A report on Amsterdam, Dutch Golden Age and Dutch East India Company

Fishing for Souls, allegory of the Protestant-Catholic struggle

The Oude Kerk was consecrated in 1306 AD.

A river landscape with fishermen in rowing boats, windmills beyond, 1679

The "United East India Company", or "United East Indies Company" (also known by the abbreviation "VOC" in Dutch) was the brainchild of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the leading statesman of the Dutch Republic.

Amsterdam citizens celebrating the Peace of Münster, 30 January 1648. Painting by Bartholomeus van der Helst

Syndics of the Drapers' Guild by Rembrandt, depicting wealthy Amsterdam burghers.

Courtyard of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange by Emanuel de Witte, 1653. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange was the first stock exchange to introduce continuous trade in the early 17th century.

The Dutch had the largest merchant fleet in Europe in the 17th century

Replica of the VOC ship Duyfken under sail

View of Vijzelstraat looking towards the Muntplein, 1891

The Trip brothers, arms traders, built the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam, currently the seat of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, which is a typical example of 17th-century architecture.

Founded in 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC), started off as a spice trader. In the same year, the VOC undertook the world's first recorded IPO. "Going public" enabled the company to raise the vast sum of 6.5 million guilders quickly. The VOC's institutional innovations and business practices laid the foundations for the rise of modern-day global corporations and capital markets that now dominate the world's economic systems.

Photochrom of Amsterdam's Dam Square at the beginning of the 20th century

A family portrait, second half of the 17th century

In terms of creating and sustaining an effective corporate identity (or corporate culture), the United East India Company (VOC) was a successful early pioneer at the dawn of modern capitalism.

People celebrating the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War II on 8 May 1945

17th century plaque to Dutch East India Company (VOC), Hoorn

The 17th-century Canals of Amsterdam were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2010, contributing to Amsterdam's fame as the "Venice of the North". Along with De Wallen, the canals are the focal-point for tourists in the city.

Interior of the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam, c. 1664

Satellite picture of Amsterdam and North Sea Canal

Portrait of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek by Jan Verkolje.

Return of the second Asia expedition of Jacob van Neck in 1599 by Cornelis Vroom

Large-scale map of the city centre of Amsterdam, including sightseeing markers,.

Osias Beert the Elder, Dishes with Oysters, Fruit, Candy and Wine, c. 1620/1625

Mughal Bengal's baghlah was a type of ship widely used by Dutch traders in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea

Nieuwendammerdijk en Buiksloterdijk, Amsterdam-Noord, winter 2010

Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

Reproduction of a map of the city of Batavia c.1627, collection Tropenmuseum

The Westerkerk in the Centrum borough, one of Amsterdam's best-known churches

The Kaaswaag (Cheese Weigh House) in Gouda, finished in 1667, was designed by architect Pieter Post (1608–1669), as was the Waag in Leiden.

Dutch Batavia in 1681, built in what is now North Jakarta

The Isle of Amboina, a 17th-century print, probably English

A 1538 painting by Cornelis Anthonisz showing a bird's-eye view of Amsterdam. The famous Grachtengordel had not yet been established.

Graves of Dutch dignitaries in the ruined St. Paul's Church, Malacca, in the former Dutch Malacca

Dutch East India Company factory in Hugli-Chuchura, Mughal Bengal. Hendrik van Schuylenburgh, 1665

Eustachius De Lannoy of the Dutch East India Company surrenders to Maharaja Marthanda Varma of the Indian Kingdom of Travancore after the Battle of Colachel. (Depiction at Padmanabhapuram Palace)

The Egelantiersgracht lies west of the Grachtengordel, in the Jordaan neighbourhood.

The Scheepvaarthuis, by architects Johan van der Mey, Michel de Klerk, Piet Kramer is characteristic of the architecture of the Amsterdam School.

The Oost-Indisch Huis (Reinier Vinkeles, 1768)

The Begijnhof is one of the oldest hofjes in Amsterdam.

A bond from the Dutch East India Company (VOC), dating from 7 November 1623. The VOC was the first company in history to issue bonds and shares of stock to the general public. It was the VOC that invented the idea of investing in the company rather than in a specific venture governed by the company. The VOC was also the first company to use a fully-fledged capital market (including the bond market and the stock market) as a crucial channel to raise medium-term and long-term funds.

The Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam and Conservatorium van Amsterdam, two examples of 21st-century architecture in the centre of the city

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world

Both sides of a duit, a coin minted in 1735 by the VOC

The Zuidas, the city's main business district

Scale model of Dutch trading post on display in Dejima, Nagasaki (1995)

Boats give tours of the city, such as this one in front of the EYE Film Institute Netherlands.

Ground-plan of the Dutch trade-post on the island Dejima at Nagasaki. An imagined bird's-eye view of Dejima's layout and structures (copied from a woodblock print by Toshimaya Bunjiemon of 1780).

Overview of Fort Zeelandia (Fort Anping) in Tainan, Taiwan, painted around 1635 (National Bureau of Archives, The Hague)

De Wallen, Amsterdam's Red-light district, offers activities such as legal prostitution and a number of coffee shops that sell cannabis. It is one of the main tourist attractions.

The Dutch Square in Malacca, with Christ Church (centre) and the Stadthuys (right)

An Amsterdammer waits for a traffic light to change at the Muntplein in the heart of Amsterdam.

Gateway to the Castle of Good Hope, a bastion fort built by the VOC in the 17th century

The Rijksmuseum houses Rembrandt's The Night Watch.

One of the oldest known stock certificates, issued by the VOC Chamber of Enkhuizen, dated 9 September 1606. The VOC was the first recorded joint-stock company to get a fixed capital stock. The VOC was also the first publicly listed company ever to pay regular dividends. The VOC was possibly in fact the first ever blue-chip stock. In Robert Shiller's words, the VOC was "the first real important stock" in the history of finance.

The Van Gogh Museum houses the world's largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and letters.

A 17th-century engraving depicting the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (Amsterdam's old bourse, a.k.a. Beurs van Hendrick de Keyser in Dutch), built by Hendrick de Keyser (c. 1612). The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (Beurs van Hendrick de Keyser), launched by the Dutch East India Company in the early 1600s, was the world's first official (formal) stock exchange when it began trading the VOC's freely transferable securities, including bonds and shares of stock.

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is an international museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art and design.

Courtyard of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (Beurs van Hendrick de Keyser) by Emanuel de Witte, 1653. The process of buying and selling the VOC's shares, on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, became the basis of the world's first official (formal) stock market, a milestone in the history of capitalism.

Crowd gathering on Wall Street (New York City) after the 1929 crash. The 1929 Wall Street Crash is often considered one of the worst stock market crashes in history. For better or worse, the VOC-created quasi-casino stock market system has profoundly influenced the evolution of the global economy since the Dutch Golden Age.

Coldplay performing at the Amsterdam Arena, 2016

The Dam Square in Amsterdam, by Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde, c. 1660. In the picture of the centre of highly cosmopolitan and tolerant Amsterdam, Muslim/Oriental figures (possibly Ottoman or Moroccan merchants) are shown negotiating. While the VOC was a major force behind the economic miracle of the Dutch Republic in the 17th-century, the VOC's institutional innovations played a decisive role in the rise of Amsterdam as the first modern model of a (global) international financial centre.

The Concertgebouw or Royal Concert Hall houses performances of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and other musical events.

The shipyard of the United East India Company (VOC) in Amsterdam (1726 engraving by Joseph Mulder). The shipbuilding district of Zaan, near Amsterdam, became one of the world's earliest known industrialized areas, with around 900 wind-powered sawmills at the end of the 17th century. By the early seventeenth century Dutch shipyards were producing a large number of ships to a standard design, allowing extensive division of labour, a specialization which further reduced unit costs.

Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam's best-known theatre

Jan Vermeer's View of Delft (ca. 1660–61). During the Dutch Golden Age, the VOC significantly influenced Delft's economy, both directly and indirectly.

One of the decorated boats participating in the 2013 Canal Parade of the Amsterdam Gay Pride

A replica of the VOC's Halve Maen (captained by Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch Republic) passes modern-day lower Manhattan, where the original ship would have sailed while investigating New York harbor

In the Age of Sail, the Brouwer Route, devised by VOC navigator Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, greatly reduced the voyage between Cape of Good Hope (Dutch Cape Colony) to Java (Dutch East Indies) from almost 12 months to about 6 months, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese monsoon route. The Brouwer Route played a major role in the European discovery of the west coast of Australia.

