Dutch Empire and Colonies of India

Dutch Empire and Colonies of India

Dutch were the first to break through the Portuguese monopoly in the east. Netherland had got independence from Spanish Empire in 1581. Due to war of independence, the ports in Spain for Dutch were closed. This forced them to find out a route to India and east to enable direct trade. In 1565, they had opened up trade with Russia and tried to explore the land routes towards China and India, however, not much success came their way.

Huyghen van Linschoten

The Dutch pioneer in the matter of the discovery of commercial possibilities in India and the east was Huyghen van Linschoten. He was a merchant who travelled extensively within the Portuguese territories and served as secretary of the Portuguese Viceroy in India from 1583 to 1589. During this period, he was able to copy top secret Portuguese nautical maps.

When he returned Holland, he published a book dealing with these maps and sea-routes to the East. This book created a great sensation in Western Europe and was translated into many languages. This particular book had given impetus to not only the foundation of Dutch East India Company but also similar companies of British and French also.

Jan Huyghen van Linschoten is credited for enabling the British East India Company as well as the Dutch East India Company to break the 16th century monopoly of the Portuguese in trade with the East Indies.

Initial Efforts and Establishment of Dutch East India Company

In 1596, the Dutch concluded a treaty with the ruler of Bantam in Java to open up their trade in spices. The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch) was established in 1602. This was First Multinational Corporation of the World, first company to issue stock and first company which was given power to engage itself in colonial activities including waging a war and execute the convicts, mint the coins and establish the colonies.

This company was created by combining together several Indian companies formed within Holland into one huge association. It was granted an exclusive right to trade with India and the East Indies for 21 years and vested with ample powers of attack and conquest by the state. It was a national undertaking and constituted a national force. In next few decades, they were able to establish factories in India, Ceylon, Sumatra, Persian Gulf and Red Sea.

Expansion in India

The first permanent trading post of Dutch East India Company was in Indonesia.  In India, they established the first factory in Masulipattanam in 1605, followed by Pulicat in 1610, Surat in 1616, Bimilipatam in 1641 and Chinsura in 1653. In Bengal they established a factory in Pipli, but it was abandoned for Balasore later. In 1619, they founded city of Batavia, in Java, as the seat of the supreme government of the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, which had previously been at Amboyna in the Malaccas.  At about the same time they discovered the coast of Australia (1606-1644); while in North America they founded the city of New Amsterdam in 1613-1626, which is known as New York now.

The main objective of the Dutch remained aggressive in eliminating the Portuguese and British merchandise powers from India and South East Asia, and they were successful in abandoning the Portuguese as most dominant power in the European Trade.  When the established a factory in Pulicat, in 1610, it became their main center of activities. It was later known as Fort Geldria.

Amboyna Tragedy and Establishment of Dutch Supremacy in Indonesia

In February, the Dutch had conquered the Portuguese fortress of Victoria at Amboyna, located in modern Maluku, Indonesia). However, they still faced a competition from British. The bitterness between trading companies of Netherland and England turned into the bitterness between two monarchs also. To control any unwanted event, they two governments had signed a treaty of defense in London to enshrine cooperation between the two companies. This treaty fixed the market of spices between the two in fixed proportions.

However, this was not a sustainable solution. In 1623, the Dutch caught a British soldier spying on them. Enraged Dutch arrested, tortured and killed dozens of British Company’s servants. This was a big defeat to British as they had to retire from Eastern Archipelagoand focus only on India. The Dutch became a supreme power in Indonesia and remained for long. For British, India was only hope as they have been forced out from Indonesia.

By 17th century, Dutch were able to expel Portuguese also from most parts of India and Ceylon. In 1641, they occupied Malacca.  In 1652, they were able to capture the Cape of Good Hope.

Dutch Coinage

The Dutch, during their stay in India, tried their hands on the minting of coinages. As their trade flourished they established mints at Cochin, Masulipattam, Nagapatam Pondicherry and Pulicat. Even more, Gold pagoda with an image of Lord Venkateswara, (god Vishnu) was issued at Pulicat mint. The coins issued by the Dutch were all modelled on the local coinages.

Decline

The climax of the Dutch East India Company was in 1669, when it was the richest private company of the world with 150 merchant ships, 40 warships and 50 thousand employees and an army of 10 thousand soldiers.  In India, the most important event was the Battle of Colachel in 1741, which was fought between the Dutch East India Company and State of Travancore army. This was a major defeat of a European power in India and marked beginning of the end of the Dutch Influence. Following the corruption and bankruptcy, the Dutch East India Company was formally dissolved in 1800. The Dutch influence from India had finished long ago but they were dominant in Indonesia. The government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalized colony later which was more or less the within the boundaries of the modern Indonesia.

Reasons for Downfall

While the Portuguese suffered because of the bad successors of Albuquerque and their severity and intolerance; Dutch failed mainly due to the rising English and French powers and their own corruption. The Government of Netherlands also interfered a lot. Further, they had a short-sighted commercial policy centred around monopoly of the trade in spices. The Dutch were given a death blow by Robert Clive when in 1759 he attacked them both by land and water at Chinsura {Battle of Chinsura} on the Hugli River, near Kolkata.