Dutch West India Company (WIC)

Timeline

1. 1621–1650Amsterdam, Dutch Republic · AmsterdamIn 1621 the Dutch States-General granted the WIC a 24-year monopoly charter covering trade in the Americas and West Africa plus military privateering. The company captured Pernambuco, Brazil in 1624, founded New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1626, and established slave-trade posts in West Africa, becoming a core engine of Atlantic trade and Dutch expansion.
2. 1674–1675Amsterdam, Dutch Republic · AmsterdamAfter losing the Brazilian colony (1654) and suffering losses in multiple wars against England, the First WIC's finances collapsed entirely and it was formally dissolved in September 1674. The Dutch States-General promptly issued a new charter in 1675, reconstituting the Second WIC, which retained core posts such as the West African Gold Coast and Suriname in the Caribbean and continued in the Atlantic slave trade. This event sits at the heart of the batch time window (1671–1680 CE).
3. 1675–1791Gold Coast of West Africa and Suriname in the Caribbean · Gold CoastThe Second WIC was smaller in scale, focusing mainly on the slave trade on the West African Gold Coast and Suriname's plantation economy. With intensifying British and French competition and worsening finances in the second half of the 18th century, the Dutch States-General decided in 1791 to liquidate the Second WIC, transferring its African posts to direct Dutch state administration.