The West India Company, DutchWest-IndischeCompagnie, was a Dutch trading company, founded in 1621, with the aim of promoting an economic war against Spain and Portugal. The Iberian monopoly on trade between Europe and the Americas was a political and economic nuisance and the company was founded by the Dutch as a way to promote business between the American colonies and African women.
It held, during the 17th century, the monopoly of navigation and trade with the Americas and West Africa, even conquering part of Brazil. Temporary domination over part of Brazil lasted from 1630 to 1654, when the country was named Nova Holanda.
Background
Launched into the sea, the Netherlands began transporting sugar to Europe, but the product was subject to customs control in Lisbon. To evade taxation, the Netherlands established a direct route to the main sugar-producing regions such as Madeira Island, São Tomé Island, the Canary Islands and Brazil. Dutch ships departed Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Midelburg, the main Dutch merchant cities, for the colonies. Faced with Spain's reaction, a truce was decreed with Holland to maintain the monopoly.
The emergence of the West India Company was only possible after the end of the 12-year truce between Holland and Spain, in the period from 1609 to 1621. The Netherlands began to covet the colonies conquered by the countries of the Iberian Peninsula and used the model of the East India Companies in the new foundation.
The Dutch government started to challenge Spain trying to end the monopoly of trade with the colonies. It would also be a way to legalize what already existed, smuggling was a constant. In addition to sugar, there was already a need for salt for fish conservation and spices became essential for the Dutch, who were also looking for gold and ivory.
The West India Company reached its greatest success in Brazil in the 1630s and 40s, when it ran out of resources and later declined in power, being dissolved in 1794. It was a hybrid society, contemplating public and private law, being a forerunner in this model of administrative structure.
Governed by a council representing various regions of the Netherlands, the West India Company was granted a monopoly of trade with the Americas and Africa and the Atlantic regions between them. With military and financial support from the States General, it acquired ports on the West African coast to supply slaves for plantations in the Antilles and South America.
The company's trade, however, was never enough to finance operations against Spain, Portugal, and England – which also exercised a deep interest in trade with the colonies.
The company also established several colonies in the Antilles and Guyana between 1634 and 1648, including Aruba, Curaçao and Saint Martin, but later lost many of them to France. The Dutch colony in North America, New Holland (renamed New York in the mid-1660s), became a company province in 1623. The West India Company was taken over by the state in 1791 and was dissolved following the French invasion of the Dutch Republic in 1794.
