Submenu of this history-page
(Use the 'Back' button of your browser to return to this menu)

This is the SUBMENU of the History-page.You will find a similar submenu on all main pages of the CarPark site.
The MAIN-MENU can be found at the top of all pages of the site: Index, Intro, Archives, History, Genealogy, Language, Sources and the WareHouse.

Furthermore you'll find some search- and translation tools at the top of each page.The language tool will allow you to translate Dutch words into English.
Search this site gives you the opportunity to search the complete CarPark site for any word

All EXTERNAL links (links to other sites than the CarPark) will be opened in a new window.

A very educated source of links and information on early- and late medieval history can be found on the excellent Internet Medieval Sourcebook site and the Internet Modern History Sourcebook of the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies. You could also visit, for the same purpose, the rich and wonderful Mostly Medieval -Exploring the Middle Ages-site. The World of History at KMLA: the Netherland is a very good, clearly structured site as well, shockfull of resources and with a load of  informative maps.
Persons, researchers who want professional help for historical and/or genealogical research, basic or extensive look-ups in (specialized)  libraries or archives should definitely visit the  'Dutch Archives historical research bureau'. This excellent, professional site is in Dutch and English. The leader of this bureau -situated in Leiden- is highly qualified: visit the site to get an idea!
Don't forget the wonderful source of old maps to be found at:
The Atlas of Mutual Heritage website
Here you can search for maps, drawings, prints and paintings of locations related to the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) and the West-Indische Compagnie (WIC)
Also in the city of Leiden the University of Leiden is maintaining a fine website about the History of International Migration, offering a series of educated articles and good references and booklists to this subject. For those among you who like art, modern, old and/or primitive, I can highly recommend the wonderful Marc Hardens Artchive site. You can have a great look for instance at some works of Jeroen Bosch, Pieter Breughel, Vermeer and other Dutch painters. The 'Web Gallery of Art' and the 'Art Cyclopedia' site are of similar quality. These three sites are a great source for lovers of -especially- 16th and 17th century paintings. For good, educated books about New Netherland go to the 'Good books about New Netherland' link below in the New Netherland submenu. The titles are kindely provided by Peter R.Christoph. To learn more about voyages and discovery's all over the world go to the Discoverers Web website. To learn more about Dutch coins, weights, and Measurements, go to the ' Coins, Weights, and Measurements mentioned in Dutch Records' website or go to the Old Dutch Measures page . For a good insight into the Amsterdam staplemarket in the 16th century, go to the " Merchants from the Southern Netherlands and the rise of the Amsterdam staplemarket" (1578-1630)' site. (alternative site)
To read the book 'Voyages from Holland to America', by David Pietersz. de Vries (1593-1655) go to the site of the Goettinger Digitalisierungs Zentrum. The pages do load slowly, but it is worth waiting! (There is, however, the possibility to download some specific parts of the document as a PDF file)!
(You can also choose to visit my vault to download these files from there. You can download there the complete book but it will take some dl-time!)
Finding any old village, hamlet or town on 17th century maps will be a piece of cake by using the magnificent 'Blaeu Atlas' site from the University of California. I haven't found a better site yet!
