Dutch possessions in South Asia

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This article covers Dutch colonies in India and Ceylon. For Indonesia as a Dutch colony, see Dutch East Indies

Dutch map of South Asia and the Indian Ocean from 1680

The Dutch colonial possessions in South Asia (obsolete Hindustan; Engl .: Dutch India; Dutch: Voor-Indie) covered by the mid-17th to early 19th century, branches and trading bases in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ) and some bases in the Indian Mainland. Ceylon, the only supplier of cinnamon in the world, and the Indian mainland with its cotton deposits were regions sought after by the trading companies on the European continent. These areas were not administered directly by the States General of the Netherlands, but by the United East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC for short) and incorporated into European-Asian trade. In 1824 the last Dutch possessions in these areas passed to England .

History of colonial rule

The VOC

→ Main article: Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company, also VOC (United East India Company), was a trading company founded under private law in 1602. She administered the Dutch colonies. Until its bankruptcy in 1799, the VOC was by far the most important trading company on the European continent, as it had more ships and servants than any competing trading company.

The VOC was created by merging the four existing Dutch East India trading companies. The capital of the newly founded company was fed by the sale of shares to everyone, making it the first public company in history. In order to position the VOC well in competition with the trading companies of other nations, the States General of the United Netherlands, the supreme governing body of the Dutch Republic, granted it the sole right for a payment of 25,000 pounds in the privilege of March 20, 1602 with regard to colonial trade to travel east from the Netherlands via the Cape of Good Hope. In these areas "reserved" for the VOC, it was allowed to conclude alliances and treaties in the name of the States General of the United Netherlands, establish bases and, to maintain these bases, both locals - after they had taken the oath of allegiance to the United Netherlands - and their own employees as governors , Deploy military units and officials.

On the island of Ceylon and on the Indian mainland, only the VOC, as the only Dutch trading company, was allowed to build properties and conduct trade. She was supposed to act as the sovereign administrator on behalf of the United Netherlands, although this function was not always visible to the outside world or was deliberately concealed by the VOC in order to simplify diplomatic relations.

Ceylon

At the end of the 16th century, the demand for luxury goods and colonial goods on the European continent rose steadily. Spices such as B. pepper, cinnamon , nutmeg and cloves. For the States General of the United Netherlands, which did not yet have direct trade relations with Asia, the spice trade with Southeast Asia (later the Dutch East Indies ) , which was dominated by the Kingdom of Portugal , therefore appeared profitable.

Ceylon, today's Sri Lanka , also attracted the VOC because of its cinnamon deposits and the prospect of a monopoly over the cinnamon trade. Ceylon was the only region in the world where cinnamon was produced. However, with the exception of the Kingdom of Kandy , which sought to maintain its independence, the island was controlled by the Portuguese .

After the meeting of the VOC and the Kingdom of Kandy and after lengthy negotiations, an agreement was reached in 1638 from which both sides should benefit. In return for helping the Dutch to drive the Portuguese out of Ceylon , the King of Kandy was supposed to give the VOC a monopoly over the cinnamon trade. The expulsion of the Portuguese succeeded because they had to bow to the superior sea fleet of the VOC.

However, the agreement turned out to be a double-edged sword for the Kingdom of Kandy, as the VOC did not just trade - as the king had hoped - but used the expulsion of Portugal to gain control of the cinnamon-producing areas of Ceylon. Therefore, the VOC gave the ports of Trincomalee and Batticoala, which had been conquered shortly after the conclusion of the agreement, back to the Kingdom of Kandy. As early as 1640, the VOC kept under its own control the ports of Galle and Negombo, which were strategically important for access to cinnamon cultivation fields . In 1656 Colombo and in 1658 the last Portuguese stronghold, Jaffna , were conquered - and the former colonial power in the areas dominated by Portugal was exchanged for a new one.

The VOC operated a direct ship connection between Ceylon and the European continent, whereby the island played a central role in both European-Asian trade and in regional Asian trade with South India, Surat , Arabia and Persia.

