The Dutch Empire

Until 1581, the countries we know today as Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (Holland) were part of the Low Countries, a group of 17 provinces. The people of the Netherlands (the Dutch) won their independence from Spanish rule in 1581. They sent ships west and east to trade, and, by the 1600s, a Dutch empire had come into being.

From 1516, the Dutch were ruled by Spain as part of the Holy Roman empire. This came about because the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was also king of Spain. Charles’s son Philip II was an ardent Catholic, whereas most of the people in the northern Low Countries were Protestant. The Spanish tried to crush the Protestants, but the Dutch, led by William of Orange, rose in revolt. Seven northern provinces broke away from Spanish rule, declaring themselves the Republic of the United Netherlands in 1581.

 

While still at war with Spain, the Dutch began to build a trading empire overseas, in the Caribbean and Asia. In 1599, they began to take control of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, from Portugal. In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was set up to encourage trade with the East Indies (Indonesia). Its headquarters, founded in 1619, were at Batavia (now Jakarta) on the island of java. The company later took control of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and several ports in India.

Other Dutch merchants headed west, and, in 1621, set up the Dutch West India Company. This controlled islands in the Caribbean, and Dutch Guiana in South America. It traded in slaves, sugar and tobacco. Their jealously guarded trading empire increased Dutch Wealth, but led to rivalry and wars with England in the late 1600s.