To get a solid idea about the development of the various states of Europe from the Romans till now, do visit the Periodical Historical Atlas fo Europe: a site, depicting with accuracy the States of this continent every first day of each centennial year from AD 1 to AD 2000, designed and drawn by Christos Nüssli! A long but educated article by professor J.E. Thorold Rogers is "The Story of Holland", starting in the early day's. Dont' forget to take a Virtual tour of New Netherland, brought to you by the great people of the New Netherland Project! As regards contents and design a highly recommended place to go! To learn all about Calendar's, calendar-reforms etc. simply go to the Calendar Zone, or download any of the Calendar app's, listed below. Anything, related to the Calendar-switch -especially in the Low Countries- can be at the great Perpetual Calendar -site of Toke Nørby!
Anyone who wants to learn all about Christian Church History has to visit the excellent site called "History of the Christian Church" written by Philip Schaff. If you just want to learn more about the Reformation period, go to the The Reformation Guide!
An immense collection of highly detailed historical maps all over the world can be found in the David Rumsey Map Collection. This site however should only be visited if your browser is up-to-date and your computer loaded with enough RAM!
An great source of highly detailed little maps of the Netherlands in 1773 can be found at the beautiful site of Hans Wazamar: he offers a clickable map of the Netherlands, based on a historic Pocket-Atlas, the "Nieuwe Geographische Reise- en Zak-Atlas from Jan Christiaan Sepp, bookseller at Amsterdam.
To find out which wars have been fought through the ages go to
'The War Scholar'. This is a military history timeline of war and conflict across the globe, 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1999!
To locate all Dutch municipalities of 1865 easily, go to Great Dutch maps with all Dutch municipalities of 1865
Another nicely designed and very educated site I can recommend is the site of the 'The Medici Archive Project'. A beautiful site about maps of all over the world with excellent descriptions can be found at Leen Helminks site
An excelllent, detailed, illustrated, summary of the development of the Low Countries (present-day Belgium and the Netherlands) starting in the 14th century, can be found at the Historical Site of Gerard von Hebel. (At this moment under construction but worth waiting for.)
For those among you, interested in the 17th century diplomacy (mainly England-the Netherlands) go to the website containing the William Blathwayt Papers.
To find detailled (historical) information about any country of your choice, please visit the Country Studies site of the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. A wealth of historical texts can be found at the Hanover Historical Texts Project site
Mind the Archive CD Books site. The Archive CD Books Project exists to make reproductions of old books, documents and maps available on CD to genealogists and historians, and to co-operate with libraries, museums and record offices in providing money to renovate old books in their collection, and to donate books to their collections, where they will be preserved for future generations.
A nice overview over the history of Northern America can be found at the Colonial America website.
Anyone, interested in the Dutch involvement in the Baltic trade, from the early Hanseatic times up to the Peace of Muenster, 1648. Read the web-version of the Masters' Thesis of Jouko Tossavainen, Department of History, University of JYVÄSKYLÄ, Finland: Dutch forest products' trade in the Baltic from the Late Middle Ages to the Peace of Munster in 1648.
Finally, for Jewish Central European history, documentation, info, photography, please don't forget to visit 'Centropa'.