The King of Kandy, Vimaladharmasurya I, receives Joris van Spilbergen, captain of the VOC (1603)

Mainland India

The VOC also set up a number of bases on the Indian mainland, both on the Malabar coast in the west and on the Coromandel coast in the east. The first of these was Chinsurah in Bengal in 1608. 1610 followed Pulicat on the Coromandel coast (today's Tamil Nadu ), 1647 Sadras and 1658 Tuticorin and Negapatnam , also on the Coromandel coast. On the Malabar Coast (today's Kerala ), the VOC also established itself in 1658. It established a chain of bases: in December 1661 in Quilon , 1662 in Cranganore and 1663 in Cochin . Cochin became the headquarters of the VOC in India.

Both the Bengal region and the Coromandel Coast were coveted for their cotton-based textile production - these Indian textiles were also used as objects of exchange for other Asian products - and the silk, porcelain and tea production. Saltpetre, opium and sugar were also sought-after commodities. However, the market there was fiercely competitive, so that the VOC could not monopolize any of these commodities.

Loss of colonies

The loss of the colonies in South Asia had economic, foreign and domestic political reasons. Since the middle of the 17th century, the English trading companies competed with the VOC in colonial trade, which resulted in costly wars that drained the financial reserves of the small United Netherlands. In addition, the interest of the European continent in the expensive Asian spices generally faded slowly, while cheaper substitutes from America came onto the market.

In addition, there were domestic political unrest in the Netherlands from 1780, which led to the establishment of the Batavian Republic , a French satellite state, in 1795 after the occupation by the French . The governor William V of Orange, who fled into exile in England , instructed the governors of the colonies to hand them over to the English for "preventive detention" until independence was regained. Even if not all governors obeyed this request, it had a demoralizing effect and represented a legitimation for the English to conquer these areas. Ceylon and all possessions on the Indian mainland were then conquered by the English in the next few months. In 1799 the insolvent VOC dissolved and the republic took over their remaining possessions in the Dutch East Indies .

In the course of the reorganization of Europe at the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15, the English returned some of the conquered colonies - for example the Coromandel Coast - to what was now the United Kingdom of the Netherlands . The Dutch living in the colonies under English control were promised the security of their property and the opportunity to conduct private trade. The far more profitable Ceylon and Cochin on the Malabar coast remained in English ownership. The background to the return of some colonies was the intention of the other great powers to create a balance of power on the European continent, in which the Netherlands should act as a sufficiently strong buffer state.

In 1824, the British-Dutch spheres of influence in the East Indies were rationally delimited in the British-Dutch treaty - the Dutch renounced all their continental possessions in favor of Bengcoolen (Bengkulu) on Sumatra .

Dutch colonial rule

On behalf of the United Netherlands, the VOC primarily only wanted to control the trade in valuable spices and thereby increase its profit. Most of the spices were to be exported to and sold on the European continent. The focus was not on building a colonial empire. Therefore the representatives of the VOC appeared less as religiously motivated colonizers than as traders. In order to maintain trade control, it was nevertheless essential to gain political and administrative control over the spice growing areas.

Even if this was usually not achieved with nationwide rule, but through strategically placed military bases, the bases on Ceylon , which were spread over the entire island, and the danger of armed acts by the kingdom of Kandy , which is not under Dutch control, made a great deal Military and administrative apparatus necessary. The necessary number of personnel could not be raised with employees of the VOC alone, but the VOC had to fall back on local people and already existing structures. However, it was difficult for the VOC - as well as for the other competing trading companies - to understand the local government and administrative structures, to control them and to use them for their own purposes.

On the Indian mainland, the VOC exercised superficial control over numerous vassal principalities and barely intervened in day-to-day administration. The VOC also relied on local merchants and middlemen to organize the trade. In Ceylon, the traditional, small-scale administrative structure consisting of various local clan heads who had expressed loyalty to the VOC remained under the supervision of representatives of the VOC, although the extent of this loyalty of the influential locals to the VOC remained doubtful.

The working local population hardly profited from the spice trade, although the coveted luxury goods fetched high prices on the European market and were also sought after in intra-Asian trade. The profit went either to the VOC headquarters in the United Netherlands or to the colonial branches.

