Editing History of the Netherlands (section)

===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]].