...menu
.... top

Making of America: 'Laws and ordinances of New Netherland, 1638-1674' by E. B. O'Callaghan

The online "A History of the City of Brooklyn" by Henri Stiles

The Dutch and the Delaware. A Short History

DRY DRUNK: The Culture of Tobacco in 17th- and 18th-century Europe

The history of mazes and labyrinths in the Netherlands

Chronological history of Ostfriesland

Saterland, Germany. Short overview

East Frisia: short geographical, political description

Ostfriesen History

Prologue

DUTCH FIRST PRESENCE IN THE ATLANTIC AREA
Why did the Dutch wait till the last decades of the 16th century to explore the Atlantic? There was no real need for the Dutch to enter this area prior to 1600 - the Dutch already controlled the staple trade of salt, grain, herring and wood in Europe. The grain was imported from Scandinavia and the other East-Sea countries and was transported to other European nations. When they shipped it to Spain (even during the war!) and Portugal, they returned with shiploads of salt that they again exported to the Northern European countries: Amsterdam being the largest mart, emporium of staple goods.
Besides that the Dutch didn't have to explore the wide Atlantic for fishing-grounds, like the French and English did from the 15th century when they fished and explored the waters around Newfoundland. The Dutch however controlled the North Sea fishery since the 15th century.
What actually did cause the Republic to set sail for the Atlantic coasts, West-Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean region, and, later, after Hudson's visit of the Hudson in 1609, the Northern-American coastal area? More and more Dutch historians mention the fact that the European trade had reached a certain level of saturation. This trade had brought so much prosperity and money that the Dutch could (or had to) spread their wings and sail the Asian, African and American coasts.
The conquest of Antwerp in the Southern Netherlands by the Spanish in 1585 speeded up this process of Dutch interest for naval expansion: skilled laborers, scientists, artists and merchants fled to the cities in the Republic, especially Amsterdam and Middelburg. Since Antwerp had been the main distribution-center in North-West Europe for spices from the East like sugar, wood and other tropical products, the knowledge (navigation, cartography) and the existing trade-contacts now came into Dutch hands.
Sugar-trade with the Canary Islands, Madeira, Sao Tome and Brazil, and salt trade at the Cape Verdian Isles, as well as some Caribbean isles and the coastal area of Venezuela (Punta de Araya), spread the Dutch over the Atlantic Ocean. Already before 1600 , more than one hundred ships sailed for Punta de Araya - mostly ships from the Dutch West Frisian cities Hoorn and Enkhuizen.
Privateering was another highly important element that led the Dutch ships to the West-African, Brazilian coasts and the Caribbean. Their main goal was to fight the Spaniards and Portuguese by obstructing their silver and slave transports, so damaging their economy, and to get rich by simply robbing them. The French- and English pirates already had proven the profits of this system in the Caribbee.
As for New Netherland... Soon after Hudson's voyage and exploration of the river named after him, up to present-day Albany, many Dutch merchants cast their covetous eyes on these freshly discovered territories along the Hudson, Delaware and Connecticut rivers. As early as 1611 a group of Lutheranian merchants from Amsterdam, called the Van Tweenhuysen Compagnie, sent a ship, the St.Pieter to the Hudson. Other companies quickly followed, and in 1613 the Hans Claesz.Compagnie from Amsterdam, two other groups from the city of Hoorn, and another from the Admiralty from Amsterdam.
The rivalry was heated, off and on even violent, and by and by the competing merchants woke up to the fact that they had to cooperate, resulting in the founding of the Nieuw Nederland Compagnie in 1614. This company united the different merchants, and with a charter granted by the States General for a period of three years, starting January 1, 1635, they obtained the monopoly for the discovered territories. At the end of this period however, in October 1635, the States General rejected a prolongation of this charter; most probably due to slumbering plans for a West Indian Company.
So, after 1635 the rivalry and competition started again till finally, the first ship under command of the WIC (which was founded June 3, 1621) set sail for America on July 16, 1623. This was the Mackereel, that sailed from Texel July 16, 1623, together with the Witte Duif, for New Netherlands and Guyana respectively.
___________

THE WIC (West Indies Company
The WIC, West Indies Company (West-Indische Compagnie) was a trading company, shaped after the example of the Dutch VOC, East Indies Company, which started in 1602, with the goal to trade and found colonies in the Atlantic area outside of Europe. They received their charter from the States General, that reserved the 'right on shipping and trade' to this company. The WIC obtained the trading monopoly on the entire coast from the Americas, to Cape Magelhaes, and the African coast between the tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope, next to the control over the colonies. It is not far from reality though to mention that privateering was another main goal: as a matter of fact, in the first decades, the WIC was a military force, ‘instrument par excellence’ for the Dutch States-General in their struggle with Spain and Portugal. (The side effect of this was, that the WIC tended to base their organization financially a little too much on the flow of money resulting from privateering).

The company was divided in 5 Kamers (Chambers): Amsterdam, Zeeland, Maze, Noorderkwartier and Stad en Land (Groningen). The Chambers were under the general government of the so called Heren XIX (Heren = litt. Gentlemen; lords, masters, XIX=19). The Heren XIX consisted of 8 representatives from Amsterdam, 5 from Zeeland and 2 from Maze, Noorderkwartier and Stad en Lande each; the States General however had one important representative in this organization. Generally speaking we may assume that especially the Amsterdam Chamber was the most influential one with her 20 bewindvoerders; Kiliaen van Rensselaer was one of them.
(Maze by the way stands for the area north of Amsterdam, while Noorderkwartier stands for the northern part of Holland, with main harbors as Hoorn, Enkhuizen and Medemblik).

