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{{Short description|Dutch colonial governor (1593–1645)}}
{{Infobox Governor
|name = Anthony van Diemen
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|successor = [[Cornelis van der Lijn]]
|birth_date = 1593
|birth_place = [[Culemborg]], [[
|death_date = {{Death date|1645|04|19|df=yes}} (aged 51–52)
|death_place = [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]], [[Dutch East India Company in Indonesia|Dutch East India]]
|other_names =
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|nationality = [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]]}}
'''Anthony van Diemen''' (also ''Antonie'', ''Antonio'', ''Anton'', ''Antonius''
== Early life ==
== Career ==
Governor [[Jan Pieterszoon Coen]] found van Diemen to be a talented official and by 1626 he was Director-General of Commerce and member of the Council for the Indies. In 1630, he married Maria van Aelst. A year later he returned to the Netherlands as [[Admiral]] on the ship ''Deventer''.
While on route to the Indies in 1633, Van Diemen sighted and named [[Île Amsterdam|Amsterdam Island]], after his vessel at the time, ''[[Nieuw Amsterdam (sailing ship)|Nieuw Amsterdam]]''.
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Van Diemen's nine years as Governor-General were successful and important for both the colony and the commercial success of the Dutch East India Company. He devoted much of his energy to expanding the power of the company throughout South-East Asia. Under his rule Dutch power was established in Ceylon (now [[Sri Lanka]]) via [[Trincomalee]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Arasaratnam|first=Sinnapah|title=Francois Valentijn's Description of Ceylon|publisher=The Hakluyt Society|year=1978|isbn=0904180069|location=London}}</ref>
== Discovery of Tasmania ==
Van Diemen is best remembered for his efforts to foster exploration of the "Great South Land" ([[Australia]]), resulting in "the final and most ambitious Dutch voyages of the century".<ref name=love>Ronald S. Love, ''Maritime Exploration in the Age of Discovery, 1415-1800'' (2006:99).</ref> The first voyage under his energetic administration was undertaken within three months of his arrival in Batavia; starting from [[Cape York Peninsula|Cape York]] its ships were to chart the unknown coasts, but the venture ended in failure, when its commander was killed by natives in [[New Guinea]], and the ships returned. In 1639 he commissioned two voyages to the north, in search of the "Gold and Silver Islands" that Spanish reports placed in the North Pacific to the east of [[Japan]], and sent [[Maarten Gerritsz Vries]] to explore the coasts of [[Korea]] and "[[Tartary|Tartaria]]"; these, too, returned fruitlessly.<ref name=love /> Undeterred, Van Diemen appointed Frans Visscher to draw up a plan for new discoveries. Visscher mapped out three different routes and van Diemen decided in August 1642 to send [[Abel Tasman|Abel Janszoon Tasman]], accompanied by Visscher, in search of the Great South Land, which Tasman would soon dub "[[New Holland (Australia)|Nieuw Holland]]".{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}▼
Van Diemen is best remembered for his efforts to foster exploration of the "Great South Land" ([[Australia]]), resulting in "the final and most ambitious Dutch voyages of the century".<ref name="love">Ronald S. Love, ''Maritime Exploration in the Age of Discovery, 1415–1800'' (2006:99).</ref> The first voyage under his energetic administration was undertaken within three months of his arrival in Batavia; starting from [[Cape York Peninsula|Cape York]] its ships were to chart the unknown coasts, but the venture ended in failure, when its commander was killed by natives in [[New Guinea]], and the ships returned.
▲
In November 1642, heading east from [[Mauritius]] on [[44th parallel south|latitude 44]] and missing the south coast of the Australian continent, Tasman sighted land at what is now the west coast of the island of [[Tasmania]], and followed the coastline along the southern shore and around to the east coast. Tasman sent a party ashore at Blackman Bay, on the Tasman Peninsula, who planted a flag and encountered a few Tasmanian people. Believing he had found a large territory, Tasman named it [[Van Diemen's Land]] in honour of his patron.<ref>The name "Van Diemen's Land" name was retained when British settlement began there in 1803. It became a byword for horror in England because of the severity of its convict settlements such as [[Port Arthur, Tasmania|Port Arthur]] and [[Macquarie Harbour Penal Station|Macquarie Harbour]]. The name had acquired such odium that when it became a [[self-governing colony]] in 1855, one of the first acts of the new legislature was to change its name to [[Tasmania]]. "Tasmania is preferred, because 'Van Diemen's Land' is associated among all nations with bondage and guilt" John West remarked at the opening of his ''History of Tasmania'' (Launceston: Dowling) 1852, vol I:4). But the old name lingered for many years—Tasmanians were referred to as Vandemonians until the turn of the century.</ref>
== Legacy ==
Van Diemen is also commemorated in [[Van Diemen Gulf]] on the coast of northern Australia. He commissioned a further voyage from Tasman in 1644. Van Diemen died in 1645 in [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies]]. The company granted his wife a large pension and she retired to the [[Netherlands]].
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Van Diemen also gives his name to Fort Antonio in modern-day [[Tamsui]] at the mouth of the [[Tamsui River]] in northern [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan]], which was built by the Dutch on the site of an abandoned Spanish fort in an historical area now known as the [[Fort San Domingo]] museum complex, the name of which causes ongoing confusion about the actual name of the main fort building along with its Dutch origins.
In 1842, the venomous [[Australia]]n and southern [[New Guinea|Papuan]], [[Elapidae|elapid]]
==Notes==
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==Further reading==
*Van der Kraan, Alfons. "Anthony van Diemen: From Bankrupt to Governor-General,
*Van der Kraan, Alfons. "Anthony van Diemen: Patron of Discovery and Exploration,
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Diemen, Anthony van |short=x}}
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