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Dutch Empire: A Visual History

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Visual history of an empire

Two trading companies, a spice monopoly, and the world's first multinational corporation: how a small republic ran a global empire.

Existed
1602 to 1975
Duration
373 years
Existed
1602 to 1975
Peak area
About 2.1 million km2 (1940, mostly the East Indies)
Peak population
About 70 million (1940)
Capital
Amsterdam; Batavia in Asia
Slave trade
About 600,000 Africans on Dutch ships

The Dutch Empire grew from the Dutch East India Company (VOC), founded in 1602, and the West India Company of 1621. The VOC seized the Spice Islands, Malacca, Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope and made Batavia (Jakarta) its Asian capital; the WIC took Curacao, Suriname and briefly Brazil and New Amsterdam. After the companies collapsed the state ruled the East Indies, Suriname and the Antilles. Indonesia won independence in 1949 after a bitter war, Suriname in 1975; a few Caribbean islands remain in the kingdom.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Dutch Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

1400150016001700180019002000Dutch Empire (1602 to 1975)Open: First Portuguese EmpireFirst Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1663)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt)Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt) (1568 to 1648)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Second Portuguese EmpireSecond Portuguese Empire (1663 to 1822)Open: Franco-Dutch WarFranco-Dutch War (1672 to 1678)Open: Empire of BrazilEmpire of Brazil (1822 to 1889)Open: American Civil WarAmerican Civil War (1861 to 1865)Open: Empire of JapanEmpire of Japan (1868 to 1947)Open: World War IWorld War I (1914 to 1918)Open: World War IIWorld War II (1939 to 1945)Open: Vietnam WarVietnam War (1955 to 1975)

Dutch colonial territory

Effective control of the Indonesian interior came only in the late nineteenth century.

00.631.251.882.51602: 01650: 0.31700: 0.51800: 0.51850: 0.91910: 2.11940: 2.11949: 0.61962: 0.21975: 016501700175018001850190019501975million km2 (approximate)

Timeline of the Dutch Empire

  1. 1602
    VOC founded
  2. 1619
    Batavia founded
  3. 1652
    Cape Colony founded
  4. 1667
    New Amsterdam swapped for Suriname
  5. 1799
    VOC dissolved
  6. 1830
    Cultivation System
  7. 1873
    Aceh War begins
  8. 1942
    Japan occupies the East Indies
  9. 1949
    Indonesian sovereignty
  10. 1975
    Suriname independent

The companies

The VOC, chartered in 1602 with power to make war and treaties, was the first company to issue shares to the public. Jan Pieterszoon Coen founded Batavia in 1619 and secured the nutmeg monopoly by depopulating the Banda Islands in 1621. The Dutch took Malacca from the Portuguese (1641), Ceylon (1658), the Cape (1652) and were the only Europeans allowed to trade with Japan, at Deshima. The WIC captured a Spanish silver fleet in 1628, held north-east Brazil from 1630 to 1654 and founded New Amsterdam, traded to the English in 1667 for Suriname.

State empire

The VOC went bankrupt in 1799 and its territories passed to the state. Britain returned Java after the Napoleonic Wars but kept the Cape and Ceylon. The 'Cultivation System' from 1830 forced Javanese peasants to grow export crops, generating a third of Dutch state revenue. The Aceh War (1873-1904) and other campaigns brought the whole archipelago under Dutch control by 1910.

Decolonisation

Japan occupied the East Indies in 1942; Sukarno declared independence on 17 August 1945. Two Dutch 'police actions' and international pressure led to the transfer of sovereignty in December 1949; western New Guinea was handed over in 1962. Suriname became independent in 1975. Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten remain constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

Wars of the same era and region

8 surprising things about the Dutch Empire

  1. The VOC's market value at its 1637 peak, adjusted for inflation, has been estimated at over 7 trillion dollars.
  2. The Dutch swapped Manhattan for the nutmeg island of Run in the 1667 Treaty of Breda, thinking they got the better deal.
  3. The Dutch were the only Westerners allowed in Japan for over 200 years, confined to the tiny artificial island of Deshima.
  4. New Zealand is named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, and Tasmania after the VOC captain Abel Tasman.
  5. The Banda Islands' population of about 15,000 was reduced to roughly 1,000 by Coen's conquest of 1621.
  6. The Cape Colony's Dutch settlers became the Afrikaners; Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch.
  7. The Aceh War lasted over 30 years and was among the longest colonial wars in history.
  8. The Netherlands still includes six Caribbean islands, and Dutch remains an official language of Suriname.

Sources

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