Due to miscalculations the WIC never came up to the high, profitable level of the Dutch VOC: especially the structure of the WIC, the commercial failure of the Dutch 'Brazil adventure’ (the "Nieuw Holland' colony from 1630-1654) and the conflicting interests of the Amsterdam shareholders weakened the Company: already in 1638 the WIC had to let go the trade-monopoly on Brazil and the Caribbean. Conquest and defense costs and shareholders consumed the lion’s share of the WIC money.
From the beginning the WIC and the States General were focussed on trade and quick profits: as for New Netherland, they did not fall in with the 'colonization' ideas from men like Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Samuel Godijn and Johannes de Laet from the Amsterdam Chamber. The main reason that small groups of colonists were sent to New Netherland actually was a pragmatic one -- in order to protect and legitimate Dutch territorial claim on the area only!

When the peace-treaty at Muenster was signed in 1648, which made an end to the war between Spain and the Republic and the Thirty Year War, the WIC quickly declined, until she was liquidated finally in 1674. But before that happened the activities already were narrowed down to slave, gold, sugar and ammunition trade mainly; a system in which Curacao played a main role. A new WIC was launched shortly after in 1675, but this time smaller, with less financial means and less bewindvoerders (directors, managers): only ten, this time. Until 1743 this WIC maintained part of the original monopolies: the trading of African slaves and products such as gold. After that the WIC was engaged solely in the administration of the remaining African and American oversea territories and fortresses until she was closed down in 1791 forever.

PRIVATEERING UNDER WIC COMMAND
The most profitable branch of the WIC organization was the' kaapvaart' (privateering). As explained in my previous short description of the WIC organization, the company had received the monopoly of trade and shipping on the whole Atlantic area. When the Dutch authorities gave this monopoly, battle was inevitable, because the Caribbean waters were considered by the Spaniards as Mare Clausum (closed sea). The "Heren XIX" had chosen the strategy of undermining the Spanish and Portuguese power by means of an intensive kaapvaart. The idea of kaapvaart wasn't new; the first kaperbrief or commissiebrief ( letter of consignment) had peviously been issued by Lodewijk van Nassau (brother of Willem van Oranje) to Captain Diderick Sonoy in 1568. The first two privateering squadrons under WIC command sailed out in 1624 under shippers Pieter Schouten and Hendrick Jacobsz. Kat. They conquered several enemy ships and the loot was considerable. Due to disappointing results of the privateering fleet of Captain Boudewijn Hendriksz., a fleet under command of captain Piet Heyn sailed to the Caribbee 1626 to assist him. Other names of known captains commanding privateering esquadrons are: Jacob Willekens, Cornelis Jol (aka Captain Houtebeen meaning Captain wooden leg),Jan Dircksz. Lam (sic: Lam= Lamb), Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (before he entered the navy), Willem Credo, Cornelis Gerrits, Pieter Hamers and Salomon Reynders.
Every ship sailing from Brazil, the Caribbee or any other Spanish/Portuguese colony was attacked, conquered and the cargo was shipped to Amsterdam or Middelburg. The silver and gold shipments from Peru and Bolivia, which were taken by the Dutch, did significant harm to the Spanish economy and the Spaniards needed that silver to finance their war against the Netherlands. That's why the Dutch government supported the WIC in this. In 1640, privateering under command of the WIC was stopped: the costs became too high, the losses too frequent, the profits too low. But, the damage inflicted on the Spanish economy was enormous: it exceeded 110.000.0000 guilders! Privateering didn>t stop however: on the contrary, private captains and ship-owners, especially in Zeeland (the towns of Vlissingen and Middelburg) Rotterdam and Dordrecht continued privateering.
To illustrate the profits from the kaapvaart enterprises, here are some figures:
In the period 1623-1637 the Dutch conquered 609 enemy ships, worth 81 million guilders including cargo . After deduction of all costs, equipment of the ships, payments of the sailors etc., an amount of 36 million guilders remained. Most of these profits ended up in the pockets of the shareholders and not in the WIC fund.
A good example is the conquered silverfleet by Piet Heyn in 1628. The booty was worth 11,5 million guilders, minus costs of 7 million, quite a considerable amount of money. But according to the regulation the crew was entitled to 10% and 17 month extra payment and 10% for the Stadtholder as Admiral-General. The bewindhebbers had a poor 1%, but the shareholders received 50% dividend pay. After this generous hand-out only 1.5 million remained for the Company fund. It has to be said that privateering captains and shipowners had a high status in the Republic; after their carreer was over, many of them became merchants or high authorities.
It was not unusual now and then that ships fled during a (privateering) sea-battle. Dutch captains who were found guilty of this kind of treason were often stongly punished. When the WIC ships the Maeght van Enkhuizen and the Matanca secretly sailed away during the Four-Days-Battle in January 1640, the Captains were killed by a sword which was broken before their eyes! The captain of the Graef Ernest, who abandoned the fleet during a battle fought under the command of Cornelis Jol in the West Indies in 1638, was dismissed and sent to Groningen in the Republic where he was held under arrest.
The very last kaperbrief was issued by king Lodewijk Napoleon, July 14, 1810, when the Republic was under French occupation.