Femke Halsema has been the Mayor of Amsterdam since 2018.

A typical map from the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography. Australasia during the Golden Age of Dutch exploration and discovery (c. 1590s–1720s): including Nova Guinea (New Guinea), Nova Hollandia (mainland Australia), Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), and Nova Zeelandia (New Zealand).

Australia (Nova Hollandia) was the last human-inhabited continent to be explored and mapped (by non-natives). The Dutch were the first to undisputedly explore and map Australia's coastline. In the 17th century, the VOC's navigators and explorers charted almost three-quarters of the Australian coastline, except the east coast.

Detail from a 1657 map by Jan Janssonius, showing the western coastline of Nova Zeelandia

The VOC's economic activity in Mauritius largely contributed to the extinction of the dodo, a flightless bird that was endemic to the island. The first recorded mention of the dodo was by Dutch navigators in the late 1590s.

King Willem-Alexander, Princess Beatrix, and Queen Máxima greeting Amsterdammers from the Royal Palace of Amsterdam during Willem-Alexanders inauguration in 2013

Natives of Arakan sell slaves to the Dutch East India Company, c.1663 CE.

Charles Davidson Bell's 19th-century painting of Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, arriving in Table Bay in 1652

The Amsterdam Metro is a mixed subway and above ground rapid transit system consisting of five lines.

The statue of Willem de Vlamingh with the Hartog Plate, Vlieland

Amsterdam Centraal station, the city's main train station

Monument to the "Tsar-Carpenter" Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great) in St. Petersburg, Russia. In order to learn more about the 17th-century Dutch maritime power, Tsar Peter I came to work incognito as a ship's carpenter at the VOC's shipyards in Amsterdam and Zaandam/Saardam, for a period of four months (1697).

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol ranks as Europe's third-busiest airport for passenger traffic.

The Flying Dutchman by Albert Pinkham Ryder, c. 1887 (Smithsonian American Art Museum). The legend of the Flying Dutchman is likely to have originated from the 17th-century golden age of the VOC.

Police bicyclist crossing a bridge over the Prinsengracht

Cape Dutch style-influenced eclectic building of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Swellendam. The Cape Dutch architecture, along with Afrikaans language and Afrikaans literature, is among the lasting legacy of the VOC-era Afrikaans culture in South Africa.

Black, green, pink, and white peppercorns. In terms of spice trade, the VOC was an early pioneering model of the global supply chain in its modern sense. Dutch word "peperduur" – which literally translated as "pepper expensive" or "as expensive as pepper" – is an expression for something that is very costly.

The Agnietenkapel Gate at the University of Amsterdam, founded in 1632 as the Athenaeum Illustre

VOC Trade Cloth, 1675–1725, with Mughal tent hanging / summer carpet motif. Made in India for the Indonesian market. Fine textiles from India were a popular luxury import into Indonesia, and some still survive as treasured heirlooms.

The arrival of King Charles II of England in Rotterdam, 24 May 1660 by Lieve Verschuier. King Charles II of England sailed from Breda to Delft in May 1660 in a yacht owned by the VOC. HMY Mary and HMY Bezan (both were built by the VOC) were given to Charles II, on the restoration of the monarchy, as part of the Dutch Gift.

Johan Nieuhof's An embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces (1665).

The cover of the Hortus Malabaricus by Hendrik Adriaan van Reede tot Drakenstein.<ref>Manilal, K. S. (1984), 'Hortus Malabaricus and the Ethnoiatrical Knowledge of Ancient Malabar,'. Ancient Science of Life 4(2): 96–99</ref><ref>Manilal, K.S.: Hortus Malabaricus and the Socio-Cultural Heritage of India. (Calicut: Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy, 2012)</ref><ref>Dharmapalan, Biju (2012), 'Hortus Malabaricus: Celebrating the Tricentennial of a Botanic Epic,'. SR 49(10): 26–28</ref><ref>Manilal, K. S. (2005), 'Hortus Malabaricus, a book on the plants of Malabar, and its impact on the religious of Christianity and Hinduism in the 17th century Kerala,'. Indian Journal of Botanical Research 1(1): 13–28</ref>

Title page of Rumphius's Herbarium Amboinense (1741–1750)

Title page of Hortus Cliffortianus (1737). The work was a collaboration between Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) and Georg Dionysius Ehret, financed by George Clifford III, one of the directors of the VOC.

