The Dutch (1602-1759)

The arrival of Europeans in India, and modern India Towns and business operations in India that were under the administration of the Dutch East India Company were referred to as Dutch Colonies. More of a geographical than a political force, Dutch India was. The inhabitants of Holland (now the Netherlands) are known as the Dutch. After the Portuguese, the Dutch were the second Europeans to step foot in India. The United East India Company of the Netherlands received authorization from the Dutch government to conduct business in the East Indies, including India, in 1602. 

 

•    Commercial considerations compelled the Dutch to travel to the East. Cornelis de Houtman travelled to Sumatra and Bantam for the first time in 1596.

 

•    In 1602, the States-General of the Netherlands combined many trading companies into the East India Company of the Netherlands.

 

•    Additionally, this group was given the power to conduct war, negotiate treaties, capture territory, and construct fortresses.

 

•    Masulipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, was the site of the Dutch's first factory, which was founded in 1605. As a result, they established trading hubs across different parts of India.

 

•    Dutch Suratte and Dutch Bengal were both established in 1616 and 1627, respectively.

 

•    The Dutch seized Ceylon from the Portuguese in the year 1656. They also took control of the Portuguese forts on the Malabar Coast in 1671 AD.

 

•    The Portuguese were defeated by the Dutch at Nagapadam, close to Madras (Chennai), and the Dutch gained control of South India.

 

•    By controlling the market for black pepper and spices, they were able to command high prices.

 

•    The principal Indian items handled by the Dutch were cotton, indigo, silk, rice, and opium. 

 

•    The Dutch East India Company, known in Dutch as the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC, is recognized as the first truly global company. It was also the first business to offer shares.

 

•    It was the first company to be given permission to take part in colonial activities like waging wars, killing prisoners, creating money, and founding colonies.

 

•    This company performed miracles in India and Indonesia for two centuries, but the ostentatious acronym VOC was changed to Vergaan Onder Corruptie, which means "marred by corruption."

 

•    The first permanent commercial facility of the Dutch East India Company, originally known as the "United East India Company," was established in Indonesia in 1602.

 

•    They established their first factory in India in Masulipatnam in 1605, and then factories in Pulicat, Surat, Bimilipatam, and Chinsura in 1610, 1616, 1641, and 1653.

 

•    In Pipli, Bengal, they built a factory, but it was eventually taken down.

 

•    The Dutch succeeded in unseating the Portuguese as the dominant force in European trade, which was their main objective in their battle against the Portuguese and British mercantile empires in India and Southeast Asia.

 

•    They built a factory in Pulicat in 1610, which ended up being their main center of operations. It was subsequently given the name Fort Geldria.

 

•    While Albuquerque's horrible successors and their brutality and intolerance hurt the Portuguese, the expanding English and French armies and their corruption crushed the Dutch.

 

•    The Dutch were expelled from India as a result of heavy interference by the Dutch government.

 

•    Between 1638 and 1658, the Dutch were able to expel the Portuguese from Ceylon.

 

•    Malacca was subdued by them in 1641.

 

•    In 1652, they were successful in taking control of the Cape of Good Hope.

 

•    The Dutch East India Corporation reached its zenith in 1669, when it had 50,000 employees, 150 commercial ships, 40 warships, and a 10,000-man army, making it the greatest private corporation in the world at the time.

 

•    The most important thing that happened in India was the Battle of Colachel, which took place in 1741 between the troops of the State of Travancore and the Dutch East India Company.

 

•    The Dutch hegemony ended as a result of this great European power's failure in India. Insolvency and corruption led to the final liquidation of the Dutch East India Company in 1800.

 

•    Even if it had diminished, the Dutch continued to have a significant effect in Indonesia.

 

•    The Dutch built their first factory in Masulipatnam (Andhra Pradesh) in 1605, soon after arriving in India.

 

•    They later built up commercial hubs in other parts of India, endangering the Portuguese.

