TODAY ONLY

March 20

Dutch East India Company Sets Sail

On this day in 1602, the Dutch East India Company, one of the world's most powerful companies for 200 years, was established.

Can You Say That in Dutch? The Dutch East India Trading Company is known by its Dutch acronym ~ VOC, which stands for Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie.

What Did It Do? Its goal: to hold a monopoly on trade with the East Indies. It traded spices, tea, silk, and porcelain.

What Else Did It Do? The Company also had to fight the enemies of the Republic and prevent other European nations from entering the East India trade.

Sailing for the Dutch East India Company... English explorer Henry Hudson (1565-1611?) discovered the river that now bears his name during a 1609 expedition paid for by the Dutch East India Company. Hudson never found the passage to the Far East that he was looking for, but he did make it all the way up the Hudson River to what is now Albany, New York.

The End. The Dutch East India Company was disbanded in 1799.

Many people wonder why there are 17th century European shipwrecks on the Western Australian coast. The answer is spice. In the 16th and 17th century, Europe had an almost insatiable need for spice... By the early 17th century, companies formed by the English and the Dutch were trading in competition with each other and with the Portuguese... In 1611, the VOC pioneered a new route: ships sailed south from the Cape of Good Hope, then east and finally turned north to Batavia. The route... passed close to the mythical and undiscovered Terra Australis Incognita.