Dutch Empire

The Dutch empire comprised the overseas territories and trading posts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies—mainly the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East India Company—and subsequently by the Dutch Republic (1581–1795), and by the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands after 1815. It was initially a trade-based system which derived most of its influence from merchant enterprise and from Dutch control of international maritime shipping routes through strategically placed outposts, rather than from expansive territorial ventures. The Dutch were among the earliest empire-builders of Europe, following Spain and Portugal.

Flag of the Dutch Empire

Dutch Empire. Light green the Dutch East India Company, in dark green is the Dutch West India Company. Orange dots were trading posts.

Quotes

• The establishment of a sugar processing infrastructure in colonial Java persistently increased industrialization, education, and household consumption in areas near government sugar factories, even after the factories themselves had disappeared. Similarly, villages forced to grow sugar cane for the Cultivation System have more schooling and manufacturing today… the positive impacts on economic activity plausibly dominated [any negative effects] in the long-run.
  • The Case for Colonialism: A Response to My Critics, Page 6 Kendhammer citing Ochonu, 2009

See also

• Netherlands
• Colonialism

External links

• De VOCsite
• Dutch and Portuguese Colonial History
• VOC Kenniscentrum
• Dutch East Indies Documentary on YouTube

• The Atlas of Mutual Heritage database, showing the Dutch empire 1600–1800.

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