Dutch Colonial Empire

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Brief history. The war of the Spanish Succession does not have the devastating conclusion for the Dutch and Austrians at the battle of Denain resulting in a much better result for the Dutch Republic at the Peace of Utrecht. Due to the good and profitable, peace results for the Dutch Republic Pensioner Hensius could start with some reforms in order to reduce the enormous state debt of the Republic caused by the lengthy war. Hensius is followed by Van Slingelandt who continues the gradual state reforms. This result in a well balances treasury of the Dutch Republic. Maybe because of this the Dutch Republic were financial able to honour their junior role in the alliance with Great Britain and due to this not only got involved with the War of the Austrian Succession but also the world wide Seven years war. Although both wars were not very successful for the Dutch Republic on the European continent, the colonial empires of the VOC and WIC were protected by this alliance against the French.

The relation between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic received a considerable dent during the American Revolution which had great popular support in the Dutch Republic. An Anglo-Dutch war could narrowly prevented by the offer of the Scottish Brigade, part of the Dutch State army, to the British.

The Dutch Republic remained more focused on Great Britain instead of France, which only increased during the French revolution wars. Nearly all Dutch colonies and overseas possessions accepted suzerainty of Great Britain during the Napoleonic wars.

Following the defeat of Napoleon, the newly founded United Kingdom of the Netherlands reconfirms their friendship with the UK and they conclude a few important treaties in 1814.

Probably one of the major factors of returning nearly all former VOC and WIC possession to the Netherlands was the fact that Prince Frederik was married with Princess Mary, one of the daughter of British King George III.

Prince Frederik was the younger brother of the King of the Netherlands. He served during the Revolution wars and Napoleonic wars under the Austrians and become one of the successful Generals of the Austrians against Napoleon.

The 1830’s French backed coup in the southern Netherlands was crushed with British help. The two countries decide to demarcate their empires in a series of treaties in London in 1839, to prevent French encroachment in these regions. The Dutch vacated all their Indian continental possessions in favour for Britain with the exemption of Malacca. The Netherlands would stay out of Oceania but could occupy the Western portion of the Australian continent. In return the British Empire recognized Dutch supremacy in Southern Africa and the Indonesian archipelago. Both empires also signed free-trade and passage agreements between them. The relations between the two colonial empires remain excellent during the 19th century. The United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the mightier British Empire act often together in their attempt to preserve the international balance of power.

Nederlandse Goudkust en Vorstenland Ashanti = Ghana
Nederlandsch Guiana = Guyana and Suriname
Nederlandsch Voor Indië = Sri Lanka
Gouvernement van Formosa = Taiwan
Nederlandsch Achter Indië = Indonesia
Resident van Dejima = trade island in the port of Nagasaki Japan
Domein van ZuidelijkAfrika = South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Maputo, kingdom Mtwhakazi (matabele)
Regentscchap Malakka = Malakka city of Malaysia
Curacao en onderhorigheden = Netherlands Antiles
 

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History of Tobago and Tinidad up to the 1st half of th 18th century:

Dutch Tobago and Trinidad

Tobago. This beautiful and rugged island of the Caribbean (with an area of about 300 square kilometres) lies in front of the delta of the Orinoco River. Its position is a rather strategic one. Indeed, from here one can dominate the coasts of Venezuela as well as that of Guyana and also the...
www.alternatehistory.com

 

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Dutch Formosa brief history 17th century

The island of Taiwan, also commonly known as Formosa, was partly under colonial rule by the Dutch Republic from 1624.

Short history of the most critical period of the Dutch presence on Formosa.
In 1661, April 2 a naval fleet of 200 ships, led by the Ming loyalist Koxinga Zeng, landed at Lakjemuyse with the intention of ousting the Dutch from Zeelandia and making the island a base for Ming loyalists. Following a seven-month siege,

Twelve Dutch ships, who a month ago made a unsuccessfull attack on Macao, attacked the Chinese junks and destroyed asignificant number but taking heavy losses as well due to the overwhelming Cineese force. and the Dutch had to retreat. The remaining ships tried a second and third attack on the Chieese ships before to sail to Batavia . Two ships consisted of a yacht and a fluyt, were send earlier to Batavia for reinforcements.
Early May, news of the siege reached Batavia, and the Dutch East India Company dispatched a fleet of 21 ships to relieve the fort.
On July , the two sides gave major battle as the Dutch fleet attempted to break Koxinga's blockade. A second, ultimately successfull attempt by the Dutch at relief was mounted in October. Koxinga lost too many ships, the Dutch broke the blockade and his army was as well low on supplies there for he lifted the siege.

In 1663, The Dutch allied with the Qing dynasty against the Zheng forces. In 1663, 15 Dutch ships scattered a Zheng fleet of several hundred junks.

In 1666, Chinese forces, of the army of Koxinga's son Zheng Jing, made an last, failed, attempt to conquer another Dutch fort on Formosa .

Until 1675 the VOC shipping was harrased by ships of Zheng Jing.

In order to pacify the indigenous population numerous Protestant missionaris were sent to Formosa resulting in one of the largest Protestant ( Calvinist) population in Asia.
 
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West Australia or Domein van Nieuw Holland:
It was Nicolaas Witsen as Director of the VOC who, in 1700, ordered the establishment of a refreshing station at the Swan river. The aim was that all VOC ship using the Brouwer route had to make a stop at this new refreshing station before they continued the last leg of their voyage to Batavia.

