A yacht of the Rotterdam VOC chamber. The Dutch overseas empire (Het Nederlandse Koloniale Rijk) is a historical empire still partially in existence. Show
Understand[edit]
After the independence from the Spanish Empire in 1581, Netherlands set up a colonial empire on its own. The Dutch Empire was different from some other European empires at the time, inasfar it was mostly centered around individual trading posts, rather than large areas of land (Indonesia and the Cape Colony were the exceptions). The Dutch colonization was divided into two companies: the Dutch East India Company, officially the United East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie; VOC) operating in Africa and Asia, and the Dutch West India Company (Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie; GWC or Westindische Compagnie; WIC) in the Americas. A third company on the list was the Noordsche Compagnie (Nordic Company), active in Svalbard and Jan Mayen. These companies were in full charge of the colonies until they got taken over by the crown in 1815. Up to that point, every one company consisted of so-called chambers, which were local offices in major seafaring cities. These companies were the ones that bought and deployed the ships. These chambers were, in the case of the VOC for example, kept in check by the so-called Heeren Zeventien (Gentlemen Seventeen), the seventeen-headed board of the company. Still, the Dutch were present in the Americas, Africa and Asia, and Dutch explorers working as VOC employees were the first Europeans to set eyes and name waypoints on Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. The first European to round Cape Horn was the Dutch explorer Willem Schouten in 1616, who named it after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands, thus opening up an alternative route to the Strait of Magellan for sailing around South America. Indonesia developed as a VOC colony, centered on the trading post of Batavia, renamed Jakarta after independence. A colonial war with the Portuguese Empire from 1606 to 1663 ended with loss of influence in South America for the Dutch, in Southeast Asia for the Portuguese, and somewhat of a draw in Africa. The Dutch foothold in these settlements dwindled quickly with the Batavian Revolution (1795) and the transformation of the Dutch Republic into the Batavian Netherlands. Many of the colonies that didn't pass into the newfound French overlordship (such as South Africa) were annexed by the English, which chose not to return them after the Dutch regained their independence as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Like other European empires, most of its possessions became independent in the decades after WWII. This went in varying degrees of ease, with Indonesia fighting a revolution against Dutch overlordship from 1945 to 1949, when it gained its independence. Five years later, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles gained a special status within the kingdom. Dutch New Guinea was kept until 1963, when it was transferred to Indonesia. Suriname then gained its independence in 1975. Nowadays, there are still six Caribbean islands that are part of the Netherlands; these were until 2010 known as the Netherlands Antilles. Three of these, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, are now known as the Caribbean Netherlands, a public body in the Netherlands. The other three, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, are independent countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands itself continues to be a popular destination for immigrants from its former colonies, and is home to large Surinamese, Indonesian and Caribbean-origin communities. Europe[edit]
In the Netherlands[edit]The thing with having colonies is you have to rule them. Most colonies were ruled from one of the main cities in that colony, but the VOC and WIC were both ruled by a multitude of chambers, spread along the Dutch coast. Besides that, there are several rebuilt and replicated ships from the time in existence, found across the country. One of the unique culinary traditions that developed as a result of the colonial empire was the Rijsttafel, a meal consisting of a large number of side dishes served with rice, with the dishes coming from different cuisines throughout the Dutch East Indies; a tradition that developed among the colonists in the Dutch East Indies. The tradition largely disappeared in Indonesia following independence, but was brought back to the Netherlands by the returning colonists, and is today primarily found at Indonesian restaurants in the Netherlands.
Former holdings[edit]The Netherlands' current borders have never been cemented in time. Over time, it gained and lost core territory, this being:
United States[edit]Arguably one of the best-known Dutch colonial holdings has to be New Amsterdam (New York). Shown here on a 1916 reproduction of a 1660 plan.The United States quite famously contain former Dutch colonies, which were 'traded' with the English in 1674. The colony, known as "New Netherland" (Nieuw-Nederland) occupied most of the current day New York, New Jersey and Delaware, following the Delaware and Hudson rivers. The colony was first explored in 1609, at the start of the Twelve Years' Truce. The Dutch East India Company sent a ship to find a passage to India via the west. The ship they sent was the Halve Maen (Half Moon). The expedition most notably discovered a huge northern bay, which now carries the name of its skipper Henry Hudson. Four years later, a new expedition set out, led by Adriaen Block. His ship, the Tijger (Tiger) burnt down while in the later New Netherland. During his extended stay, he and his crew built a new ship and explored and mapped the surrounding area, sailing up the East River and exploring Long Island. The map that Block published when he got back to Europe would introduce the name of "New Netherland". After that, the real colonisation of New Netherland started.
