Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company (WIC) was a trading company established by the Netherlands in 1621 to facilitate colonial endeavors in the Americas and safeguard Dutch interests against Spanish and Portuguese dominance. It played a pivotal role in the establishment of New Netherland, the only permanent Dutch colony in North America, which began settlement in 1625. The WIC's early successes included the fur trade and a series of privateering ventures that disrupted enemy shipping and seized territories, notably in Brazil and the Caribbean. Despite these achievements, the company struggled with financial viability, particularly after its initial colonial efforts outside New Netherland did not flourish. The WIC's economic challenges led to its bankruptcy in 1674 and subsequent dissolution by the Dutch government. A successor company operated until 1791 but failed to replicate the original's impact. The legacy of the WIC remains significant in the context of Dutch colonial history and its interactions with indigenous populations and other colonial powers.
Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company (WIC) was a Dutch trading company founded in 1621 to facilitate the establishment of colonies in the Americas and protect the Netherlands' political interests at home and abroad. Along with the Dutch East India Company, its Southeast Asian counterpart and predecessor, the WIC was instrumental to the Netherlands' colonial expansion. Most importantly, the WIC was responsible for organizing the settlement of New Netherland, the only permanent Dutch colony ever founded in North America. In spite of its early accomplishments, however, the WIC was never broadly successful. After its other colonial efforts outside New Netherland floundered, the WIC went bankrupt and, although a second version of the company persisted until 1791, its power and influence in the Americas came to an end.
Origins
Among the great European powers of the late sixteenth century, the Netherlands was one of the last to take an interest in Atlantic trade. Once the potential profitability of taking part in this trade became apparent, however, the Dutch were quick to get involved. Within twenty years, numerous Dutch merchants were operating private companies that participated in trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Unfortunately, as these companies grew, they found themselves increasingly at the mercy of Spain and Portugal, the two nations that chiefly dominated Atlantic trade at the time. Meanwhile, as more Dutch merchants began opening trade businesses, domestic competition increased dramatically. Concerned that stiffer competition, along with growing economic pressure from Spain and Portugal, would ultimately lead to a decline in trade, the Dutch government was faced with the difficult task of protecting the Netherlands' political and economic interests in the New World. Fortunately for the Dutch parliament, which was known as the Estates-General, Flemish merchant and investor William Usselinx had a solution. He suggested that the Netherlands should establish a permanent colony in North America, arguing that such an endeavor would give the Dutch a foothold in the New World, establish a foreign market for Dutch-made goods, and potentially serve as a source of gold and silver. Though the Estates-General was intrigued by this idea, the enormous expense involved in colonization was strongly disconcerting. As a result, instead of funding the venture itself, the Estates-General chartered the WIC in 1621 and gave the new company a twenty-four-year charter, a monopoly on American trade, and a sizable grant to start its work.
New Netherland
In selecting a location for its North American colony, the WIC chose the Hudson River region of what is known today as New York, an expanse of land that English navigator Henry Hudson previously explored on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in 1609. When the WIC stepped in to found its colony, it named the region New Netherland.
The first Dutch colonists reached New Netherland in 1625. Upon their arrival, the WIC drafted the Provisional Orders, a document that established a basic form of government and required colonists to adhere to the company's laws and muster in its militia. The Provisional Orders also provided for a certain degree of religious freedom, though public worship was required to fall under the auspices of the Dutch Reformed Church.
From the outset, the WIC tried to market New Netherland to prospective colonists as a land of vast agricultural opportunity, but the fur trade was generally the colony's most profitable business. As a result, the WIC's board members were deeply divided over the question of whether agriculture or the fur trade should be New Netherland's primary focus. To settle the argument, the WIC issued the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions in 1628. This landmark document established the patroon system, which allowed the WIC to pass the cost of colonization on to private investors, or patroons, and thereby free itself from having to determine New Netherland's economic future. Under this system, the WIC granted patroons large tracts of land that they could govern and use as they pleased. In return, the patroons were required to send at least fifty colonists to their patroonship within four years. Despite the WIC's best efforts, however, the patroon system was largely a failure due to Dutch citizens' reluctance to settle in North America. Ultimately, few patroonships successfully grew into thriving communities and only one—Rensselaerswijck, which later became Albany—survived when England took control of the region in 1664.
Privateering, War, and Eventual Decline
The WIC's activities in the Americas were not limited to the establishment of New Netherland. In order to help defend the Netherlands' interests in the New World and weaken the competition, the WIC conducted an extensive privateering campaign against Spain and Portugal. Between 1623 and 1636, WIC privateers destroyed or seized more than five hundred enemy ships and attacked Portuguese colonies in South America. For a time, these attacks proved fruitful. In 1630, the WIC successfully took possession of the northern provinces of Brazil, regions it controlled until 1654. The WIC also managed to temporarily seize several African territories, including Luanda and São Tomé. Perhaps most notably, the WIC's capture of Portuguese facilities on the Gold Coast in the 1630s and 1640s enabled the Dutch to control the Guinea trade for decades.
While the WIC made many of its gains through warfare, it also made some peaceful advances. During its time in existence, the WIC worked to colonize various parts of the Guyana coast and the islands of the Caribbean. Its most successful Caribbean colony was the island of Curaçao, which it formally occupied in 1634 and used both as a naval base and a trade depot.
Despite its successes, the cost of the WIC's colonization efforts and campaigns against Spain and Portugal placed a tremendous financial strain on the company and eventually forced it into bankruptcy in 1674. Shortly thereafter, the Estates-General formally dissolved the company. A second WIC arose in the immediate aftermath of the original's demise, but it did little to match its predecessor's accomplishments and was disbanded in 1791.
Bibliography
den Heijer, Henk. "Dutch West India Company." Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450. Ed. Thomas Benjamin. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 319–22. Print.
"Dutch West India Company (1621)." PBS LearningMedia. PBS & WGBH Educational Foundation. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nys09.soc.k-6.statloc.dwic/dutch-west-india-company-1621/
Emmer, Pieter. "West India Company, Dutch." History of World Trade Since 1450. Ed. John J. McCusker. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. 808–809. Print.
Schmoll, Brett and Elizabeth Dubrulle. "Dutch West India Company." What Happened?: An Encyclopedia of Events That Changed America Forever. Ed. John Findling and Frank Thackeray. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 208–10. Print.