The Evolution of the Dutch Empire can be traced through the history of the various territories of which it was comprised. This list gives a brief history of the various territories and trading factories that were under the political control of the Netherlands or of the Dutch East and West India Companies. Collectively, these territories are referred to as the Dutch Empire.
In 1605, Portuguese trading posts in the Spice Islands of Maluku, Indonesia fell to the superior firepower of the Dutch. In 1619 a fortified base was established in Batavia (now Jakarta), and became the headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Company. Following the company's bankruptcy in 1800, Indonesian territory under its administration was nationalised as the Dutch East Indies. By the early twentieth century the Netherlands had under its administration all the territory that now forms Indonesia. Indonesian independence was declared on 17 August 1945, and officially recognised by the Netherlands in December 1949 following the Indonesian National Revolution. Dutch New Guinea remained Dutch until 1962, when it was transferred to Indonesia following United States pressure.
The Dutch established settlements and colonies in coastal parts of Southern India including Goa and Cochin, now known as Kochi. For at least 150 years Calcutta now known as Kolkatā was also a Dutch outpost for trading spices, cotton and silk during the 17th and 18th century.
The Dutch first landed in Ceylon in 1602. It was then under Portuguese control. Between 1636 and 1658 they managed to oust the Portuguese, initially at the invitation of local rulers. The Portuguese had ruled the coastline, though not the interior, of the island from 1505 to 1658. Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims had all suffered religious persecution under Portuguese rule; the Dutch were more interested in trade than in religious converts. The Dutch East India Company proved unable to extend its control into the interior and only controlled coastal provinces. Ceylon was a major Dutch trading post, as it was a halfway point between their settlements in Indonesia and South Africa. The island itself was a source of cinnamon and elephants, which were sold to Indian princes. In 1796 the British seized control of the Dutch positions, at the urging of the ruler of Kandy. It was formally ceded to the British in the treaty of Amiens in 1802.
The Dutch maintained a base, Fort Zeelandia, on Taiwan from 1624 until 1662, when they were driven away by Koxinga. The island was a source of cane sugar and deerskin. It was also a place where Dutch East India Company merchants could trade with Chinese merchants from the mainland. Here they could buy the silk needed for the Japanese market.
The Dutch captured Malacca on the west coast of Malaya (now West Malaysia) in 1641 from the Portuguese. In accordance with a treaty signed with stadtholder William V of Orange (then in exile in the United Kingdom) it was turned over to the British in 1806, during the Napoleonic wars. It was returned to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1816. It was then ceded to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.
Western Australia was in the Netherlands' sphere of control and known as New Holland. No formal claim was ever made through an attempt to settle the region, though many places on the northwest coast have Dutch names. There are many Dutch shipwrecks littered all along the coast, (such as the Batavia) that were wrecked on their way to the East Indies. By the time the British arrived they noticed that there were small pockets of the indigenous population with blonde hair and blue eyes. See the History of Western Australia for more information. Abel Tasman planted the Dutch flag and claimed possession of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) when he arrived there on 3 December 1642, but there was no attempt to settle it or even make a return voyage to it.
An asterisk (*) designates a trading post.
Band-e Kong (1690)*
Bandar-e Abbas (1623–1758)* The Dutch East Indies Company founded an office in Gamron in 1623. Here they purchased wool and attar of roses and above all silk. They sold spices, cotton fabrics, porcelain, opium, and Japanese lacquer work. Gamron had a garrison comprising around 20 European employees and 20 Persian staff. In 1729 the Dutch attempted, without success, to move their factory from Bandar-e Abbas to the island of Hormuz. In 1758 the company decided to close the station at Bandar-e Abbas.
Bushehr (1738–1753)*
Esfahan (1623–1747)* In 1623 Huybert Visnich established a trading station in Isfahan and concluded a commercial treaty with the Shah. Esfahan was the capital of the kingdom of Persia. The Dutch East Indies Company bought silk from the Shah in exchange for spices and military protection. They was obliged to maintain an office in Ispahan due to the endless negotiations with the Shah about trading concessions. In 1722 Ispahan was conquered by the Afghans. During this time the Dutch were kept virtual prisoners in their factory. In 1727 the factory had to be abandoned because the inner city was to be reserved for Afghans only. The Dutch staff moved to Jolfa. In 1747 the Dutch East India Company office was closed.
Kerman (1659–1744)* A Dutch trading station was opened at Kerman in 1659. It remained in operation, with interruptions, until 1744. The town of Kerman was known for its wool trade.
Khark (1753–1766) Khark is an island in the north of the Persian Gulf near Basra. In Khark the Baron Tido von Kniphausen, formerly Dutch East India Company agent in Bassora, built Fort Mosselstein in 1753 where Javanese sugar and Indian textiles were offered for sale. In 1766 the fort was plundered by the Persian army.