Starting in 1629, the West India Company allowed for individuals to start their own estates in New Netherland. Major advocate for this plan was Kiliaen van Rensselaer, who founded the manor of Renselaerswijck. At its height, this manor stretched for several miles on either side of the Hudson river. Following the success of Renselaerswijck, the town of Beverwijck (modern-day 5 Albany) was founded in attempt to syphon away power from Renselaerswijck. Seventeen years after its founding, in 1664, Beverwijck had become the second city of the colony, counting about a thousand inhabitants. During all this, New Netherland was doing quite well for itself. To its west though, another colony had sprung up: New Sweden, which was a Swedish-Finnish colony surrounding modern-day Philadelphia. New Sweden was settled exclusively to the west bank of the Delaware River as to avoid conflict with the Dutch, who had claimed either side of the river. The Dutch, meanwhile, were building forts within their claimed region, which started posing problems for the Swedish colony. In 1654, the Swedish colony attempted to take control of 6 Fort Casimir, which they succeeded in, and promptly renamed to Trefaltighet. The New Netherland governor, Peter Stuyvesant, retook the fort the year after, conquering all of New Sweden. The Dutch were quite negligent of their colony in the new world, considering it to be the WIC's responsibility to defend it and take care of it. The WIC, meanwhile, had trade and making profits as among its main interests, and thus when the English came along to annex the colony with four frigates on August 27th, 1664, they were met with no resistance. The locals didn't resist their annexation, mostly because their pleas for support from the homeland against the many attacks by the natives went unanswered. The Dutch, in retaliation, occupied modern-day Suriname and British-Guyana during the Second English-Dutch War (1664). The signing of the Peace of Breda (1667) resulted in a status quo: The Dutch kept Suriname and the English kept New Amsterdam. A final resolution however, was left to the future. The status quo did not last long thought, with the Third English-Dutch War following in 1672. This saw New Amsterdam, 7 Fort Amsterdam and Beverwijck get occupied by Dutch forces again. The settlements were at this point also renamed to Nieuw-Oranje (New Orange), Fort Willem Hendrik and Willemstadt respectively, all in honour of the new stadtholder, William III of Orange-Nassau. The Peace of Westminster (1674) saw an end to the Dutch colony in North America. New Netherland was properly transferred to the English, and Suriname became a proper Dutch colony. New Amsterdam, as well as other settlements and forts were promptly renamed to their current names. The Dutch Republic did regain some foothold in the new world with Dutch Arcadia, which consisted of parts of French Arcadia, consisting of parts of modern-day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. This territory was returned to the French in 1675, and the Dutch revoked their claim three years later. The rivalry between the Dutch and English ended with the Glorious Revolution, in which the Dutch stadtholder William III and his wife, Mary II of England, took over control in England. During their presence, the following settlements were founded by the Dutch colonists:
Caribbean and South America[edit]West Indies[edit]The Dutch West Indies were a region which to this day is still incorporated in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The region started out as direct possessions of the West India Company, which changed in 1845, which split the islands in the Caribbean to two entities: Curaçao en Onderhorigheden and Sint Eustatius en Onderhorigheden ("Onderhorigheden" meaning "dominions"), which until 1922 were considered Dutch colonies. From 1954 onwards, the two entities became a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, known as the Dutch Antilles. In 2010 this changed again with islands being able to choose the extent of their integration within the Netherlands. Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten all chose to become a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while the other three islands, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Bonaire chose to become a part of the Carribean Netherlands, a group of special municipalities within the Netherlands. Of the former Dutch West Indies, two groups can be distinguished:
Aside from the Leeward Islands and Antilles, another part of the West Indies, though often seen as a separate colonial entity, is the modern-day country of 7 Suriname (Dutch Guyana). Brazil[edit]
the siege of
and the founding of
and