Aftermath of Dutch colonial rule

The colonial endeavors of the VOC cost thousands of their employees every year - in addition to the Dutch, men from the Holy Roman Empire and Scandinavian kingdoms in particular were drawn to the prospect of adventure and fortune - due to working conditions that resulted in the highest average death rate of any early modern trading company . Only around a third of ordinary seamen and soldiers survived the ship crossings to Asia alone . Once in the colonies, there was a risk of disease and epidemics.

The aftermath of Dutch colonial rule in the South Asian colonies was minor. Since the VOC focused on the organization and control of trade, it did not shape the language or religion of the locals in Ceylon, for example - although the locals of the Catholic faith were disadvantaged, the VOC neither wanted to proselytize nor enforce a particular faith. Dutch influences can be found in some agricultural developments, in the introduction of Dutch-Roman law , which superseded local custom , and in architecture.

See also

literature

  • Hans Beelen: Trading with New Worlds. The United East India Company of the Netherlands 1602–1798. An exhibition of the Oldenburg State Library, Holzberg Verlag, Oldenburg 2002, ISBN 3873583992 .
  • British-Dutch colonial convention of August 13, 1814, in: Wilhelm G. Grewe (Ed.): Fontes Historiae Iuris Gentium. Sources on the history of international law. Volume 3/1. 1815-1945, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1991, ISBN 3-11-013218-4 , pp. 255 f-257.
  • British-Dutch Treaty of 1824, renunciation of India in Article 8 (Dutch text), URL: http://wvi.antenna.nl/nl/dh/geschiedenis/traktaat.html/ , accessed on January 29, 2020.
  • Adam Clulow, Tristan Mostert: The Dutch and English East India Companies. Diplomacy, Trade and Violence in Early Modern Asia, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2018, ISBN 978-94-6298-329-8 .
  • Harold J. Cook: Matters of Exchange. Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age, Yale 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-11796-7 .
  • Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trendland, Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89688-427-5 .
  • Wolfgang von Hippel, Bernhard Stier: Europe between reform and revolution 1800-1850. Volume 7, Ulmer, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8252-2585-8 .
  • Jürgen G. Nagel: The adventure of long-distance trading. The East India Companies, Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-534-18527-6 .
  • Jürgen Osterhammel, Niels P. Petersson: History of globalization, dimensions. Processes. Epochs, 5th revised edition, Beck Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-48020-1 .
  • Robert Parthesius: Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters. The Development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) shipping network in Asia 1595-1660, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2010, ISBN 978-90-5356-517-9 .
  • Privilege of the States General for the United Dutch-East India Company on March 20, 1602, in: Wilhelm G. Grewe (Ed.): Fontes Historiae Iuris Gentium. Sources on the history of international law. Volume 2 1493-1815, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1988, ISBN 3-11-010720-1 , pp. 171-176.
  • Roman Sandgruber: luxury items. Their real and symbolic significance in early modern Europe, Yearbook for Economic History 35/1 (1994), Akademie Verlag, pp. 73-88, ISSN 2196-6842.
  • Eberhard Schmitt: Merchants as colonial masters. The trading world of the Dutch from the Cape of Good Hope to Nagasaki 1600–1800, Buchner Verlag, Bamberg 1988, ISBN 3766145657 .
  • KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, C. Hurst & Company, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, ISBN 0-905838-50-5 .
  • Anjana Singh: Fort Cochin in Kerala, 1750-1830. The social condition of a Dutch community in an Indian milieu, Brill, Leiden 2010, ISBN 978-90-04-16816-9 .
  • George Bryan Souza: Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese in Maritime Asia, c. 1585-1600. Merchants, Commodities and Commerce, Dorset Press, Dorchester 2014, ISBN 9781472417008 .
  • Pim de Zwart: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence. Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company's Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800, Leiden / Boston 2016, Printforce, ISBN 978-90-04-29965-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pim de Zwart: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence. Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company's Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800, Leiden / Boston 2016, p. 10.
  2. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land, Regensburg 2009, p. 68.
  3. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land, Regensburg 2009, p. 83 f.