Lar (1631)
Qeshm (1685)
Shiraz (???)
Al Basrah (1645–1646, 1651)*
The Dutch had a trading office in the city of Sindi (now Thatta) from 1652-1660.[1]
Aden (1620)* On 22 August 1620, the Dutch ship 'T Wapen van Zeelandt reached Aden. Here the Dutch immediately rented a house. When the ship left Aden, five servants and a supply of goods (worth about 42.000 guilders) were left in the trading post under the charge of Harman van Gil. Van Gil went to Sana'a where Muhammad Basha granted to the Dutch permission to build a trading office in Mocha. In November/December 1620 Van Gil transferred the Company's goods to Mocha and closed the temporary office in Aden.
Al Mukha (1621–1623, 1639–1739)* Van Gil arrived in Mocha on 28 January 1621 and there he founded a Dutch trading office. Harman van Gil died in July 1621. Willem Jacobsz de Milde was appointed chief of the trading office. The trading office was closed in April 1623 due to problems with the Yemenite governors. It was reopened in 1639-1739.
Ash Shihr (1614–1616)*
Dhaka(1664–1704)*
Muscat(1674)*
Bandel (1608–1631, 1634)*
Syriam (1635–1679)*
Ava (1635–1679)*
Mandalay (1625–1665)*
Martaban (1660)*
Pegu (???)*
Ayutthaya*
Bangkok*
Nakon Si Thammarat*
Pattani*
Phuket*
Songkhla*
Melaka*
Kuala Kedah*
Kuala Linggi
Kuala Selangor
Tanjung Putus*
Ilha das Naus
Kota Belanda (1670–1743, 1745–1748) The origins of this fort can be traced back to 1670. At this time, the Dutch had a monopoly on the export of tin in Perak. The fort was built to protect the tin trade. It is located in the fishing village of Teluk Gedung on Pangkor Island. An early fort was built in 1651 but was destroyed. In 1670, Batavia ordered the construction of a new wooden fort. Ten years later it was replaced by a brick one. In 1690, the Malays under the leadership of Panglima Kulup attacked, damaging the fort and killing several Dutchmen. The settlement was temporarily abandoned until 1743, when the Dutch returned and repaired it. The Dutch stationed 60 soldiers here, including of 30 Europeans.
In 1748, the Dutch built another fort near the Perak River. Following this the Dutch administrators ordered the abandonment of this fort. In 1973, the Museums Department rebuilt the fort and it is now a tourist attraction.
Phnom Penh*
Laauweck (1620–1622, 1667)* The town of Lawec in Cambodia was situated halfway along the Mekong River on the way to Phnom Penh. The Dutch East India Company set up a trading post at Lauweck in 1620, but the trade there proved disappointing, and just two years later the company shut the post down. A new Lawec trading post was opened in 1636, and then sold to the British in 1651, with discontinuities corresponding to the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the era. Meanwhile, "From 1636 to 1670 the Dutch merchants lived at Udong on a semi-permanet basis."[1] but in 1667 the Company left Cambodia durably (to continue regional trade from their expanding holdings in what is now Indonesia). Besides deer hides and ray skins, Cambodia functioned mainly as a source of provisions for Batavia such as rice, butter, salted pork, and lard.
Hanoi (1636–1699)* Towards the end of the 1630s, the Company signed an agreement with the king of Tonkin and opened a trading post in or near today's Hanoi. The country was a major silk producer. The silk which the Dutch East India Company bought there was particularly valuable for trade with Japan. The Company maintained a trading post in Tonkin from 1636 to 1699. This trading post was run by an 'opperhoofd' or supervisor.
Hoi An*
Fuzhou (????-1681)* After the loss of Taiwan to the Chines in 1662, the Dutch East India Company tried to gain access to the Chinese porcelain and silk trade at the port of Fuzhou. The Company's attempts to trade there were hampered by a string of bureaucratic restrictions. Although the trading post at Fuzhou barely made a profit, the Company kept it open until 1681.
Huangpu (1728) Whampoa, an island situated in the Zhujiang river, served as the harbour for the city of Canton. A Dutch warehouse was built here.
Canton (1749–1803)* Tea and porcelain were the principal products purchased by the Dutch East India Company in Canton (now known as Guangzhou. In the 18th century the Company rented permanent premises in Canton, next to the building occupied by the British.
Firando (1609–1641)*
Deshima (1641–1853)* Initially the Dutch maintained a trading post at Hirado, from 1609 to 1641. The Japanese granted the Dutch a trade monopoly in Japan from 1641 to 1853, but solely on Deshima, an artificial island off the coast of Nagasaki. During this period they were the only Europeans allowed into Japan. Chinese and Korean traders were still welcome, though restricted in their movements.