Africa[edit]South Africa[edit]View of Kasteel de Goede Hoop (The Castle of Good Hope), in the middle of Cape Town.The Nederlandse Kaapkolonie (Dutch Cape Colony), officially titled Tussenstation Kaap de Goede Hoop (Intermediate Station Cape of Good Hope), was a Dutch colony settled by the VOC around 1 Kaapstad (South Africa). The colony was started in 1652 and lost to the British in 1795, which occupied it for eight years, returning it to the Batavian Commonwealth , The Netherlands' official name between the French Revolution and annexation by the French. The British occupied the colony once more three years later since the Batavian Commonwealth became a proxy state to France, which the English were at war with, and in the Treaty of Paris (1814) the colony was transferred to British hands, which it wouldn't leave until independence in 1931. The "Colony at the Cape" started by accident in March of 1647, when the Nieuw Haarlem (New-Haarlem) wrecked at the cape. The shipwrecked crew built a small fort which they named Zand Fort van de Kaap de Goede Hoop (Sand Fort of the Cape of Good Hope). Being rescued almost a year later, part of the crew set out to convince the VOC to open a trade hub at the Cape. The VOC set out an expedition led by Jan van Riebeeck later, which reached its destination on April 6th, 1652, creating the first permanent settlement at the Cape. The crew, which counted amongst them ninety calvinist colonists, founded a fort made from clay and wood, which between 1666 and 1679 would be replaced with 2 Kasteel de Goede Hoop, nowadays the oldest building in all of South Africa. The colony purchased land off of the native Khoikhoi tribes as they needed expansion. The first colonists sent to the Cape were mostly from the middle layers of the Dutch society, which led to indifference among them as to how the colony would turn out. This changed when in 1685 a commissioner was sent to keep the colony in check. This attracted a new group of immigrants to the colonies: French Huguenots, which after losing their safety in France, fled to the Dutch Republic and its colonies. Due to how the Dutch managed the colony (education was only allowed for those that spoke Dutch), the French influence had been lost halfway through the 18th century. Their legacy, however, survives in the name of 3 Franschhoek (French Corner), named for the 176 Huguenots which settled there in 1688. The colony grew over time, forcing the local Khoikhoi tribes, which were weakened by disease already, to either become part of the colony and work for the Dutch settlers, or to migrate north and meet hostile enemy tribes there. The Cape government started pushing out laws in 1787 which aimed to make the remaining nomadic Khoikhoi increasingly dependent on the Dutch. Despite the hostile surroundings, with both enemy tribes and landscape that wasn't very arable to begin with, the colony kept expanding, which eventually led the VOC to limit the colony, which they wanted to solely be a supply post rather than a settlement that would end up costing them money. These laws let the VOC directory halt the open migration to the colony, gave it a monopoly on its exports, gave it complete rule over it, and furthermore let it dictate what the farmers were to grow on their land, giving the VOC a large percentage of the harvest. The colonists, which mostly left the Netherlands proper because of their libertarian outlooks on life, were understandably disgruntled with the laws. In attempts to escape the control of the VOC, they turned inland and settled land for themselves, which was not in control of the company. The VOC eventually couldn't do anything else but to recognise these territories. 4 Swellendam got a magistrate in 1745, 5 Graaff-Reinet followed second in 1786. The river Gamtoos was to be the official new border from that point, which was ignored, and the land east of the river was quickly settled. The colonists and farmers (Boeren, later Boers) did, despite agreeing with the VOC directory that the Grote Visrivier was to be the new eastern border, did not get the protection they needed from the local tribes. This led to them expelling the officials of the colony, and organising the first Boer Republics. Before British occupation of the Cape Colony in 1795, following the occupation of the Dutch Republic by the French army, the colony consisted of four districts: Kaap, 6 Stellenbosch en 7 Drakenstein, Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet, which together counted some over 60,000 inhabitants. The English followed directions by the Dutch stadtholder William V of Orange-Nassau to "resist the French with whatever means possible", which for England meant occupying Dutch colonies before the French could claim them, which was an explicit request by the stadholder. The colony's governor initially refused to follow the peaceful occupation, but when the English threatened with the use of violence, he gave in. The British went on to annex the two Boer Republics not much later the same year. The Peace of Amiens (1803), saw control over the colony get returned to the Batavian Commonwealth, yet six years later, the colony was once again taken over by the English. This time though, the transfer of power was permanent, as William I of the Netherlands signed away the colony in the 1814 Treaty of London. Dutch association and relations with the descendants of the settlers of the Kaap (The Boers) continued up into the 1960s, due to the Boer Republics they founded following the Great Trek and the migration of many Dutch citizens into South Africa following World War II. Central and West Africa[edit]
Asia and Oceania[edit]Indonesia[edit]Jakarta's history museum, built in 1710 as the city hall of Batavia
Malaysia[edit]
India[edit]Dutch holdings in and around India consist of three different colonies. These were the Coromandel Coast (Kust van Coromandel) in the modern-day Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, Dutch Bengal, located roughly in modern-day Bangladesh, and Dutch Ceylon in modern-day Sri Lanka.
