Editing History of the Netherlands (section)

==Dutch Empire==
=== The Dutch in the Americas ===
{{Main|Dutch West India Company|New Netherland|New Amsterdam}}

The Dutch West India Company was a [[chartered company]] (known as the "GWC") of Dutch merchants. On 2 June 1621, it was granted a [[:wikisource:Charter of the Dutch West India Company|charter]] for a trade monopoly in the [[West Indies]] (meaning the Caribbean) by the [[Republic of the Seven United Netherlands]] and given jurisdiction over the [[African slave trade]], Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America. Its area of operations stretched from West Africa to the Americas, and the Pacific islands. The company became instrumental in the [[Dutch colonization of the Americas]]. The first forts and settlements in [[Guyana]] and on the [[Amazon River]] date from the 1590s. Actual colonization, with Dutch settling in the new lands, was not as common as with England and France. Many of the Dutch settlements were lost or abandoned by the end of that century, but the Netherlands managed to retain possession of [[Suriname]] and a number of Dutch Caribbean islands.

[[File:Petrus (Peter Pieter) Stuyvesant portrait c1660.jpg|thumb|[[Peter Stuyvesant]], Director-General of [[New Netherland]] (New York). His provincial capital, [[New Amsterdam]], was located at the southern tip of the island of [[Manhattan]].]]
The colony was a private business venture to exploit the [[fur trade]] in beaver pelts. New Netherland was slowly settled during its first decades, partially as a result of policy mismanagement by the [[Dutch West India Company]] (WIC), and conflicts with Native Americans. During the 1650s, the colony experienced dramatic growth and became a major port for trade in the [[Atlantic World]], tolerating a highly diverse ethnic mix. The surrender of [[Fort Amsterdam]] to the British control in 1664 was formalized in 1667, contributing to the [[Second Anglo–Dutch War]]. In 1673 the Dutch re-took the area, but later relinquished it under the 5 April 1674 [[Treaty of Westminster (1674)|Treaty of Westminster]] ending the [[Third Anglo-Dutch War]].<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Holland |volume=13 |page=601 |first=George |last=Edmundson}}</ref>

Descendants of the original settlers played a prominent role in the history of the United States, as typified by the Roosevelt and Vanderbilt families. The Hudson Valley still boasts a Dutch heritage. The concepts of civil liberties and [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|pluralism]] introduced in the province became mainstays of American political and social life.<ref>Jaap Jacobs, ''The Colony of New Netherland: A Dutch Settlement in Seventeenth-Century America'' (2nd ed. 2009) [https://www.questia.com/read/109275503/new-netherland-a-dutch-colony-in-seventeenth-century online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525213649/https://www.questia.com/read/109275503/new-netherland-a-dutch-colony-in-seventeenth-century |date=25 May 2017}}</ref>

===Slave trade===
{{Main|History of Aruba|History of Curaçao|History of Saint Martin|History of Suriname}}
Although slavery was illegal inside the Netherlands it flourished in the Dutch Empire, and helped support the economy.<ref>Postma, Johannes, ''The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600–1815'' (2008){{Full citation needed|date=November 2012}}, p. {{Page needed|date=October 2011}}</ref> In 1619 The Netherlands took the lead in building large-scale [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trading]] between Africa and Virginia, by 1650 becoming the pre-eminent slave trading country in Europe. It was overtaken by Britain around 1700. Historians agree that in all the Dutch shipped about 550,000 African slaves across the Atlantic, about 75,000 of whom died on board before reaching their destinations. From 1596 to 1829, the Dutch traders sold 250,000 slaves in the Dutch Guianas, 142,000 in the Dutch Caribbean islands, and 28,000 in Dutch Brazil.<ref>van Welie, Rik, [http://www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/nwig/article/view/3580/4340 "Slave Trading and Slavery in the Dutch Colonial Empire: A Global Comparison"], ''NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids,'' 2008, Vol. 82 Issue 1/2, pp. 47–96, Table 2 & Table 3. Retrieved 9 October 2011.</ref> In addition, tens of thousands of slaves, mostly from India and some from Africa, were carried to the Dutch East Indies<ref>Markus Vink, [https://historycooperative.org/journal/the-worlds-oldest-trade-dutch-slavery-and-slave-trade-in-the-indian-ocean-in-the-seventeenth-century-3/ "'The World's Oldest Trade': Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century"], ''Journal of World History'', 14.2 (2003):</ref> and slaves from the East Indies to Africa and the West Indies.