In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established a refuelling station at the Cape of Good Hope, situated halfway between the Dutch East Indies and the Dutch West Indies. Great Britain seized the colony in 1797 during the wars of the First Coalition (in which the Netherlands were allied with revolutionary France), and annexed it in 1805. The Dutch colonists in South Africa remained after the British took over and later made the trek across the country to Natal. They were involved in the Boer Wars against the British and are now known as Boers.
New Netherland comprised the areas of the northeast Atlantic seaboard of the present-day United States that were visited by Dutch explorers and later settled and taken over by the Dutch West India Company. The settlements were initially located on the Hudson River at Fort Nassau (1614–7) in present-day Albany, New York (later resettled as Fort Orange in 1624), and New Amsterdam, founded in 1625 on Manhattan Island. New Netherland reached its maximum size after the Dutch absorbed the Swedish settlement of Fort Christina in 1655, thereby ending the North American colony of New Sweden.
New Netherland itself formally ended in 1674 after the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Dutch settlements passed to the English crown and New Amsterdam was renamed New York.
The treaty forged by the Dutch and English stated that each party would hold onto any lands held or conquered at the time of the Treaty of Breda which had ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War. There was no exchange of lands. Hence, the English held onto New Amsterdam (including Manhattan Island and the Hudson River Valley), and the Dutch spoils included Dutch Guiana in South America, and the group of islands in the East Indies known as the Spice Islands (now called Maluku Islands) that were the source of the valuable spice nutmeg. These islands were the only place in the world where the nutmeg tree was found at that time.
The colonization of the Dutch West Indies, an island group at the time claimed by Spain, began in 1620 with the taking of St. Maarten. Six Caribbean islands remain part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to this day. As of October 10, 2010, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maartin each are countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius now comprise the Dutch Caribbean portion of the Netherlands.
Captured by the Dutch from the English during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Suriname and its valuable sugar plantations formally passed into Dutch hands in return for New Netherland with the signing of the Treaty of Westminster in 1674. It remained an overseas Dutch territory until independence was granted in 1975.
In the 16th century European settlers first arrived in this area of northern South America, the Netherlands being the fastest to claim the land. The first trade route established by the Dutch in around 1600. Eventually the Netherlands planted three colonies to further mark the territory under the Netherlands rule: Essequibo (1616), Berbice (1627), and Demerara (1752). The British occupied Guyana in the late 18th century. The Netherlands ceded Guyana to the United Kingdom in 1814.
In 1624 The Dutch captured Salvador, the capital of the Portuguese settlements in Brazil, and held for a year.
From 1630 to 1654, the Dutch West Indies Company controlled a long stretch of the coast from Sergipe to Maranhão, which they renamed New Holland, before being ousted by the Portuguese. A major character from the war was a mestizo named Calabar, who changed sides and changed the course of the fighting in favor of the Dutch for a while. He was captured and executed by the Portuguese.
First settled by the Dutch in 1648, but annexed by England in 1672, the islands were later renamed the British Virgin Islands.
'Nieuw-Walcheren' (1628–77), now part of Trinidad and Tobago, was a Dutch possession.
Santa Marta (1630)*
Valdivia* The Dutch governor of the East Indies, Hendrik Brouwer, learned that the Spanish had abandoned the city of Valdivia in Chile, and decided to establish a base there for attacks against the Viceroy of Peru during the Eighty Years' War. The Dutch had previously taken the North of Brazil from the Spanish-Portuguese crown, and the idea of creating a South American empire was attractive. In spite of his advanced age, Hendrik Brouwer left his post as governor in the East Indies to personally lead the expedition. The Dutch fleet destroyed the Fort of Carelmapu and the city of Castro before arriving at Corral Bay at the mouth of the Valdivia River. Hendrik Brouwer died on 7 August 1643 in Puerto Inglés while waiting to sail north to Valdivia. Elias Herckman was appointed the new commander, and occupied the ruins of Valdivia in 1643. The Dutch did not find the gold mines they expected and the hostility of the natives forced them to leave on 28 October 1643.[2]
The Dutch had several possessions in Western Africa. They built their first two forts in 1598 at Komenda and Kormantsil (in present day Ghana). They expanded their presence in the following centuries. In 1874 they sold their possessions in Western Africa to the British.
The Netherlands were granted control of the Southern Netherlands after the Congress of Vienna. The Southern Netherlands declared independence in 1830 (the Belgian Revolution), and its independence was recognized by the Netherlands in 1839, giving birth to the new country of Belgium. As part of the Congress of Vienna, King William I of the Netherlands was made Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and the two countries united into a personal union. The independence of Luxembourg was ratified in 1869. When William III of the Netherlands died in 1890, leaving no male successor, the Grand Duchy was given to another branch of the House of Nassau.
An asterisk (*) designates a trading post