1660--gives us an excellent picture of what New Amsterdam was like at its height, just four years before the English took over and renamed it New York. The truth, as exhibited in the museum of the city of New York, is that the Dutch happened to transport an entire civilization from one continent to another when they created New Amsterdam. And they also transported the two main features that created America: Plural- ism and the very free spirit. People outside this city sometimes say that America is not New York. They’re right. It’s New Amsterdam.