===The Dutch in Asia: The Dutch East India Company===
{{Main|Dutch East India Company|Dutch East Indies}}
[[File:De handelsloge van de VOC in Hougly in Bengalen Rijksmuseum SK-A-4282.jpeg|thumb|260px|[[Dutch East India Company]] factory in [[Hugli-Chuchura]], [[Mughal Bengal]]. ''Hendrik van Schuylenburgh, 1665'']]
[[File:Andries Beeckman - The Castle of Batavia.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Dutch Batavia built in what is now [[Jakarta]], by [[Andries Beeckman]] {{circa|1656 CE}}]]
The Dutch East India Company (also called the VOC) emerged in 1602, when the government gave it a monopoly to trade with Asia, mainly to [[Mughal India]]. It had many world firsts—the first [[multinational corporation]], the first company to issue stock, and the first [[megacorporation]], possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonial settlements.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ames, Glenn J. |title=The Globe Encompassed: The Age of European Discovery, 1500–1700 |date=2008 |pages=102–103}}</ref>

England and France soon copied its model but could not match its record. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships. It returned over 2.5&nbsp;million tons of Asian trade goods. The VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century. The VOC was active chiefly in the [[Dutch East Indies]], now [[History of Indonesia|Indonesia]], where its base was [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] (now [[Jakarta]]), which remained an important trading concern and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years; colonized parts of [[Taiwan]] between [[Taiwan under Dutch rule|1624–1662 and 1664–1667]] and was the only western trading post in Japan, [[Dejima]].

During the period of [[Proto-industrialization]], the empire received 50% of textile and 80% of silk imports from the Mughal Empire, chiefly from its most developed region known as the [[Bengal Subah]].<ref name="tong">{{Cite book |last=Junie T. Tong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UQGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA151 |title=Finance and Society in 21st Century China: Chinese Culture Versus Western Markets |publisher=CRC Press |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-13522-7 |page=151}}</ref><ref name="esposito">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KZcohRpc4OsC&pg=PT190 |title=The Islamic World: Past and Present |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-516520-3 |editor-last=John L. Esposito |editor-link=John L. Esposito |volume=1: Abba - Hist. |page=174}}</ref><ref>Nanda, J. N (2005). {{Cite book |title=Bengal: the unique state |publisher=Concept Publishing Company. p. 10. |date=2005 |isbn=978-81-8069-149-2 |quote=Bengal [...] was rich in the production and export of grain, salt, fruit, liquors and wines, precious metals and ornaments besides the output of its handlooms in silk and cotton. Europe referred to Bengal as the richest country to trade with.}}</ref><ref name="Prakash">[[Om Prakash (historian)|Om Prakash]], "[http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3447600139/WHIC?u=seat24826&xid=6b597320 Empire, Mughal]", ''History of World Trade Since 1450'', edited by [[John J. McCusker]], vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, pp. 237–240, ''World History in Context''. Retrieved 3 August 2017</ref>

[[File:De Lannoy Surrender.JPG|250px|thumb|right|[[Eustachius De Lannoy]] of the [[Dutch East India Company]] surrenders to Maharaja [[Marthanda Varma]] of the Indian [[Kingdom of Travancore]] after the [[Battle of Colachel]]. (Depiction at [[Padmanabhapuram Palace]])]]
By the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established their base in parts of Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). Afterward, they established ports in [[Dutch Malabar|Dutch occupied Malabar]], leading to [[Dutch India|Dutch settlements and trading posts in India]]. However, their expansion into India was halted, after their defeat in the [[Battle of Colachel]] by the [[Travancore|Kingdom of Travancore]], during the [[Travancore-Dutch War]]. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to India.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Koshy |first=M. O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ro8SLhyAc9AC |title=The Dutch Power in Kerala, 1729–1758 |publisher=Mittal Publications |year=1989 |isbn=978-81-7099-136-6 |page=61}}</ref><ref>[http://mod.nic.in/samachar/april15-04/body.html#l1 http://mod.nic.in] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312081154/http://mod.nic.in/samachar/april15-04/body.html |date=12 March 2016}} 9th Madras Regiment</ref>

Eventually, the 18th century saw the Dutch East India Company weighted down by corruption, and the VOC eventually went bankrupt in 1800. Its possessions were taken over by the government and turned into the [[Dutch East Indies]].

=== The Dutch in Africa ===
{{Main|History of Cape Colony before 1806|History of South Africa (1652–1815)|Afrikaners|Afrikaans}}
[[File:Charles Bell - Jan van Riebeeck se aankoms aan die Kaap.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Painting of an account of the arrival of [[Jan van Riebeeck]], by [[Charles Bell (surveyor)|Charles Bell]]]]
In 1647, a Dutch vessel was wrecked in the present-day [[Table Bay]] at [[Cape Town]]. The marooned crew, the first Europeans to attempt settlement in the area, built a [[fort]] and stayed for a year until they were rescued. Shortly thereafter, the [[Dutch East India Company]] (in the Dutch of the day: ''Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie'', or VOC) decided to establish a permanent settlement. The VOC, one of the major European trading houses sailing the [[Spice trade|spice route]] to East Asia, had no intention of colonizing the area, instead wanting only to establish a secure base camp where passing ships could shelter, and where hungry sailors could stock up on fresh supplies of meat, fruit, and vegetables. To this end, a small VOC expedition under the command of [[Jan van Riebeeck]] reached [[Table Bay]] on 6 April 1652.<ref name="Noble-141">{{Cite book |last=Noble |first=John |url=https://archive.org/stream/illustratedoffic00nobliala#page/141/mode/1up |title=Illustrated Official Handbook of the Cape and South Africa; A résumé of the history, conditions, populations, productions and resources of the several colonies, states, and territories |publisher=J.C. Juta & Co. |date=1893 |page=141 |access-date=25 November 2009}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=October 2011}}

To remedy a labour shortage, the VOC released a small number of VOC employees from their contracts and permitted them to establish farms with which they would supply the VOC settlement from their harvests. This arrangement proved highly successful, producing abundant supplies of fruit, vegetables, wheat, and wine; they also later raised livestock. The small initial group of "free burghers", as these farmers were known, steadily increased in number and began to expand their farms further north and east.

