Following thede facto independence of the Dutch Republic from theSpanish Empire in the late 16th century, varioustrading companies known asvoorcompagnie led maritime expeditions overseas in search of commercial opportunities. By 1600, Dutch traders and mariners had penetrated the lucrative Asianspice trade but lacked the capital or manpower to secure or expand their ventures; this prompted theStates General in 1602 to consolidate several trading enterprises into the semi-state-owned Dutch East India Company (Dutch:Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC),[3] which was granted a monopoly over the Asian trade.
In contrast toSpanish andPortuguese rivals, Dutch activities abroad were initially commercial ventures driven by merchant enterprise and characterised by control of international maritime shipping routes through strategically placed outposts, rather than from expansive territorial ventures.[4][2] By the mid-17th century, the VOC—along with the Dutch West India Company (Dutch:Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, GWC), which was founded in 1621 to advance interests in theAmericas—had greatly expanded Dutch economic and territorial influence worldwide, exercising quasi-governmental powers to negotiate treaties, wage war, administer territory, and establish settlements.
With the VOC and GWC controlling vital sea lanes and maintaining the largest merchant fleets in the world, the Dutch dominated global trade and commerce for much of the 17th century, experiencing agolden age of economic, scientific, and cultural achievement and progress.[10] The wealth generated from overseas colonies and trading ventures, includingthe slave trade, fueled patronage of the arts, building projects, and domestic enterprises; port cities such as Rotterdam and Amsterdam experienced unprecedented growth and expansion.[11]
With the independence of Dutch Guiana as Suriname in 1975, the last vestiges of the Dutch empire—the threeWest Indies islands ofAruba,Curaçao, andSint Maarten around theCaribbean Sea—remain as autonomous constituent countries represented within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.[15]
In the 1560s, theEighty Years' War broke out in theHabsburg Netherlands.[a] A coalition of rebel provinces united in theUnion of Utrecht declared independence from theSpanish Empire with the 1581Act of Abjuration, in 1588 establishing thede facto independent northernDutch Republic (alias the United Provinces), whose sovereignty was recognised by theTreaty of Antwerp (1609). The eight decades of war came at a massive human cost, with an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 victims, of which 350,000 to 400,000 were civilians killed by disease and what would later be considered war crimes.[16] The war was largely fought on the European continent, but war was also conducted against Phillip II's overseas territories, including Spanish colonies and the Portuguese metropoles, colonies,trading posts andforts belonging at that time to the King of Spain and Portugal.[citation needed] The port ofLisbon inPortugal had since 1517 been the main European market for products from India, drawing merchants from across Europe to purchase exotic commodities. But as a result of Portugal's incorporation in the Iberian Union with Spain by Philip II in 1580, all Portuguese territories were thereafter Spanish Habsburg branch territory, and thus all Portuguese markets were closed to the United Provinces. Thus, in 1595, the Dutch decided to set sail on their own to acquire products for themselves, making use of the "secret" knowledge of the Portuguese trade routes, whichCornelis de Houtman had managed to acquire in Lisbon.[17]
The coastal provinces ofHolland andZeeland had been important hubs of the European maritime trade network for centuries prior to Spanish rule. Their geographical location provided convenient access to the markets of France, Scotland, Germany, England and the Baltic.[18] By the 1580s, the Eighty Years' War led many financiers and traders to emigrate fromAntwerp, a major city inBrabant and then one of Europe's most important commercial centres, to Dutch cities, particularlyAmsterdam.[19][20] Efficient access to capital enabled the Dutch in the 1580s to extend their trade routes beyond northern Europe to new markets in theMediterranean and theLevant. In the 1590s, Dutch ships began to trade withBrazil and theDutch Gold Coast of Africa, towards the Indian Ocean, and the source of the lucrativespice trade.[21] This brought the Dutch into direct competition withPortugal, which had dominated these trade routes for several decades, and had established colonial outposts on the coasts of Brazil, Africa and the Indian Ocean to facilitate them. The rivalry with Portugal, however, was not entirely economic: from 1580, after the death of the King of Portugal,Sebastian I, and much of the Portuguese nobility in theBattle of Alcácer Quibir, the Portuguese crown had been joined to that of Spain in an "Iberian Union" under the heir of Emperor Charles V,Philip II of Spain. By attacking Portuguese overseas possessions, the Dutch forced Spain to divert financial and military resources away from its attempt to quell Dutch independence.[22] Thus began the several decade-longDutch–Portuguese War.[citation needed]
In the 1590s, thevoorcompagnieën ("pioneer companies") emerged, which were given "express instructions to focus on trade and engage in violence only in self-defense".[23] The Dutch took inspiration from England's many joint-stock companies and private investment, includingMuscovy Company,Eastland Company,Levant Company, andEast India Company.[24]
In 1594, theCompagnie van Verre ("Company of Far Lands") was founded in Amsterdam, with the aim of sending two fleets to the spice islands ofMaluku.[25] The first fleet sailed in 1596 and returned in 1597 with a cargo of pepper, which more than covered the costs of the voyage. The second voyage (1598–1599), returned its investors a 400% profit.[26] The success of these voyages led to the founding of a number of companies competing for the trade. The competition was counterproductive to the companies' interests as it threatened to drive up the price of spices at their source in Indonesia whilst driving them down in Europe.[26][23]
Establishment of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) (1602–1609)
"The present deputies of theEast India Company are seriously admonished to look into and give orders to the effect that the ships, which are already equipped or afterwards shall be equipped to sail to the East Indies, can have charge and instruction to damage the enemies and inflict harm on their persons, ships and goods by all means possible, so that they may with reputation not only continue their trade, but also expand it and make it grow, otherwise by neglecting this they will certainly lose it. For this was the principal reason why the Gentlemen States General have undertaken the union of the Companies and awarded them a charter and authorisation to inflict damage on the enemies."
