Dutch colonial empire
The Netherlands followed Spain and Portugual in establishing a colonial empire outside of continental Europe. Their skills in shipping and trading and their surge of nationalism and militarism accompanying the struggle for independence from Spain aided the venture. Alongside the British, the Dutch initially built up colonial possessions on the basis of corporate colonialism, with the Dutch East India Company dominant. State intervention in the colonial enterprise came later. Dutch sailors also participated in the surge of exploration that unfolded in the 16th and 17th centuries. But the vast new territories revealed by Barents, Hudson and Tasman in the Arctic and in Australasia/Oceania did not generally become permanent Dutch colonies. The Netherlands lost many of its colonial possessions when the metropole succumbed to French conquest/control/annexation from 1795 to 1814. The restored portions of the Dutch empire, notably the Dutch East Indies, remained under Amsterdam's control until the decline of traditional imperialism in the 20th century. Areas under Netherlands control at various times included: - Berbice (1627- 1814), nowadays part of Guyana
- Brazil (in part) ( - 1654), nowadays part of Brazil
- Cape Colony (1652 - 1806), nowadays part of South Africa
- Ceylon (1658 - 1796), nowadays Sri Lanka
- Demerara (1752 - 1814), nowadays part of Guyana
- Deshima (1641 - 1857), nowadays part of Japan
- Dutch East Indies (1602 - 1949), nowadays Indonesia
- Dutch Guiana (1667 - 1975), nowadays Suriname
- Dutch West Indies (see Netherlands Antilles)
- Essequibo (1616 - 1814), nowadays part of Guyana
- Netherlands Antilles (1620 - present)
- Netherlands New Guinea (1828/1895 - 1961), nowadays part of Indonesia
- New Netherland (including New Amsterdam and later New Sweden) (1614 - 1674), nowadays part of the United States of America
- Smeerenburg (circa 1620 - circa 1660), nowadays part of Svalbard, Norway
- Taiwan (1624 - 1662), nowadays Republic of China - Taiwan
- Tobago (1628 - 1677), nowadays part of Trinidad and Tobago
- Travancore, nowadays part of India
- Virgin Islands (in part) (1625 - 1680), nowadays British Virgin Islands
The Dutch had also settlements at the Gold Coast, Angola, Mauritius and Malacca. In the beginning of the nineteenth century it also included Belgium and Luxembourg as part of the Kingdom. See also: Dutch colonization of the Americas Dutch West India Company Dutch East India Company New HollandExternal LinksDutch Portuguese Colonial History Dutch Colonial History in Sri Lanka, Ceylon, Brazil, India, Malacca (Malaysia), Bengal, Formosa(Taiwan), South Africa, New York, Caribbean, Indonesia. Language Heritage. Maps, chronologies, bibliographies.
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