Title page of Musa Cliffortiana (1736), Carl Linnaeus's first botanical monograph.

Carl von Linné (Carl Linnaeus) lived and studied for three years, from 1735 until 1738, in the Dutch Republic – a seminal period in his life and career (see articles Herman Boerhaave, Johannes Burman, Engelbert Kaempfer, Georg Eberhard Rumphius, Carl Peter Thunberg, George Clifford III and Hartekamp). VOC people's scientific contributions had a considerable influence on his work.<ref>Heniger, J.: Hendrik Adriaan van Reed tot Drakestein (1636–1691) and Hortus Malabaricus: A Contribution to the History of Dutch Colonial Botany. (Rotterdam: A.A.Balkema, 1986). Heniger (1986): "Allure by the fame of Dutch botany, the young Linnaeus here spent some years, 1735–1738, to complete his schooling."</ref><ref>Skott, Christina (2010), 'The VOC and Swedish Natural History: The Transmission of Scientific Knowledge in the Eighteenth Century,'; in Siegfried Huigen, Jan L. de Jong & Elmer Kolfin (eds.), The Dutch Trading Companies as Knowledge Networks. (Brill, 2010), pp. 361–392</ref><ref>Thijsse, Gerard (2018), 'A Contribution to the History of the Herbaria of George Clifford III (1685–1760),'. Archives of Natural History 45(1): 134–148. {{doi|10.3366/anh.2018.0489}}</ref><ref>Barth, Nadine; van Andel, Tinde (2018), 'Paul Hermann's Ceylon Herbarium (1672–1679) at Leiden, the Netherlands,'. Taxon 67(5): 977–988</ref><ref>Jarvis, C.E. (2019), 'Georg Rumphius' Herbarium Amboinense (1741–1750) as a source of information on Indonesian plants for Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778),'. Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 71: 87–107</ref>

Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg was a VOC physician and an apostle of Linnaeus.

$With the support of Governor of the VOC-rule Dutch Cape Colony Ryk Tulbagh, French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille studied the stars of the southern hemisphere from 1750 until 1754 from Cape of Good Hope, when he was said to have observed more than 10,000 stars using a {{convert|0.5|in|mm}} refracting telescope.<ref name="Wisconsin-Madison">{{cite web|url=http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/Lacaille.html|title=Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (1713–1762)|website=Department of Astronomy. University of Wisconsin-Madison|access-date=1 August 2016}}</ref> were newly created in 1763 by Lacaille appearing in his star catalogue, published in 1756.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/lacaille.htm |title=Lacaille's southern planisphere |author=Ian Ridpath}}</ref>$

Black swans on the shore of the Swan River (Western Australia), with the Perth skyline in the background. The thousand-year-old conclusion "all swans are white" was disproved by the VOC navigator Willem de Vlamingh's 1697 discovery.

Hansken, a young female Asian elephant from Dutch Ceylon, was brought to Amsterdam in 1637, aboard a VOC ship. Rembrandt's Hansken drawing is believed to be an early portrait of one of the first Asian elephants described by science.