As a result of the problems caused by inter-company rivalry, theDutch East India Company (Dutch:Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) was founded in 1602. The charter awarded to the company by the States-General granted it sole rights, for an initial period of 21 years, to Dutch trade and navigation east of theCape of Good Hope and west of theStraits of Magellan. The directors of the company, the "Heeren XVII", were given the legal authority to establish "fortresses and strongholds", to sign treaties, to enlist both an army and a navy, and to wage defensive war.[28] The company itself was founded as ajoint stock company, similarly to its English rival that had been founded two years earlier, the EnglishEast India Company.[29]
Shortly after the VOC was founded, the problem of justifying attacks on Spanish and Portuguese ships became more acute when in February 1603, the PortuguesecarrackSanta Catarina was captured off the coast of Singapore by three VOC ships under the command ofJacob van Heemskerck.[23] When Heemskerck returned to Amsterdam in 1604 with the enormous booty from theSanta Catarina, this caused a major controversy in the Dutch Republic about the legality, utility, and moral permissibility of this act.[23] As a result, in September 1604 juristHugo Grotius wrote a treatise titledDe Jure Praedae Commentarius ("Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty"), later published in 1609 asMare Liberum, sive de jure quod Batavis competit ad Indicana commercia dissertatio ("The Freedom of the Seas, Or, The Right Which Belongs to the Dutch to Take Part in the East Indian Trade"), in which the act of aggression was justified.[23]
In the meantime, the States-General had already passed a resolution on 1 November 1603, authorising VOC ships "to damage the enemies and inflict harm on their persons, ships and goods by all means possible, so that they may with reputation not only continue their trade, but also expand it and make it grow".[27] This was a "critical" event according to several historical studies,[27] with Borschberg (2013) stating it "marked a major shift in policy of the VOC" and "set the cornerstone for the establishment of the Dutch colonial empire in Asia",[30] because the resolution transformed the VOC "into an instrument of war and colonial expansion that was directed against the Iberian powers in Asia and later, of course, also against local Asian rulers and polities."[30] Pursuing their quest for alternative routes to Asia for trade, the Dutch were disrupting the Spanish-Portuguese trade, and they eventually ranged as far afield as the Philippines. The Dutch sought to dominate the commercial sea trade in Southeast Asia, going so far in pursuit of this goal as to engage in what other nations and powers considered to be little more than piratical activities.[citation needed]
During the negotiations for and implementation of theTwelve Years' Truce in the years 1608–1610, the Dutch sought to secure all sorts of commercially and strategically important positions in Southeast Asia, and the VOC rushed to conclude as many contracts as possible with local monarchs and polities in the so-called frontline regions: theMalay Peninsula (particularlyJohor),Sumatra, theBanda Islands, theMoluccas,Timor and southernIndia.[31]
TheDutch conquest of the Banda Islands was a process of military conquest from 1609 to 1621 by theDutch East India Company of theBanda Islands. The Dutch, having enforced a monopoly on the highly lucrativenutmeg production from the islands, were impatient with Bandanese resistance to Dutch demands that the Bandanese sell only to them. Negotiations collapsed after Bandanese village elders deceived and murdered the Dutch representativePieter Willemsz Verhoeff. Under the command ofJan Pieterszoon Coen, the Dutch resorted to a forcible conquest of the islands, which became severely depopulated as a result of Coen’s massacres, forced deportations, and the resulting starvation and disease.
The Dutch East India Company, which was founded in 1602 as an amalgamation of 12voorcompagnies, had extensive financial interests inmaritime Southeast Asia, the source of highly profitablespices, which were in high demand in Europe. A Dutch expedition had already made contact with the islands in 1599, signing several contracts with Bandanese chiefs. The profitability of the spices was heightened by the fact that they grew nowhere else on Earth, making them extremely valuable to whoever controlled them. As the Dutch attempted to form amonopoly over the spices and forbid the Bandanese from selling to any other group, they resisted, and the Dutch decided to conquer the islands by force. With the aid ofJapanesemercenaries, the Dutch launched several military expeditions against the Bandanese.