Note:
*PIRACY = Pirates robbing any ship on own authority and for own account.
*PRIVATEERING= A legitimate form of piracy, authorized by a higher authority (sovereign or a government). A privateer had to be in possession of a commission-letter handed by the sovereign or government, and was bound to very strict rules. As a rule commission-letters were only issued by the state during war-time, and, it was not allowed to conquer or plunder ships of neutral states.
Through the ages, the line between piracy and privateering always has been very thin, and often overstepped (or sailed?) During times of war, governments of sailor nations highly profited from privateering: it inflicted severe losses to the enemy and -at the same time- made it possible for governments to save on building and maintenance costs needed for a regular navy. Buccaneers were an example of the thin line between piracy and privateering: the name refers to the group of pirates and privateers who operated in the Caribbean Waters. Privateers, but of another nature, were the Barbary privateers of the Mediterranean Sea: from the beginning of the 17th century they attacked and plundered ships of all Christian nations. The English word 'corsair' refers to them. Mind you, in the seventeenth century about 60 Dutch captains have been sailing on Barbary privateering ships, fighting, footwashing (captured Christians were thrown overboard) or enslaving their fellow-Christians!

...menu
.... top

Sources:
EEN ZEGENRIJK GEWEST
Nieuw-Nederland in de zeventiende eeuw.
Jaap Jacobs
Uitgeverij Prometheus/Bert Bakker Amsterdam, 1999
ISBN 90 5333 803 9

GESCHIEDENIS VAN DE LAGE LANDEN IN JAARTALLEN
Dr. H.P.H.Jansen
Uitgev. Spectrum, Utrecht/Antwerpen, 1971
ISBN 90 274 0492 5

DE GESCHIEDENIS VAN DE W.I.C.
Henk den Heijer
Uitgeverij Walburg Pers Zutphen 1994
ISBN 90 601 1912 6

KAPERS OP DE KUST NEDERLANDSE KAAPVAART EN PIRATERIJ 1500-1800
R.B.Prud'homme van Reine
Uitgeverij ADZ, Vlissingen, 1991
ISBN 90-72838-05-X

Charter of the Dutch WIC, 1621

List of directors/administrators of the WIC

The Isle of Tortuga. Great site about Piracy in the Caribbean

Pirates: definitions

Pirates: resources

Privateers and Pirates !!!

A Short History from a Piratical Point of View

Piracy timeline

Privateering Documents Main List

List of books on WIC and the Atlantic area

J.R.Bruijn, F.S. Gaastra, I Schöffer (eds),"Dutch-Asiatic shipping in the 17th and 18th centuries"
[Publication of the Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis,published 1979-1987]

Recommended

...menu
.... top