$Rembrandt's self-portrait as an oriental potentate with a kris/keris, a Javanese blade weapon from the VOC era (etching, c. 1634). Also, he was one of the first known western printmakers to extensively use (the VOC-imported) Japanese paper. It's important to note that some major figures of Dutch Golden Age art like Rembrandt and Vermeer never went abroad during their lifetime. More than just a for-profit corporation of the early modern world, the VOC was instrumental in 'bringing' the East (Orient) to the West (Occident),<ref>Seneviratne, Nadeera (2010), 'Globalising Hansken: An Elephant in The Netherlands,'; in Leelananda Prematilleke (ed.), Abhinandanamālā: Nandana Chutiwongs Felicitation Volume. (Bangkok: SPAFA Regional Centre of Archaeology and Fine Arts, 2010), pp. 259–273</ref><ref>Kim, Myung-Eun; Bae, Soo-Jeong (2015), 'A research on the exchange of costume culture between Netherlands and Japan through 17th–18th century Dutch East India Company,'. The Korea Society of Costume – Journal of the Korean Society of Costume 65(4): 109–123</ref><ref>Kim, Myung-Eun; Bae, Soo-Jeong (2015), 'A Study on Orientalism in the Paintings of Delft School in 17th Century Netherlands,'. The Korea Society of Costume – Journal of the Korean Society of Costume 65(8): 136–150</ref> <ref>Schrader, Stephanie; et al. (eds.): Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India. (Los Angeles, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2018) {{ISBN|978-1-60606-552-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India (catalogue)|url=http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/rembrandt_india/downloads/rembrandt_india_checklist.pdf|access-date=18 October 2019}}</ref> and vice versa.<ref>Sugita, Genpaku: Rangaku Kotohajime: Dawn of Western Science in Japan. Translated from the Japanese by Matsumoto Ryozo and Kiyooka Eiichi. (Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1968)</ref><ref>Goodman, Grant K.: Dutch Impact on Japan, 1640–1853. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967)</ref><ref>Nagazumi, Yōko (ed.): Large and Broad: The Dutch Impact on Early Modern Asia. Essays in Honor of Leonard Blussé. (Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 2010)</ref><ref>North, Michael; Kaufmann, Thomas DaCosta (eds.): Mediating Netherlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia. (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2014)</ref>$

Still Life with a Chinese Porcelain Jar, by Dutch Golden Age painter Willem Kalf (c. 1660s). 17th-century Chinese export porcelain wares (imported by the VOC) are often depicted in many Dutch Golden Age genre and still-life paintings.

Shop window display of Delftware in the market place, Delft. East Asian–inspired Delftware, a lasting cultural and economic legacy of the VOC era.

Blaeu's Atlas Maior (1662–1672), a monumental multi-volume world atlas from the Golden Age of Dutch/Netherlandish cartography (c. 1570s–1670s) and a widely recognized masterpiece in the history of mapmaking. Willem Blaeu and his son Joan Blaeu were both official cartographers to the VOC.

Regions of Oceania (including Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia). "The Island Continent" Australia was the last human-inhabited continent to be largely known to the civilized world. The VOC's navigators were the first non-natives to undisputedly discover, explore and chart coastlines of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Tonga, and Fiji.

Abel Tasman's routes of the first and second voyage

Wall of Fort Zeelandia/Fort Anping, Tainan (Taiwan)

The Castle of Good Hope (Kasteel de Goede Hoop in Dutch), Cape Town, South Africa

The restored conference room of the {{ill|Heeren XVII|nl|Heren XVII}} (the VOC's board of directors) in the East Indies House/Oost-Indisch Huis, Amsterdam

A replica of the VOC vessel Batavia (1620–29)

19th-century illustration Halve Maen (Half Moon) in the Hudson River in 1609

Anonymous painting with Table Mountain in the background, 1762

Dutch church at Batavia, Dutch East Indies, 1682

A naval cannon (Dejima, Nagasaki, Japan). The letters "VOC" are the monogram of the "Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie" and the letter "A" represents the "Amsterdam" Chamber of the company.

The Seri Rambai at Fort Cornwallis, George Town, Penang, Malaysia

Aerial view of Galle Fort (Galle) – a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sri Lanka

Malacca City (Malacca) – a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Malaysia

Sword of the East India Company, featuring the V.O.C. monogram of the guard. On display at the Musée de l'Armée in Paris.

Frontispiece from Voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique by François Levaillant

First Flag of the Dutch East India Company

Second Flag of the Dutch East India Company, adopted with red stripe around 1630 or 1663 and beyond, for the purpose of better visibility at sea against a light sky

Flag of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East Indies Company

Later flag of the Dutch East Indies, after Dutch East India Company was dissolved

Late 18th-century plate in European style, with Dutch/VOC ships, Canton porcelain, painted there on a "blank" from Jingdezhen.

Purchase Contract signed July 5, 1797, between 'Committee for the Affairs of East India Trade and Property' (on behalf of the Batavian Republic) and De Coninck Firm, notarised by Jan Harmsen. Since the VOC had incurred debts of millions, its Indian merchandise in Batavia was sold to the firm. The VOC was unable to send its ships; the firm itself was responsible for collecting the merchandise from Batavia. The merchandise included spices (Nutmeg, Cloves, Black and Brown pepper), dyes (Indigo, Sappan wood, Caliatour wood), Coffee, and Powdered sugar.