The conquest culminated in the Banda massacre, which saw 2,800 Bandanese killed and 1,700enslaved by the Dutch. Along with starvation and constant fighting, the Bandanese felt they could not continue to resist the Dutch and negotiated a surrender in 1621.Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the official in charge of the fighting, expelled the remaining 1,000 Bandanese toBatavia. With the Bandanese resistance ended, the Dutch secured their valuable monopoly on thespice trade.
The Portuguese victory at theBattle of Guararapes ended Dutch presence in Brazil.Dutch and Portuguese colonial empires at their Treaty of the Hague war settlement in 1661
The Dutch attacked most of Portugal's far-flungtrading network in and aroundAsia, including Ceylon (modernSri Lanka), andGoa, as well asattacks upon her commercial interests inJapan,Africa (especiallyMina), andSouth America. Even though the Portuguese had never been able to capture the entire island of Ceylon, they had been able to keep thecoastal regions under their control for a considerable time before the coming of the Dutch in war. Portugal's South American colony,Brazil, was partially conquered by the United Provinces.[citation needed]
In 1621, theDutch West India Company (WIC) was set up and given a 25-year monopoly to those parts of the world not controlled by its East India counterpart: the Atlantic, the Americas and the west coast of Africa.[32] The Dutch also established a trading post in Ayutthaya, modern dayThailand during the reign ofKing Naresuan, in 1604.[citation needed]
In the 17th century, the "Grand Design" of theWest India Company involved attempting to corner the international trade in sugar by attacking Portuguese colonies in Brazil and Africa, seizing both the sugarcane plantations and the slave ports needed to resupply their labour. Although weakened by theIberian Union with Spain, whose attention was focused elsewhere, the Portuguese were able to fight off the initial assault before theBattle of Matanzas Bay provided the WIC with the funds needed for a successful operation.Johan Maurits was appointed governor of "New Holland" and landed atRecife in January 1637. In a series of successful expeditions, he gradually extended the Dutch possessions fromSergipe on the south toMaranhão in the north. The WIC also succeeded in conqueringGorée,Elmina Castle, Saint Thomas, andLuanda on the west coast of Africa. Both regions were also used as bases for Dutch privateers plundering Portuguese and Spanish trade routes. The dissolution of the Iberian Union in 1640 and Maurits's recall in 1643 led to increased resistance from the Portuguese colonists who still made up a majority of the Brazilian settlers. The Dutch were finally overcome during the 1650s but managed to receive 4 millionreis (63metric tons of gold) in exchange for extinguishing their claims over Brazil in the1661 Treaty of the Hague.[citation needed]
Primary Dutch and Portuguese settlements in Asia, c. 1665. With the exception of Jakarta and Deshima, all had been captured by the Dutch East India Company from Portugal.[28]
The war between Phillip II's possessions and other countries led to a deterioration of the Portuguese Empire, as with theloss of Ormuz to England in 1622, but the Dutch Empire was the main beneficiary.[citation needed]
The VOC began immediately to prise away the string of coastal fortresses that, at the time, comprised the Portuguese Empire. The settlements were isolated, difficult to reinforce if attacked, and prone to being picked off one by one, but nevertheless, the Dutch only enjoyed mixed success in its attempts to do so.[26]Amboina was captured from the Portuguese in 1605, but an attack onMalacca the following year narrowly failed in its objective to provide a more strategically located base in the East Indies with favourable monsoon winds.[33] The Dutch found what they were looking for inJakarta, conquered byJan Pieterszoon Coen in 1619, later renamedBatavia after the putative Dutch ancestors the Batavians, and which would become the capital of theDutch East Indies. Meanwhile, the Dutch continued to drive out the Portuguese from their bases in Asia.Malaccafinally succumbed in 1641 (after a second attempt to capture it),Colombo in 1656,Ceylon in 1658,Nagapattinam in 1662, andCranganore andCochin in 1662.[28]
Goa, the capital of the Portuguese Empire in the East, was unsuccessfully attacked by the Dutch in 1603 and 1610. Whilst the Dutch were unable in four attempts to captureMacau,[34] from where Portugal monopolized the lucrativeChina-Japan trade, theTokugawa shogunate's increasing suspicion of the intentions of the Catholic Portuguese led to their expulsion in 1639. Under the subsequentsakoku policy, from 1639 till 1854 (215 years), the Dutch were the only European power allowed to operate in Japan, confined in 1639 toHirado and then from 1641 atDejima. In the mid-17th century, the Dutch also explored the western Australian coasts,naming many places.[citation needed]
The Dutch colonisedMauritius in 1638, several decades after three ships out of the Dutch Second Fleet sent to the Spice Islands were blown off course in a storm and landed there in 1598. They named it in honour of PrinceMaurice of Nassau, theStadtholder of the Netherlands. The Dutch found the climate hostile and abandoned the island after several further decades.[citation needed] The Dutch established acolony at Tayouan (present-dayAnping), in the south ofTaiwan, an island then largely dominated by Portuguese traders and known asFormosa; and, in 1642 the Dutch took northern Formosa from the Spanish by force.[citation needed]
The Dutch colonisation of the Americas started with many mixed results. In the Atlantic, the West India Company concentrated on wresting from Portugal its grip on thesugar andslave trade, and on opportunistic attacks on the Spanish treasure fleets on their homeward bound voyage.[39]Bahia on the north east coast of Brazil was captured in 1624 but only held for a year before it was recaptured by a joint Spanish-Portuguese expedition.,[40][41] In 1630, the Dutch occupied the Portuguese sugar-settlement ofPernambuco and over the next few years pushed inland, annexing the sugar plantations that surrounded it. In order to supply the plantations with the manpower they required, asuccessful expedition was launched from Brazil to capture the Portuguese slaving post ofElmina in 1637,[32] andsuccessfully captured the Portuguese settlements inAngola in 1641.[42] In 1642, the Dutch captured the Portuguese possession ofAxim in Africa. By 1650, the West India Company was firmly in control of both the sugar and slave trades, and had occupied the Caribbean islands ofSint Maarten,Curaçao,Aruba, andBonaire in order to guarantee access to the islands'salt-pans.[43]
