Dutch West India Company

The Dutch West India Company was a chartered company founded in 1621 to conduct trade, colonization, and warfare in the Atlantic world. It helped establish Dutch power in the Americas and West Africa and played a major role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Dutch West India Company monopoly: The company’s chartered monopoly over Dutch trade and colonization in parts of the Atlantic world. The States General granted exclusive rights that let the company organize commerce and military campaigns.
Dutch Revolt: The revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule, fought from 1568 to 1648. The ongoing conflict with Spain shaped the company’s military purpose and political backing.
Willem Usselincx: A Dutch merchant and advocate of a Dutch West India Company and overseas colonization. His proposals helped build support for a chartered Atlantic company.
Dutch conquest of Pernambuco: The Dutch seizure of Pernambuco and nearby northeastern Brazilian territories from Portugal in 1630. The conquest expanded the company’s control over Brazil’s sugar-producing coast.
English East India Company: An English joint-stock company chartered in 1600 for trade with Asia. Like the Dutch company, it combined state-granted privileges with overseas commerce, but focused chiefly on Asia.
Dutch Brazil: A Dutch colonial possession in northeastern Brazil, held mainly from 1630 to 1654. The company governed this sugar-producing colony and fought Portugal to retain it.
Dutch East India Company: A Dutch chartered company founded in 1602 to conduct trade and colonization in Asia. Its established Asian trading model offered a precedent for the later Atlantic company.
Piet Hein: A Dutch naval officer who captured the Spanish treasure fleet in 1628. His capture of the fleet delivered the company a major wartime financial windfall.
Dutch surrender of Brazil: The Dutch withdrawal from Brazil, finalized by the Treaty of The Hague in 1661. The loss ended the company’s largest American colony after prolonged local resistance.
Royal African Company: An English chartered company founded in 1672 to trade along the West African coast. It became a later English rival in African commerce and the Atlantic slave trade.

Linked from 25 pages