Maritime Empires: The Dutch

Maritime Empires: The Dutch

By Laurel Boeman

What the Companies did

The Little Engine That Could

Dutch Companies

The Dutch East India Company was granted sole rights, for an initial period of 21 years, to Dutch trade and navigation east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. The directors of the company 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. The company itself was founded as a joint stock company, similarly to its English rival that had been founded two years earlier, the English East India Company. In 1621, the Dutch West India Company 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.

The Dutch had 2 "companies" that governed land.

The Dutch East India Company, governing land in Southeast Asia and The Dutch West India Company, governing land in the Caribbean and the Americas, as well as territories in West and South Africa

The companies arose as a result of inter company rivalry in the Netherlands.

Rough Beginnings

The Dutch Empire was a commercial empire empire. It is often called a miracle because it was a small country on the shores of the North Sea that managed to become the premire trading nation of the world during most of the 17th century.

Their Government

Shipments

The Dutch had superiority over both the British and the French in Western Europe – the Dutch having 15,000 to 16,000 vessels per year versus 3,000 to 4,000 for the British and 500 to 600 for the French. They also had marine insurance for the 16 merchants that owned each ship.

Anglo-Dutch Wars

Because of their location on the North Sea, The Dutch had to constantly fight the sea in order to keep the country from flooding. Their close proximity to Spain also required a war against Spain to get the Dutch government what they wanted it to be.

EQ: How did empire building in this era compare to the previous era?

The expansion of Dutch influence was completely reliant on the trade of this empire. The Dutch, unlike many other empires, put little to nothing into expansion, only investing in strong defensive ships. The Dutch empire managed to become a world economic power without having to conquer other people.

There were four Anglo-Dutch wars, taking place in 1652–54

1665–67 1672–74 1781–84. The one that is considered the "beginning of the Dutch Empire" is the third war, from 167-74

Essentially:

• England attacked a dutch convoy
• Dutch were angry about that
• England teamed up with France
• Dutch held off the attacks

The republic was a confederation of seven provinces, which had their own governments and were very independent, and a number of Generality Lands. These latter were governed directly by the States-General (Staten-Generaal in Dutch), the federal government. The States-General were seated in The Hague and consisted of representatives of each of the seven provinces.