Unlike in Asia, Dutch successes against the Portuguese in Brazil and Africa were short-lived. Years of settlement had left large Portuguese communities under the rule of the Dutch, who were by nature traders rather than colonisers.[44] In 1645, the Portuguese community atPernambuco rebelled against their Dutch masters,[41] and by 1654, the Dutch had been ousted from Brazil.[45] In the intervening years, a Portuguese expedition had been sent from Brazil to recaptureLuanda in Angola, expelling the Dutch by 1648.[citation needed]
On the north-east coast of North America, the West India Company took over a settlement that had been established by theCompany of New Netherland (1614–1618) atFort Orange atAlbany on theHudson River,[46] relocated fromFort Nassau which had been founded in 1614. The Dutch had been sending ships annually to the Hudson River to trade fur sinceHenry Hudson's voyage of 1609.[47] To protect its precarious position at Albany from the nearby English and French, the Company founded the fortified town ofNew Amsterdam in 1625, at the mouth of the Hudson, encouraging settlement of the surrounding areas ofLong Island andNew Jersey.[48] The fur trade ultimately proved impossible for the company to monopolize due to the massive illegal private trade in furs, and the settlement ofNew Netherland was unprofitable.[49] In 1655, the nearby colony ofNew Sweden on theDelaware River was forcibly absorbed into New Netherland after ships and soldiers were sent to capture it by the Dutch governor,Pieter Stuyvesant.[50]
Since its inception, the Dutch East India Company had been in competition with its counterpart, theEnglish East India Company, founded two years earlier,[51] for the same goods and markets in the East. In 1619, the rivalry resulted in theAmboyna massacre, when several English Company men were executed by agents of the Dutch. The event remained a source of English resentment for several decades, and indeed was used as acause célèbre as late as theSecond Anglo-Dutch War in the 1660s; nevertheless, in the late 1620s the English Company shifted its focus from Indonesia to India.[51]
In 1643, theDutch West India Companyestablished a settlement in the ruins of the Spanish settlement ofValdivia, insouthern Chile. The purpose of the expedition was to gain a foothold on the west coast of the Americas, an area that was almost entirely under the control of Spain (thePacific Ocean, at least most of it to the east of the Philippines, being at the time almost a "Spanish lake"),[52] and to extract gold from nearby mines. Uncooperative indigenous peoples, who hadforced the Spanish to leave Valdivia in 1604 contributed to get the expedition to leave after some months of occupation. This occupation triggered the return of the Spanish to Valdivia and the building ofone of the largest defensive complexes of colonial America.[53][54]
By the middle of the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company had overtaken Portugal as the dominant player in the spice and silk trade, and in 1652 founded a colony at theCape of Good Hope on the southern African coast, as a victualing station for its ships on the route between Europe and Asia.[55] Dutch immigration in the Cape rapidly swelled as prospective colonists were offered generous grants of land and tax exempt status in exchange for producing the food needed to resupply passing ships.[56][57] The Cape authorities also imported a number of Europeans of other nationalities, namely Germans and FrenchHuguenots, as well as thousands of slaves from the East Indies, to bolster the local Dutch workforce.[56][58] Nevertheless, there was a degree of cultural assimilation between the various ethnic groups due to intermarriage and the universal adoption of the Dutch language, and cleavages were likelier to occur along social and racial lines.[59]
The Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope expanded beyond the initial settlement and its borders were formally consolidated as the compositeDutch Cape Colony in 1778.[60] At the time, the Dutch had subdued the indigenousKhoisan andSan peoples in the Cape and seized their traditional territories.[60] Dutch military expeditions further east were halted when they encountered the westward expansion of theXhosa people.[60] Hoping to avoid being drawn into a protracted dispute, the Dutch government and the Xhosa chieftains agreed to formally demarcate their respective areas of control and refrain from trespassing on each other's borders.[60] However, the Dutch proved unable to control their own settlers, who disregarded the agreement and crossed into Xhosa territory, sparking one of Southern Africa's longest colonial conflicts: theXhosa Wars.[60]
In 1651, the English parliament passed the first of theNavigation Acts which excluded Dutch shipping from the lucrative trade between England and its Caribbean colonies, and led directly to the outbreak of hostilities between the two countries the following year, the first of threeAnglo-Dutch Wars that would last on and off for two decades and slowly erode Dutch naval power to England's benefit.[61][62]
In 1661, amidst the Qing conquest of China, Ming generalKoxinga led a fleet to invade Formosa. The Dutch defense, led by governorFrederick Coyett,held out for nine months. However, after Koxinga defeated Dutch reinforcements from Java, Coyett surrendered Formosa.[63]
TheAnglo-Dutch Wars were a series of three wars which took place between the English and the Dutch from 1652 to 1674. The causes included political disputes and increasing competition from merchant shipping.[64] The English in theFirst Anglo-Dutch War (1652–54) had the naval advantage with larger numbers of more powerful "ships of the line" which were well suited to the naval tactics of the era. The English also captured numerous Dutch merchant ships.Holmes's Bonfire was a raid on theVlie estuary in the Netherlands, executed by the English Fleet during theSecond Anglo-Dutch War on 19 and 20 August 1666. The attack, named after the commander of the landing force, Rear-AdmiralRobert Holmes, was successful in destroying by fire a large Dutch merchant fleet of 140 ships. During the same action, the town ofWest-Terschelling was burnt down, which caused outrage in theDutch Republic.