In 1702 Five ships with twenty families and some fifty soldiers established the colony Catharina after the late wife of Nicolaas Witsen. Although the harvest of the land were poor the sea provided plenty of fish. The collection of the most desired sandalwood turned to be harder, but despite long and hard expeditions in the interior a reasonable amount was collected. As refreshing station it was harder since in the beginning the colony could only provide fresh water and fish and not much of fresh food. Never the less the reports of admirals of VOC fleets arriving in Batavia were positive. From the start colonist were recruited form the two main orphan houses in Amsterdam. The ‘’Burgerweeshuis” and the ’’Aalmoezeniersweeshuis”. The first was an orphanage for children whose parents paid by life an insurance and the children grew up at his orphanage in good living conditions and received good education. The later was an orphanage mainly for poor people, with poor living conditions and hardly any education and in continuous overcrowd state. The orphans of the “Burgerweeshuis” were volunteers, when reaching adult age while the orphans of the “Aalmoezeniersweeshuis’’ were more or less forced to join the new colony.

In 1750 the colony had around 900 inhabitants and the hamlets a the coast and on Rotnest Island had both around 300 people. In the same year the first plantation of sandalwood trees was planted, although it took at least fifteen years before it could harvested. Due to the export of the sandalwood in the first two decades although limited in number, the colony did make a profit, which was the only reason why the VOC did not abandon the settlement.

Contact with the Aboriginals was initial limited but peaceful, and mostly occurred during the sandalwood expeditions.

At the treaty of London in 1814 the colony was returned to the new Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was in this treaty that the longitude line was drawn for the first time.

During the 19th century Catharina encountered some grow spurts due to discoveries of lead, copper, and a two gold rushes.
 

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Domein van Zuidelijk Afrika a very brief history:

The Cape colony was established in 1652 by Jan van Riebeek as a refreshing station for VOC ship to and from Asia.

Due to governor Simon van der Stel the colony saw a significant growth and the village Stellenbosch was established inland. Under van der Stel several expeditions were made in the interior.

Since Van Riebeek there was a botanical garden at the Cape. On request of Johan Huydecooper, Simon van der Stel send a great number of plants and seeds from Asia and the Cape to Amsterdam. One of these plants was a coffee plant. Most likely offspring of this plant was stolen form the Botanical garden in Amsterdam and become the start of the WIC coffee plantations at Guiana, Tobago and Trinidad. This caused a coffee competition between the WIC and VOC and made coffee affordable for most people in the Republic. ( in OTL the plants were destroyed at the Cape by VOC commanders)

In 1690 the VOC established a second colony at the bay of Natal, called Natalia. A year before the commander of the ship "de Noord" purchased a lot of land from the local Xhosa king. The trade post grew considerable partly due to the climate. Trade with the Xhosa contained cattle, hides and ivory. Natalia was a starting point for several expeditions in the interior, in the 18th century, many in search of gold, which was never found in large quantities. ( in OTL the ship ''de Noord" suffered shipwreck and the contract was lost in the accident.)

Both the Cape Colony as Natalia suffered after governor van der Stel under increasing harsher rule by the VOC. The treatment of the colonist was feudal and many colonist chose for a semi nomadic existence at the fringe of the colony in order to escape the harsh treatment of the VOC.

The situation change complete after the VOC handed over the Cape and Natalia to the State General, making it the first colony of the Dutch republic. The VOC made the decision by Gustaaf van Imhoff in 1746. In order to populate the colony the same method was used as for the refreshing station on the Swan river at Terra Australis.

This method of populating the colony stopped during the revolution wars but was reinstalled in 1830 by the foundation of ‘’Weldadigheid’’ an organisation who forced poor, vagabonds, petty criminals, bankrupters and other ‘’undesired’’ people to colonies in the Netherlands and overseas. The people were housed in so called colonies were they had to cultivate the land in an attempt to ‘’re-educate’’ them and made them better Christians by labor.

After Natalia the directors of the VOC wanted a third trade post at the Delagoa bay.

Initial trade post was fort ''Lydzaamheid''(endurance) established in 1721 but abandoned in 1730 due to diseases, pirate attacks, failing harvest and conflicts with the surrounding local people. Trade consists mostly of ivory, but also tin, copper, gold dust, ambergris, rice, honey and and slaves, although the latter was limited since the fort could not handle large amount of people. In 1730 the fort was striped and abandoned by orders of the VOC.

Between 1730 and 1770 trade with the Delagoa bay continued by the Portuguese, British and Dutch all with various success.



In 1770 the South Netherlands Oostende Company setup a trade post, which lasted until 1780. Most employers of this Oostende Company were former employers of the VOC. Due to pressure of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic the Oostende company had to stop the commercial activities.

Portugal threatened by this activities in a territory they regarded as Portuguese established a garrison at the fort of the Oostende Company. Although due to diseases, local conflicts and the Napoleonic wars this garrison perished and survivors retreated.

In 1820 merchants from Amsterdam started a new trade post which initially suffered form disease and hostilities of the local people. By 1830 the situation become critical due to the Zulu wars but become a turning point as well. Dutch colonisation gradually reached the Hoogeveld and Kaapstad and Natalia were too far while Delagoa bay was the shortest route to sea.

The small town started to grow after a Royal commission in 1850 order the drainage of the marshy land, the planting of Gum trees and the construction of a larger port and a rail line in to Transvaal.

Due to the goldrush and economic growth of the interior of the Cape colony and Delagoa Bay grew in to one of the largest ports and cities of the Domein van Zuidelijk Afrika

Up to 1890 territorial dispute with Portugal exist

Walvisbaai and Windhoek were essentially the only large towns in the North West territory. Walvisbaai was established in 1820 by whalers and Windhoek by Grikwas, coloured Dutch speaking trekkers. Due to pressure form other European nations a small garrison of Gendarmerie was stationed at Walvisbaai and du to a civil conflict in Windhoek a company of Gendarmerie was stationed at Windhoek. The territory and other border of the Domein van Zuidelijk Afrika was recognised by the European conference of Africa in Berlin.
 
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