Editing Dutch West India Company (section)

==Origins==

[[File:West-Indisch_Huis.jpg|alt=|thumb|The [[:en:West-Indisch Huis (Amsterdam)|West India House]], headquarters of the Dutch West India Company from 1623 to 1647]][[File:Reinier Pauw (1564 - 1636).jpg|thumb|200px|Reinier Pauw, Portrait by [[Jan Anthonisz. van Ravesteyn]]]]

When the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC) was founded in 1602,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archives of the Dutch East India Company {{!}} Silk Roads Programme |url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/silk-road-themes/documentary-heritage/archives-dutch-east-india-company#:~:text=The%20Dutch%20East%20India%20Company%20(VOC,%20Verenigde%20Oostindische%20Compagnie),trading%20companies%20operating%20in%20Asia. |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=en.unesco.org}}</ref> some traders in Amsterdam did not agree with its monopolistic policies. With help from [[Petrus Plancius]], a Dutch-Flemish astronomer, cartographer, and clergyman, they sought for a northeastern or northwestern access to Asia to circumvent the VOC monopoly. In 1609, English explorer [[Henry Hudson]], in employment of the VOC, landed on the coast of [[New England]] and sailed up what is now known as the Hudson River in his quest for the [[Northwest Passage]] to Asia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Plancius, Petrus {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/plancius-petrus |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> However, he failed to find a passage. Consequently, in 1615, [[Isaac Le Maire]] and [[Samuel Blommaert]], assisted by others, focused on finding a south-westerly route around South America's [[Tierra del Fuego]] archipelago in order to circumvent the monopoly of the VOC.

One of the first sailors who focused on trade with Africa was [[Balthazar de Moucheron]]. The trade with Africa offered several possibilities to set up trading posts or [[Factory (trading post)|factories]], an important starting point for negotiations. It was Blommaert, however, who stated that, in 1600, eight companies sailed on the coast of Africa, competing with each other for the supply of copper, from the [[Kingdom of Loango]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pieter Van Den Broecke's Journal of Voyages to Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola, 1605-1612|last=van den Broecke|first=Pieter|publisher=Hakluyt Society|year=2000|isbn=9780904180688|pages=95, 100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r68MAAAAYAAJ&q=+Loango+copper|editor-last=La Fleur|editor-first=J. D. (James Daniel)|access-date=2020-11-10|archive-date=2021-06-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624214026/https://books.google.com/books?id=r68MAAAAYAAJ&q=+Loango+copper|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Pieter van den Broecke]] was employed by one of these companies. In 1612, a Dutch fortress was built in [[Mouree]] (present day Ghana), along the [[Dutch Gold Coast]].

Trade with the Caribbean, for salt, sugar and tobacco, was hampered by Spain and delayed because of peace negotiations. Spain offered peace on condition that the Dutch Republic would withdraw from trading with Asia and America. Spain refused to sign the peace treaty if a West Indian Company would be established. At this time, the [[Eighty Years' War|Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648)]] between Spain and the Dutch Republic was occurring. [[Grand Pensionary]] [[Johan van Oldenbarnevelt]] offered to suspend trade with the West Indies in exchange for the [[Twelve Years' Truce]].<ref>{{Cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/dutchseaborneemp00crbo/page/27|title=The Dutch seaborne empire, 1600-1800|last=Boxer|first=C. R. (Charles Ralph)| date=1973| publisher=Penguin| isbn=0140216006| location=Harmondsworth|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dutchseaborneemp00crbo/page/27 27]|oclc=16253529|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=e-qd05sHxVsC&dq=Willem+Usselincx%2C+Reynier+Pauw&pg=PA55 The Familial State: Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern ... by Julia Adams, p. 55]</ref> He took the proposal of founding a West-India Company off table. The result was that, during a few years, the Dutch sailed under a foreign flag to South America. However, ten years later, [[Stadtholder]] [[Maurice of Orange]], proposed to continue the war with Spain, but also to distract attention from Spain to the Republic. In 1619, his opponent Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was beheaded, and when in April 1621 the truce expired, the West Indian Company could be established.

The West India Company received its charter from the States-General in June 1621, granting it a 24-year monopoly on trade and colonization that included the American coast between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 1621 Charter of the Dutch West India Company |url=https://history.nycourts.gov/about_period/charter-1621/ |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=Historical Society of the New York Courts |language=en-US}}</ref> One of the promotors was [[Reynier Pauw]], who went on to appoint two of his sons as the first managers in 1621; both Pieter and [[Michiel Reyniersz Pauw]] were in place for fifteen years.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://rabbel.nl/direcwic.htm |title=Jaap Jacobs, "De Scheepvaart en handel van de Nederlandse Republiek op Nieuw-Nederland 1609-1675" |access-date=2022-09-25 |archive-date=2022-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925140407/https://rabbel.nl/direcwic.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Reynier Pauw II, [[Cornelis Bicker]], and [[Samuel Blommaert]] were appointed in 1622.<ref>[http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/besluitenstatengeneraal1576-1630/BesluitenStaten-generaal1626-1651/silva/sg/functies/113196 bewindhebber van de WIC ter Kamer Amsterdam]</ref>