  4. ^ Privilege of the States General for the United Dutch-East India Company on March 20, 1602, in: Wilhelm G. Grewe (ed.): Fontes Historiae Iuris Gentium. Sources on the history of international law. Volume 2 1493-1815, Berlin / New York 1988, pp. 171-176.
  5. ^ Adam Clulow, Tristan Mostert: Introduction. The Companies in Asia, in: Adam Clulow, Tristan Mostert: The Dutch and English East India Companies. Diplomacy, Trade and Violence in Early Modern Asia, pp. 13–24, Amsterdam 2018, here: p. 14.
  6. ^ Roman Sandgruber: Pleasure. Their real and symbolic significance in early modern Europe, Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte 35/1 (1994), pp. 73–88, here: p. 73: "The greed for spices was the driving force behind the voyages of discovery."
  7. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land, Regensburg 2009, p. 67.
  8. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 120.
  9. ^ Pim de Zwart: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence. Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company's Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800, Leiden / Boston 2016, p. 203.
  10. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 118.
  11. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 133.
  12. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 120 f.
  13. ↑ Anjana Singh: Fort Cochin in Kerala, 1750-1830. The social condition of a Dutch community in an Indian milieu. Brill, Leiden 2010, p. 31.
  14. ^ Robert Parthesius: Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters. The Development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) shipping network in Asia 1595–1660, Amsterdam 2010, p. 45.
  15. ^ Pim de Zwart: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence. Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company's Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800, Leiden / Boston 2016, p. 70.
  16. ↑ George Bryan Souza: Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese in Maritime Asia, c. 1585-1600. Merchants, Commodities and Commerce, Dorchester 2014, chap. XIII, p. 6.
  17. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land, Regensburg 2009, p. 138 ff.
  18. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 184.
  19. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land, Regensburg 2009, p. 160.
  20. ^ British-Dutch colonial convention of August 13, 1814, in: Wilhelm G. Grewe (ed.): Fontes Historiae Iuris Gentium. Sources on the history of international law. Volume 3/1. 1815-1945, Berlin / New York 1991, pp. 255-257.
  21. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land, Regensburg 2009, p. 149.
  22. ↑ British-Dutch Treaty of 1824, renunciation of India in Article 8 (Dutch text), URL: http://wvi.antenna.nl/nl/dh/geschiedenis/traktaat.html/ , accessed on January 29, 2020.
  23. ↑ George Bryan Souza: Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese in Maritime Asia, c. 1585-1800. Merchants, Commodities and Commerce, Dorchester 2014, chap. VII, p. 42.
  24. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land, Regensburg 2009, p. 160.
  25. ↑ Wolfgang von Hippel, Bernhard Stier: Europe between reform and revolution 1800-1850. Volume 7, Stuttgart 2012, p. 82.
  26. ↑ Wolfgang von Hippel, Bernhard Stier: Europe between reform and revolution 1800-1850. Volume 7, Stuttgart 2012, p. 100.
  27. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 134 ff.
  28. ^ Pim de Zwart: Globalization and the Colonial Origins of the Great Divergence. Intercontinental Trade and Living Standards in the Dutch East India Company's Commercial Empire, c. 1600–1800, Leiden / Boston 2016, p. 203.
  29. ^ Adam Clulow, Tristan Mostert: Introduction. The Companies in Asia, in: Adam Clulow, Tristan Mostert: The Dutch and English East India Companies. Diplomacy, Trade and Violence in Early Modern Asia, pp. 13–24, Amsterdam 2018, here: p. 17.
  30. ↑ Wolfgang von Hippel, Bernhard Stier: Europe between reform and revolution 1800-1850. Volume 7, Stuttgart 2012, p. 100.
  31. ↑ Ghulam A. Nadri: The English and Dutch East India Companies and Indian Merchants in Surat in the seventeenth and eighteens centuries. Interdependence, Competition and Contestation, in: Adam Clulow, Tristan Mostert: The Dutch and English East India Companies. Diplomacy, Trade and Violence in Early Modern Asia, Amsterdam 2018, pp. 125–152, here: p. 126.
  32. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 189.
  33. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 162.
  34. ^ Cook, Harold J .: Matters of Exchange. Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age, Yale 2007, p. 177 f.
  35. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land, Regensburg 2009, p. 71 ff.
  36. ↑ KM de Silva: A History of Sri Lanka, London / Berkeley / Los Angeles 1981, p. 170; 193 ff.