Kopi luwak, coffee seeds from faeces of palm civet, Lampung, Indonesia. Coffee cultivation in Indonesia began in the late 1600s and early 1700s, in the VOC period. Indonesia was the fourth-largest producer of coffee in the world in 2014.

Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, and became the leading centre for the finance and trade sectors.

- Amsterdam

Many of those moving north settled in Amsterdam, transforming what was a small harbor into one of the most important ports and commercial centres in the world by 1630.

- Dutch Golden Age

In 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was founded.

- Dutch Golden Age

Amsterdam's merchants had the largest share in both the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company.

- Amsterdam

The VOC consisted of six Chambers (Kamers) in port cities: Amsterdam, Delft, Rotterdam, Enkhuizen, Middelburg and Hoorn.

- Dutch East India Company

In 2006 when the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Pieter Balkenende referred to the pioneering entrepreneurial spirit and work ethics of the Dutch people and Dutch Republic in their Golden Age, he coined the term "VOC mentality" (VOC-mentaliteit in Dutch).

- Dutch East India Company

2 related topics with Alpha

Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in 1789

Dutch Republic

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Federal republic which existed from 1588, during the Dutch Revolt, to 1795 (the Batavian Revolution).

Silver coin: 1 ducaton Overijssel – 1734

Amsterdam Stock Exchange courtyard, 1653

Silver coin: 1 ducaton Gelderland – 1792

The united provinces, with Drenthe and the Generality Lands

Dutch East India Company factory in Hugli-Chuchura, Mughal Bengal. Painting by Hendrik van Schuylenburgh, 1665

Through its trading companies, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch West India Company (GWC), it established a Dutch colonial empire.

Because Dutch trade, science, military, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world during much of the 17th century, this period became known in Dutch history as the Dutch Golden Age.

Later, a court ruled that the company had to reside legally in a single city, so Amsterdam is recognized as the oldest such institution based on modern trading principles.

Dutch Empire

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The formal declaration of independence of the Dutch provinces from the Spanish king, Philip II

The Portuguese victory at the Battle of Guararapes, ended Dutch presence in Brazil.

Primary Dutch and Portuguese settlements in Asia, c. 1665. With the exception of Jakarta and Deshima, all had been captured by the Dutch East India Company from Portugal.

Overview of Fort Zeelandia on the island of Formosa, 17th century

Batavia, built in what is now Jakarta, 1682

Dutch conquests in the West Indies and Brazil

View of Table Bay with ships of the Dutch East India Company, c. 1683

Expansion of the Dutch East Indies in the Indonesian Archipelago

Map of the Dutch colonial possessions around 1840. Included are the Dutch East Indies, Curaçao and Dependencies, Suriname, and the Dutch Gold Coast.

Sukarno, leader of the Indonesian independence movement

Dutch colonists in Suriname, 1920. Most Europeans left after independence in 1975.

Contemporary countries and federated states which were significantly colonised by the Dutch. In the Netherlands, these countries are sometimes known as verwantschapslanden (kindred countries).

New Amsterdam as it appeared in 1664. Under British rule it became known as New York.

The Stadthuys in Malacca, Malaysia, believed to be the oldest Dutch building in Asia

The Stadhuis of Batavia, said to be modelled after the Dam Palace itself.

Christian cross, altar, pulpit, and organ in the Dutch Reformed Church in Vosburg, South Africa.

Gedung Sate, an early 20th century colonial building which incorporates modern Western neo-classical style with indigenous elements in Bandung, Indonesia.

The Great Post Road (Grote Postweg), spanning West to East Java

The Dutch Empire in 1750{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

The Dutch Empire in 1795{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

The Dutch Empire or Dutch colonial empire (Nederlandse koloniale rijk) 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.

The companies' domination of global commerce contributed greatly to a commercial revolution and a cultural flowering in the Netherlands of the 17th century, known as the Dutch Golden Age.

The war with Spain led many financiers and traders to emigrate from Antwerp, a major city in Flanders and then one of Europe's most important commercial centres, to Dutch cities, particularly Amsterdam, which became Europe's foremost centre for shipping, banking, and insurance.