 

•    Near Madras (Chennai), they seized Nagapadam from the Portuguese and turned it into their principal bastion in South India.

 

•    The Dutch built factories around the Coromandel Coast, as well as in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, and Bihar.

 

•    In 1609, they built a factory in Pulicat, a town north of Madras. Their other significant Indian factories included Surat (1616), Bimlipatam (1641), Karaikal (1645), Chinsurah (1653), Baranagar, Kasimbazar (near Murshidabad), Balasore, Patna, Nagapatam (1658), and Cochin (1663).

 

•    They participated in the redistributive or carrying trade by transporting various goods and trade from India to the islands of the Far East.

 

•    Among the goods they conveyed were indigo from the Yamuna valley and Central India, textiles and silk from Bengal, Gujarat, and the Coromandel, saltpeter from Bihar, and opium and rice from the Ganga valley. 

 

•    At this time, the English were also becoming more significant in the Eastern trade, which posed a serious danger to the economic interests of the Netherlands. The commercial rivalry turned violent very quickly.

 

•    When the Dutch massacred 10 Englishmen and 9 Japanese in Amboyna (a location in present-day Indonesia that the Dutch had conquered from the Portuguese in 1605), the animosity between the Dutch and the English in the East reached its peak.

 

•    As a result of this incident, the rivalry between the two European firms intensified.

 

•    Following years of conflict, both sides came to an agreement in 1667, when the British committed to renounce all claims to Indonesia and the Dutch agreed to withdraw from India in order to concentrate on their more lucrative trade in Indonesia.

 

•    They controlled the trade in spices and black pepper. The most prominent Indian items exported by the Dutch were opium, silk, cotton, indigo, rice, and indigo dye.

 

•    Dutch Coromandel and Dutch Bengal were returned to Dutch sovereignty thanks to the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 AD, however this was due to a clause and conditions in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 AD.

 

•    This obliged the Dutch to prevent the transfer of any land or business until March 1, 1825 A.D.

 

•    As a result, the Dutch had lost all of their trading locations in India by the middle of the year 1825 AD.

 

•    The compromise brought about the obvious. In accordance with a give-and-take arrangement, all parties came to an understanding in 1667 AD whereby the British agreed to completely withdraw from Indonesia in exchange for the Dutch withdrawing from India to trade in Indonesia.

 

•    The Dutch were drawn into the trade of the Malay Archipelago.

 

•    In addition, communications between Surat and the brand-new English town of Bombay were broken during the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–1744), which led to the Dutch forces seizing three English ships headed for home in the Bay of Bengal.

 

•    The Dutch ambitions in India were put an end by the English counterattack, which resulted in the Dutch defeat at the Battle of Hooghly (November 1759).

 

•    The Dutch were more concerned with trade than with creating an empire in India.

 

•    They made a lot of money from the Indonesian Spice Islands, which was their main commercial concern.

 

•    The Battle of Colachel (Kolachal) took place in August 1741 between the Kingdom of Travancore and the Dutch East India Company.

 

•    Dutch colonial endeavors in the Indian subcontinent came to an end as a result of the legendary Travancore victory in the battle.

 

•    Although the altercation did not instantly put an end to the Travancore-Dutch rivalry, it did set in motion a series of events that ultimately led to the closure of Dutch trade in Kerala.

 

•    The native chiefs realized that the Dutch force might be defeated, which decreased Dutchmen's spirits.

 

•    One major outcome was the Travancore army's modernization in accordance with European ideals thanks to the services offered by Dutch prisoners.

 

•    The newly prepared Travancore army proved to be utterly effective in Marthanda Varma's war against the adjacent Kerala kingdoms. 

 

Towns and business operations in India that were under the administration of the Dutch East India Company were referred to as Dutch Colonies. More of a geographical than a political force, Dutch India was. The Dutch were the European colonial powers that entered India with the shortest stay, followed by the Portuguese and the English.