Japan[edit]Mid-1830s view of the Nagasaki harbour, with Dejima in the centre-left.Japan is fairly well-known to have been closed to the outside world for a large part of its history. The main exception to the rule were the Dutch, specifically the VOC, which had gained the ability to found two factories in 50 Hirado (1609 - 1641) and 51 Dejima (1641 - 1860), both lying in the modern-day prefecture of Nagasaki. The Dutch, being the sole western influence in the whole of Japan, came in contact with Japan during the Edo shogunate. The Dutch brought, amongst other things, many books to Japan, which stimulated an interest in Western learning, called "rangaku" or "Dutch learning". Especially around the time of Japan opening up to the rest of the world under force of the United States in 1853, the Dutch influence weakened the reigning Edo shogunate, which helped contribute to its fall. The two trading posts, both located in Nagasaki, followed each other, with the Dutch transferring from Hirado to Dejima in 1641. The latter was a specially constructed artificial island. On Hirado specifically, you can find the 2011 reconstruction of a warehouse belonging to the former 52 Dutch Trading Post and nearby Dutch Wall. The warehouse itself was built in 1637 or 1639, and almost immediately torn down in 1639, as the building contained stonework depicting the Christian year date of construction, which at the time was disapproved of by the Tokugawa shogunate. Dejima is where a lot of Dutch influences came into Japanese culture. Amongst other things, the Dutch introduced the Japanese to beer, coffee and chocolate, but also cabbage, tomatoes, the piano, clovers, photography, billiards and photography. The island has since been given a designated status as national historic site in 1922, and restoration was started in 1953, which ended up not going very far. In 1996, the island's shape was more or less restored, and some 25 buildings were restored in their 19th-century state. This was followed by another five buildings in 2000, and six more in 2017. The long-term plans for Dejima are for it to be fully surrounded by water again, thus being restored as an island, but as of 2020, that plan is very much still in progress. The Kankō-maru in the Yokohama harbour.Good relations between the Dutch and the Japanese continued until the Dutch left Nagasaki at the end 1859. This shows in the "Watermannen" (Water men), who were Dutch hydraulic and civic engineers sent to Japan in the 1870s. These men were a part of a larger influx of western knowledge from larger countries like the US, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, though the Dutch were specifically called in for water management and civic engineering. Some twenty years earlier, the Dutch also provided Japan with its first steam-powered warship, which was built in the Netherlands as Soembing, though it was renamed to Kankō-maru when taken into Japanese service. Additionally, quite a few words of scientific or western nature have been adapted from the respective Dutch words, and are retained in speech to this day. Taiwan[edit]The southern part of Taiwan was colonised by the Dutch from 1624-1662. The Dutch would eventually be defeated by Ming Dynasty loyalist Zheng Chenggong, perhaps better known in the West as Koxinga, who set up the Kingdom of Tungning, from which he hoped to conquer the mainland and re-establish the Ming Dynasty. His son would subsequently be defeated by the Manchu-Chinese Qing Dynasty, resulting in Taiwan being incorporated into the Qing empire.
Oceania[edit]The route of Abel Tasman's 1642 and 1644 voyages in the service of the VOCMany ships using the Roaring Forties to get to Indonesia got wrecked off the coast of New Holland, modern-day Western Australia. On November 1642, 1 Tasmania was "discovered" and claimed by VOC commander Abel Tasman, exploring from Mauritius under orders of Anthony van Diemen, governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. Tasman named it "Van Diemen's Land", after his patron. A cape and a group of islands in northern New Zealand are still called by names given by Tasman while underway. He reportedly reached Fiji and Tonga, later returning to Batavia. His second voyage took place in 1644; he mapped a part of Australia's northern coast, but failed to find Torres Strait and a possible trade route, and the expedition was deemed a failure.
See also[edit]
Other colonial empires[edit] |