The Second Anglo-Dutch War was precipitated in 1664, when English forces moved to captureNew Netherland. Under theTreaty of Breda (1667), New Netherland was ceded to England in exchange for the English settlements in Suriname, which had been conquered by Dutch forces earlier that year. Though the Dutch would again take New Netherland in 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, it was returned to England the following year, thereby ending Dutch rule in continental North America, but leaving behind a large Dutch community under English rule that persisted with its language, church and customs until the mid-18th century.[65] In South America, the Dutch seizedCayenne from the French in 1658 and drove off a French attempt to retake it a year later. However, it was returned to France in 1664, since the colony proved to be unprofitable. It was recaptured by the Dutch in 1676, but was returned again a year later, this time permanently. TheGlorious Revolution of 1688 saw the DutchWilliam of Orange ascend to the throne, and win the English, Scottish, and Irish crowns, ending eighty years of rivalry between the Netherlands and England, while the rivalry with France remained strong.
Under the terms of theTreaty of Amiens signed by Britain and France in 1802, the Cape Colony and the islands of theDutch West Indies that the British had seized were returned to the Republic.Ceylon was not returned to the Dutch and was made a BritishCrown Colony. After the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and France again in 1803, the Britishretook the Cape Colony and the Dutch West Indies. The British alsoinvaded and captured the island of Java in 1811.[citation needed]
In 1806, Napoleon dissolved the Batavian Republic and established a monarchy with his brother,Louis Bonaparte, on the throne as King of the Netherlands. Louis was removed from power by Napoleon in 1810, and the country was ruled directly from France until its liberation in 1813. The following year, the independent Netherlands signed theAnglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 with Britain. All the colonies Britain had seized were returned to the Netherlands, with the exception of theDutch Cape Colony,Dutch Ceylon, and part ofDutch Guyana.[citation needed]
The bankrupt Dutch East India Company was liquidated on 1 January 1800,[66] and its territorial possessions were nationalized as theDutch East Indies.Anglo-Dutch rivalry in Southeast Asia continued to fester over the port ofSingapore, which had beenceded to the British East India Company in 1819 by the sultan of Johore. The Dutch claimed that a treaty signed with the sultan's predecessor the year earlier had granted them control of the region. However, the impossibility of removing the British from Singapore, which was becoming an increasingly important centre of trade, became apparent to the Dutch, and the disagreement was resolved with theAnglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. Under its terms, the Netherlands cededMalacca and their bases in India to the British, and recognized the British claim to Singapore. In return, the British handed overBencoolen and agreed not to sign treaties with rulers in the "islands south of the Straits of Singapore". Thus thearchipelago was divided into two spheres of influence: a British one, on theMalay Peninsula, and a Dutch one in the East Indies.[67]
For most of the Dutch East Indies history, and that of the VOC before it, Dutch control over their territories was often tenuous, but was expanded over the course of the 19th century. Only in the early 20th century did Dutch dominance extend to what was to become the boundaries of modern-day Indonesia. Although highly populated and agriculturally productiveJava was under Dutch domination for most of the 350 years of the combined VOC and Dutch East Indies era, many areas remained independent for much of this time includingAceh,Lombok,Bali, andBorneo.[68]
In 1871, all of the Dutch possessions on theDutch Gold Coast weresold to Britain. The Dutch West India Company was abolished in 1791, and its colonies in Suriname and the Caribbean brought under the direct rule of the state.[69] The economies of the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean had been based on the smuggling of goods and slaves intoSpanish America, but with the end of the slave trade in 1814 and the independence of the new nations of South and Central America from Spain, profitability rapidly declined. Dutch traders moveden masse from the islands to the United States or Latin America, leaving behind small populations with little income and which required subsidies from the Dutch government.The Antilles were combined under one administration with Suriname from 1828 to 1845.[citation needed]
