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Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company (WIC), founded in 1621, held a charter monopolizing the Atlantic slave trade, privateering, and American colonial ventur…
Timeline
- 1621–1640Amsterdam · AmsterdamThe Dutch West India Company received a charter from the States-General monopolizing Atlantic trade and privateering rights, establishing sugar plantaries in northeastern Brazil and operating transatlantic slave trade routes.
- c. 1641–1650New Amsterdam · New AmsterdamAfter Peter Stuyvesant became governor of New Netherland he strengthened the company's colonial administration; Manhattan became a fur trade hub, while the company maintained a triangular trade network linking Caribbean islands and West African coastal forts.
- 1674Amsterdam · AmsterdamDefeat in the Anglo-Dutch wars, loss of the Brazilian colony, and shrinking trade monopolies led to the company's bankruptcy; the first Dutch West India Company was formally dissolved in 1674 and reorganized the same year as a smaller second-generation company.
Sources
- The Dutch in the Atlantic Economy, 1580-1880: Trade, Slavery, and Emancipation — Pieter Emmer (1998)
- New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America — Jaap Jacobs (2005)