Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bound by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; the cemeteries of Highland Park to the southeast; and Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south and southwest. The town was first founded by the Dutch as Boswijck during the Dutch colonization of the Americas in the 17th century. In the 19th century, the neighborhood became a community of German immigrants and their descendants. The 20th century saw an influx of Italian immigrants and Italian-Americans up to the 1980s. By the late 20th century, the neighborhood became predominantly Hispanic as another wave of immigrants arrived. Formerly Brooklyn's 18th Ward, the neighborhood was once an independent town and has undergone various territorial changes throughout its history.