Slavery was not abolished in the Dutch Caribbean colonies until 1863, long after those of Britain and France, though by this time only 6,500 slaves remained. In Suriname, slave holders demanded compensation from the Dutch government for freeing slaves, whilst inSint Maarten, abolition of slavery in the French half in 1848 led slaves in the Dutch half to take their own freedom.[70] In Suriname, after the abolition of slavery, Chinese workers were encouraged to immigrate asindentured labourers,[71] as were Javanese, between 1890 and 1939.[72]
Sukarno, leader of the Indonesian independence movement
In January 1942,Japaninvaded the Netherlands East Indies.[73] The Dutch surrendered two months later in Java, with Indonesians initially welcoming the Japanese as liberators.[74] The subsequentJapanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies during the remainder of World War II saw the fundamental dismantling of theDutch colonial state's economic, political and social structures, replacing it with a Japanese regime.[75] In the decades before the war, the Dutch had been overwhelmingly successful in suppressing the small nationalist movement in Indonesia such that the Japanese occupation proved fundamental for Indonesian independence.[75] However, theIndonesian Communist Party founded by Dutch socialistHenk Sneevliet in 1914, popular also with Dutch workers and sailors at the time, was in strategic alliance withSarekat Islam (q.v.) as early as 1917 until theProclamation of Indonesian Independence and was particularly important in the fight against Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies in the Second World War. The Japanese encouraged and backed Indonesian nationalism in which new indigenous institutions were created and nationalist leaders such asSukarno were promoted. The internment of all Dutch citizens meant that Indonesians filled many leadership and administrative positions, although the top positions were still held by the Japanese.[75]
Two days after the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Sukarno and fellow nationalist leaderHatta unilaterally declaredIndonesian independence.A four-and-a-half-year struggle followed as the Dutch tried to re-establish their colony. Dutch forces eventually re-occupied most of the colonial territory and a guerrilla struggle ensued. The majority of Indonesians, and – ultimately – international opinion, favored independence, and in December 1949, the Netherlandsformally recognized Indonesian sovereignty. Under the terms of the 1949 agreement,Western New Guinea remained under the auspices of the Dutch asNetherlands New Guinea, andits dispute will be resolved by a year. The new Indonesian government under President Sukarno pressured for the territory to come under Indonesian control as Indonesian nationalists initially intended. Following United States pressure, the Netherlands transferred it to Indonesia under the 1962New York Agreement.[76]
Dutch colonists in Suriname, 1920. Most Europeans left after independence in 1975.
In 1954, under the "Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands", the Netherlands, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles (at the time including Aruba) became a composite state, known as the "Tripartite Kingdom of the Netherlands". The former colonies were granted autonomy, save for certain matters including defense, foreign affairs and citizenship, which were the responsibility of the Realm. In 1969,unrest in Curaçao led to Dutch marines being sent to quell rioting. In 1973, negotiations started in Suriname for independence, and full independence was granted in 1975, marking the end of the Dutch colonial empire, with 60,000 emigrants taking the opportunity of moving to the Netherlands.[77][1]
In 1986,Aruba was allowed to secede from the Netherlands Antilles federation, and was pressured by the Netherlands to move to independence within ten years. However, in 1994, it was agreed that its status as a Realm in its own right could continue.[77] On 10 October 2010, theNetherlands Antilles were dissolved. Effective on that date, Curaçao and Sint Maarten acceded to the same country status within the Kingdom that Aruba already enjoyed. The islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba were granted a status similar to Dutch municipalities, and are now sometimes referred to as theCaribbean Netherlands.[78][79]
Contemporary countries and federated states which were significantly colonised by the Dutch. In the Netherlands, these countries are sometimes known asverwantschapslanden (kindred countries).