The majority of burghers had Dutch ancestry and belonged to the [[Calvinist Reformed Church of the Netherlands]], but there were also numerous Germans as well as some Scandinavians. In 1688 the Dutch and the Germans were joined by French [[Huguenots]], also Calvinists, who were fleeing religious persecution in France under [[Louis XIV of France|King Louis XIV]]. The [[Huguenots in South Africa]] were absorbed into the Dutch population but they played a prominent role in South Africa's history.

From the beginning, the VOC used the cape as a place to supply ships travelling between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. There was a close association between the cape and these Dutch possessions in the far east. Van Riebeeck and the VOC began to import large numbers of slaves, primarily from [[Madagascar]] and Indonesia. These slaves often married Dutch settlers, and their descendants became known as the [[Cape Coloureds]] and the [[Cape Malays]].

[[File:Aernout Smit Table Bay, 1683 William Fehr Collection Cape Town.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Table Bay|De Tafelbaai]] by Aernout Smit, 1683]]
During the 18th century, the Dutch settlement in the area of the cape grew and prospered. By the late 1700s, the [[Dutch Cape Colony|Cape Colony]] was one of the best developed European settlements outside Europe or the Americas.<ref name="Smith">Smith, Adam (1776), [http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/adam-smith/Wealth-Nations.pdf Wealth of Nations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020042323/http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/adam-smith/Wealth-Nations.pdf |date=20 October 2013}}, Penn State Electronic Classics Edition, republished 2005, p. 516</ref> The two bases of the Cape Colony's economy for almost the entirety of its history were shipping and agriculture. Its strategic position meant that almost every ship sailing between Europe and Asia stopped off at the colony's capital [[Cape Town]]. The supplying of these ships with fresh provisions, fruit, and [[South African wine|wine]] provided a very large market for the surplus produce of the colony.<ref name="Smith" />

Some free burghers continued to expand into the rugged hinterlands of the north and east, many began to take up a semi-nomadic [[pastoralism|pastoralist]] lifestyle, in some ways not far removed from that of the [[Khoikhoi]] they had displaced. In addition to its herds, a family might have a wagon, a tent, a Bible, and a few guns. As they became more settled, they would build a mud-walled cottage, frequently located, by choice, days of travel from the nearest European settlement. These were the first of the [[Trekboer]]s (Wandering Farmers, later shortened to [[Boer]]s), completely independent of official controls, extraordinarily self-sufficient, and isolated from the government and the main settlement in [[Cape Town]].

[[File:TrekBoers crossing the Karoo.jpg|thumb|left|200px|An account of the first [[trekboer]]s]]
[[Dutch language|Dutch]] was the official language, but a dialect had formed that was quite distinct from Dutch. The [[Afrikaans]] language originated mainly from 17th-century Dutch dialects.<ref>[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/afrikaans.htm "Afrikaans"], Omniglot.com. Retrieved 9 October 2011.</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/8437/Afrikaans-language "Afrikaans language"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 9 October 2011.</ref>

This Dutch dialect sometimes referred to as the "kitchen language" (''kombuistaal''),<ref>Alatis, James E., Heidi E. Hamilton and Ai-Hui Tan (2002). ''Linguistics, language and the professions: education, journalism, law, medicine, and technology''. Washington, DC: University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-87840-373-8}}. p. {{Page needed|date=October 2011}}</ref> would eventually in the late 19th century be recognised as a distinct language called [[Afrikaans]] and replace Dutch as the official language of the [[Afrikaners]].

As the 18th century drew to a close, Dutch mercantile power began to fade and the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] moved in to fill the vacuum. They seized the Cape Colony in 1795 to prevent it from falling into French hands, then briefly relinquished it back to the Dutch (1803), before definitively conquering it in 1806. British sovereignty of the area was recognised at the [[Congress of Vienna]] in 1815. By the time the Dutch colony was seized by the British in 1806, it had grown into an established settlement with 25,000 slaves, 20,000 white colonists, 15,000 [[Khoisan]], and 1,000 freed black slaves. Outside Cape Town and the immediate hinterland, isolated black and white [[pastoralists]] populated the country.

Dutch interest in South Africa was based chiefly on the strategically located VOC port. Yet in the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch created the foundation of the modern state of South Africa. The Dutch legacy in South Africa is evident everywhere, but particularly in the Afrikaner people and the Afrikaans language.