Generally, the Dutch do not celebrate their imperial past, and colonial history is not featured prominently in Dutch schoolbooks. This perspective on their imperial past has only recently started to shift.[80][81]
In a survey conducted byYouGov in March 2019, 50% of respondents in the Netherlands said they felt some level of pride in the Dutch colonial empire, while 6% felt ashamed.[82][83]
In the U.S., there have been three American presidents of Dutch descent:Martin Van Buren, the first president who was not of British descent, and whose first language was Dutch, the 26th presidentTheodore Roosevelt, andFranklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president, elected to four terms in office (1933 to 1945) and the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms.[citation needed]
Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350 years, the Dutch language has no official status[84] and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession,[85] as some legal codes are still available only in Dutch.[86] The Indonesian languageinherited many words from Dutch, both in words for everyday life, and as well in scientific or technological terminology.[87] One scholar argues that 20% ofIndonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words.[88]
InSuriname, Dutch is the official language.[90] 82% of the population can speak Dutch fluently[91][c] InAruba,Bonaire, andCuraçao, Dutch is the official language but a first language for only 7–8% of the population;[92][93] though most of the population is fluent in Dutch, which is generally the language of education.[94]
InNew Jersey, an extinct dialect of Dutch,Jersey Dutch, was spoken by descendants of 17th-century Dutch settlers in Bergen and Passaic counties, was noted to still be spoken as late as 1921.[99] U.S. President Martin Van Buren, raised in a Dutch-speaking enclave in New York, had Dutch as his native language.[100]
The greatest linguistic legacy of the Netherlands was in its colony in South Africa, which attracted large numbers of Dutch farmer (in Dutch,Boer) settlers, who spoke a simplified form of Dutch calledAfrikaans, which is largelymutually intelligible with Dutch. After the colony passed into British hands, the settlers spread into the hinterland, taking their language with them. As of 2005[update], there were 10 million people for whom Afrikaans is either a primary and secondary language, compared with over 22 million speakers of Dutch.[101][102][needs update]
Many towns and cities inSuriname share names with cities in the Netherlands, such asAlkmaar,Wageningen, andGroningen. The capital ofCuraçao is namedWillemstad and the capitals of bothSaint Eustatius andAruba are namedOranjestad. The first is named after the Dutch Prince Willem II van Oranje-Nassau (William of Orange-Nassau) and the two others after the first part of the current Dutch royal dynasty.[citation needed]
The country nameNew Zealand originated with Dutchcartographers, who called the islandsNova Zeelandia, after theDutch province ofZeeland.[103] British explorerJames Cook subsequently anglicized the name to New Zealand.[d]
The Australian island stateTasmania is named after DutchexplorerAbel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. He first named the island Anthony van Diemen's Land after his sponsorAnthony van Diemen, the Governor of theDutch East Indies. The name was later shortened toVan Diemen's Land by the British. It was officially renamed in honor of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856.[105]Arnhem Land is named after the Dutch ship named Arnhem. The captain of the Arnhem (Willem van Coolsteerdt) also named the large island, east of ArnhemGroote Eylandt, in modern Dutch spelling Groot Eiland: Large Island.
The Stadthuys inMalacca,Malaysia, believed to be the oldest Dutch building in Asia[106]
In the Surinamese capital of Paramaribo, the DutchFort Zeelandia still stands today. The city itself also have retained most of its old street layout and architecture, which is part of the world's UNESCO heritage. In the centre of Malacca, Malaysia, theStadthuys Building andChrist Church still stand as a reminder of Dutch occupation. There are still archaeological remains ofFort Goede Hoop (modernHartford, Connecticut) andFort Orange (modernAlbany, New York).[107]
Dutch architecture is easy to see in Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, andSaint Eustatius. The Dutch style buildings are especially visible inWillemstad, with its steeply pitched gables, large windows and soaring finials.[108]
Dutch architecture can also be found in Sri Lanka, especially inGalle where the Dutch fortification and canal have been retained intact, even to an extent the former tropical Villas of the VOC officials. Some of the most prominent example of these architecture is the former governor's mansion in Galle, currently known asAmangalla Hotel and the Old Dutch Reformed Church. In the capital Colombo, many of the Dutch and Portuguese architecture aroundThe Fort have been demolished during the British period, few of the remaining includeOld Colombo Dutch Hospital andWolvendaal Church.[citation needed]
Although the Dutch already started erecting buildings shortly after they arrived on the shores ofBatavia, most Dutch-built constructions still standing today in Indonesia stem from the 19th and 20th centuries. Forts from the colonial era, used for defense purposes, still line a number of major coastal cities across the archipelago. The largest number of surviving Dutch buildings can be found on Java and Sumatra, particularly in cities such asJakarta,Bandung,Semarang,Yogyakarta,Surabaya,Cirebon,Pasuruan,Bukittinggi,Sawahlunto,Medan,Padang, andMalang. There are also significant examples of 17–19th century Dutch architecture aroundBanda Neira,Nusa Laut, andSaparua, the former main spices islands, which due to limited economic development have retained many of its colonial elements. Another prominent example of Dutch colonial architecture isFort Rotterdam inMakassar. The earlier Dutch construction mostly replicate the architecture style in the Homeland (such asToko Merah). However these buildings were unsuitable to tropical climate and expensive to maintain. And as a result the Dutch officials begun to adapt to the tropical condition by applying native elements such as wide-open veranda, ventilation and indigenous high pitch roofing into theirvillas. "In the beginning (of the Dutch presence), Dutch construction on Java was based on colonial architecture which was modified according to the tropical and local cultural conditions," Indonesian art and design professor Pamudji Suptandar wrote.[109] This was dubbedarsitektur Indis (Indies architecture), which combines the existing traditional Hindu-Javanese style with European forms.[110]
Many public buildings still standing and in use in Jakarta, such as the presidential palace, the finance ministry and the performing arts theater, were built in the 19th century in theclassicist style. At the turn of the 20th century and partially due to theDutch Ethical Policy, the number of Dutch people migrating to the colony grew with economic expansion. The increasing number of middle class population led to the development of Garden Suburbs in major city across the Indies, many of the houses were built in various style ranging from the Indies style,Neo-Renaissance to modernArt Deco. Some examples of these residential district includeMenteng in Jakarta, Darmo in Surabaya, Polonia in Medan, Kotabaru in Yogyakarta, New Candi in Semarang and as well as most of North Bandung.[111] Indonesia also became an experimental ground for Dutch Art Deco architectural movement such asNieuwe Zakelijkheid,De Stijl,Nieuw Indische andAmsterdam School. Several famous architect such asWolff Schoemaker andHenri Maclaine Pont also made an attempt to modernize indigenous architecture, resulting several unique design such as Pohsarang Church andBandung Institute of Technology. The largest stock of these Art Deco building can be found in the city of Bandung, which "architecturally" can considered the most European city in Indonesia.[citation needed]
Since Indonesia's independence, few governments have shown interest in the conservation of historical buildings. Many architecturally grand buildings have been torn down in the past decades to erect shopping centres or office buildings e.g.Hotel des Indes (Batavia),Harmony Society, Batavia. Presently, however, more Indonesians have become aware of the value of preserving their old buildings.[citation needed]
"A decade ago, most people thought I was crazy when they learned of my efforts to save the old part of Jakarta. A few years later, the negative voices started to disappear, and now many people are starting to think with me: how are we going to save our city. In the past using the negative sentiment towards the colonial era was often used as an excuse to disregard protests against the demolition of historical buildings. An increasing number of people now see the old colonial buildings as part of their city's overall heritage rather than focusing on its colonial aspect.", leading Indonesian architect and conservationist Budi Lim said.[112]
Beyond Indonesia's art deco architecture also much of the country's rail and road infrastructure as well as its major cities were built during the colonial period.[113][114] Many of Indonesia's main cities were mere rural townships before colonial industrialization and urban development.[115] Examples on Java include the capital Jakarta and Bandung, outside Java examples includeAmbon andMenado city. Most main railroads and rail stations on Java as well as the main road, calledDaendelsGreat Post Road (Dutch: Grote Postweg)[116] after the Governor General commissioning the work, connecting west to east Java were also built during the Dutch East Indies era.[citation needed]
Between 1800 and 1950, Dutch engineers created an infrastructure including 67,000 kilometers (42,000 mi) of roads, 7,500 kilometers (4,700 mi) of railways, many large bridges, modern irrigation systems covering 1.4 million hectares (5,400 sq mi) of rice fields, several international harbors, and 140 public drinking water systems. These Dutch constructed public works became the material base of the colonial and postcolonial Indonesian state.[117]
Crops such like coffee, tea,cocoa,tobacco andrubber were all introduced by the Dutch. The Dutch were the first to start the spread of the coffee plant in Central and South America, and by the early 19th centuryJava was the third largest producer in the world.[118] In 1778, the Dutch brought cacao from thePhilippines toIndonesia and commenced mass production.[119] Currently Indonesia is the world's second largest producer of natural rubber, a crop that was introduced by the Dutch in the early 20th century.[120] Tobacco was introduced from the Americas and in 1863, the first plantation was established by the Dutch. Today Indonesia is not only the oldest industrial producer of tobacco, but also the second largest consumer of tobacco.[121]
Suriname discourages dual citizenship and Surinamese-Dutch players who have picked up a Netherlands passport – which, crucially, offers legal work status in almost any European league – are barred from selection to the national team.[123] In 2014, inspired by the success of teams withdual nationals, especiallyAlgeria,SVB president John Krishnadath submitted a proposal to the national assembly to allow dual citizenship for athletes with the then-goal of reaching the2018 FIFA World Cup finals.[124] In order to support this project, a team with professional players of Surinamese origin was assembled and played an exhibition match on 26 December 2014 at theAndre Kamperveen Stadion. The project is managed byNordin Wooter andDavid Endt, who have set up a presentation and sent invitations to 100 players of Surinamese origin, receiving 85 positive answers.Dean Gorré was named to coach this special selection.FIFA supported the project and granted insurance for the players and clubs despite the match being unofficial.[125] In November 2019, it was announced that a so-called sports passport would allow Dutch professional footballers from the Surinamese diaspora to represent Suriname.[126]
^First language or "mother tongue", of 58% of the population, second language for 24%,
^The first European name for New Zealand wasStaten Landt, the name given to it by the Dutch explorerAbel Tasman, who in 1642 became the first European to see the islands. Tasman assumed it was part of a southern continent connected with land discovered in 1615 off the southern tip of South America byJacob Le Maire, which had been namedStaten Landt, meaning "Land of the (Dutch) States-General".[104]
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^Daendels (1762–1818), a pro-French Governor-General, originally named the road:La Grand Route. In Indonesian it is calledJalan Raya Pos. A documentary narrated by Indonesian authorPramoedya Ananta Toer was made about the road in 1996. See:[7]Archived 5 April 2017 at theWayback Machine
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![The Dutch Empire in 1750[citation needed]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDutchempire1750.png)
![The Dutch Empire in 1795[citation needed]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDutchempire1795.png)
