DUTCH ASSISTANCE

BY NASHIA GRANEAU-BARRIE
 • In June 1621 the Dutch West India Company was
chartered, and it soon began to function as the
Netherlands' primary weapon against the New World
empire of Spain.
INTRODUCTION • For more than a decade the company generally
enjoyed success, capped by Piet Heyn's seizure, in 1628,
of the entire Mexican silver fleet, and the conquest,
beginning in 1624 and accelerating during the 1630s, of
most of Brazil.
• To many Englishmen, it appeared that the West India
Company was doing what their nation should be
doing: attacking Spain at the core of its wealth
and, hence, its power.They held to the belief
that the Spanish empire in the New World was
ripe for overthrow, and that a successful sea-
war of conquest would more than pay for itself,
for it would ensure that the bullion that was
then fuelling the Spanish war machine would
thereafter serve the cause of England.
• Those Englishmen who were most impressed by the company's triumphs in many cases
also saw the Netherlands and England as potential partners in a crusade
against the Spanish empire in the Caribbean. (Forming alliances)
• From their perspective, the English and the Dutch appeared to be natural allies.
Protestantism served as a link between the two peoples. Furthermore, they were united
by a common hatred and fear of Spain (Fear of Spain due to how brutal Span
expanded and conquered the Indigneous people in the Americas)
THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS

• The Dutch came from a small country in Europe (known as ‘The Netherlands’ because it was
low-lying) and from 1519 they were part of the Spanish empire.
• The causes of the war which became known as the Revolt of the Netherlands included
the Reformation, centralisation, taxation, and the rights and privileges of the nobility and cities.
After the initial stages, Philip II of Spain, the sovereign of the Netherlands, deployed his armies
and regained control over most of the rebel-held territories.
• However, widespread mutinies in the Spanish army caused a general uprising. Under the
leadership of the exiled William the Silent, the Catholic- and Protestant-dominated provinces
sought to establish religious peace while jointly opposing the king's regime with
the Pacification of Ghent, but the general rebellion failed to sustain itself.
• The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or
the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western
Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge
to the Catholic Church and in particular to papal authority, arising from what
were perceived to be errors, abuses, and discrepancies by the Catholic Church.
• The Reformation was the start of Protestantism and the split of the Western
Church into Protestantism and what is now the Roman Catholic Church. It is
also considered to be one of the events that signified the end of the Middle
Ages and the beginning of the early modern period in Europe.
• After Watergeuzen (in English known as "Sea Beggars") seized several
poorly defended towns and cities in Holland and Zeeland in April 1572,
the exiled stadtholder William "the Silent" of Orange launched his second
invasion of the Netherlands from the east in another attempt to generate
a general uprising against the repressive regime of Spanish General-
Governor Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba (simply known as
"Alba" or "Alva").
• Acting on orders of king Philip II of Spain, Alba sought to exterminate all
manifestations of Protestantism and disobedience through inquisition and
public executions, as well as abolishing several privileges of the
Netherlandish nobility and autonomy of cities, and introducing more
stringent taxes.
• King Philip II of Spain, in his capacity as sovereign of Habsburg
Netherlands, continued the anti-heresy and centralisation policies of his
father Charles V. This caused growing resistance among the moderate
nobility and population (both Catholic and dissenting) of the
Netherlands.This mood of resistance first led to peaceful protests (as
from the Compromise of Nobles), but in the summer of 1566 erupted in
violent protests by Calvinists, known as the iconoclastic fury, or
(Dutch: Beeldenstorm) across the Netherland.
• The Dutch rebelled and began the forty-year struggle known as the Revolt
of the Netherlands.
• Elizabeth avoided military expeditions on the continent until 1585, when
she sent an English army to aid the Protestant Dutch rebels against Philip
II. In December 1584, an alliance between Philip II and the French Catholic
League at Joinville undermined the ability of Anjou's brother, Henry III of
France, to counter Spanish domination of the Netherlands.
• The siege of Antwerp in the summer of 1585 by the Duke of Parma
necessitated some reaction on the part of the English and the Dutch. The
outcome was the Treaty of Nonsuch of August 1585, in which Elizabeth
promised military support to the Dutch. The treaty marked the beginning
of the Anglo-Spanish War, which lasted until the Treaty of London in 1604.
• Elizabeth the first from the start did not really back this course of action.
Her strategy, to support the Dutch on the surface with an English army,
while beginning secret peace talks with Spain within days of Leicester's
arrival in Holland, had necessarily to be at odds with Leicester's, who
wanted and was expected by the Dutch to fight an active campaign.
• Elizabeth, on the other hand, wanted him "to avoid at all costs any decisive
action with the enemy". He enraged Elizabeth by accepting the post of
Governor-General from the Dutch States General. Elizabeth saw this as a
Dutch ploy to force her to accept sovereignty over the Netherlands.
• Queen Elizabeth 1 by encouraging her sea captains to raid the Spanish
empire and later openly waging war against Spain, assisted, tremedously
the revolt of the Netherlands.
• The war in the Netherlands consumed the gold and silver which Spain had
discovered in the New World. It passed straight through Spain to pay for
Spanish soldiers and mercenaries in the Netherlands which hastened
Spain's bankruptcy.
• After 1579 the southern Catholic provinces of the Netherlands accepted
a compromise with Spain and remained under her rule, but the northern
group known as the United Provinces carried on the war.
• • They were so small in area and population that the only way they could
survive was through commerce and trade.
• Being Calvinists, they practiced the virtues of hard work and thrift.
• They built up huge fleets, capturing the trade of the Portuguese in the
East and threatening the Spanish in the West.
• As a result Amsterdam and Antwerp became the banking centres of
Europe and the Dutch fleet easily outnumbered the combined fleets of
the rest of Europe.
• In 1595 they formed their own East India Company which broke
Portuguese power in the East.
• It formed the model for the Dutch West India Company ( 1621) which
broke Spanish power in the Caribbean.
 THE DUTCH IN THE WEST INDIES
• Their first serious penetration of the Spanish empire began in 1595 when
they started to trade and mine salt at Araya in Venezuela. This was the
result of the Dutch war with Portugal which stopped them obtaining salt
from southern Portugal.
• Between 1600 and 1605 there were ten Dutch salt ships per month,
trading not just in salt, but tobacco and other tropical produce
• The Spanish settlers accepted the Dutch traders. • The presence of Dutch
ships in the West Indies became more and more common and by 1623
there were 800 Dutch ships engaged in the West Indian trade. • In 1609
the Spanish and Dutch agreed to a twelve-year truce.
• The Spanish still refused to recognize Dutch independence (they did this by the
Treaty of Munster in 1648), and the Dutch regarded the truce as a respite during
which they could prepare for ultimate victory against Spain.
• The Dutch were fighting the Spanish for their independence, and the Portuguese for
trade and empire.
• They triumphed over the Portuguese in nearly every part of the globe, winning the
spice trade from them in the East Indies • To boost their trade with the Spanish
empire, they turned against the Portuguese slave-trading stations in West Africa and
the climax from this was the capture of Elmina, the greatest slaving station, in 1637.
• With this supply of slaves of Africa the Dutch were well equipped to penetrate the
Spanish empire. From Araya the Dutch trade expanded along the coasts of the Guianas
and Venezuela and then to Hispaniola and the other Spanish islands, trading slaves for
tobacco and hides and skins.
• The Spanish authorities could not tolerate this major infringement of their monopoly and
in 1605 they sent a force to attack the Dutch in Araya and to prevent Dutch trade there.
• The lagoon was flooded, tobacco growing in Venezuela was prohibited and Spanish
settlers were forced to emigrate from the region. These measures only hurt the settlers,
not the Dutch, who looked elsewhere for trading stations.
• The Dutchman, William Usselinx, proposed the establishment of Dutch trading
stations and permanent settlements as soon as the twelve-year truce agreed in 1609 was
over.
DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY

• When the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was founded in 1602, some traders in
Amsterdam did not agree with its monopolistic policies.With help from Petrus Plancius,
a Dutch-Flemish astronomer,cartographer and clergyman, they sought for a northeastern
or northwestern access to Asia to circumvent the VOC monopoly.
• The Dutch West India Company was organized similarly to the Dutch East India Company.
Like the DEIC, the GWC company had five offices, called chambers (kamers),
in Amsterdam,Rotterdam,Hoorn,Middelburg and Groningen, of which the chambers in
Amsterdam and Middelburg contributed most to the company.The board consisted of 19
members, known as the Heeren XIX (the Nineteen Gentlemen).
• He wanted a company to be set up with military powers and in 1621 his
advice was followed. The Dutch West India Company was founded with all
the zeal of a Protestant crusade, a large capital for those days (about a
million pounds), and plenty of naval strength
• Further south, war started with the Portuguese in Brazil. In 1624 the
Dutch captured Bahia and Pernambuco and until 1654 actually controlled
the northeastern part of Brazil.
• This was important for the West Indies later because it was here that the
Dutch gained their expertise in sugar planting and manufacture which they
passed on to the English and French when they founded their colonies in
the Eastern Caribbean
• The year 1628 was a turning point for the Dutch West India Company. • Two Spanish
treasure galleons from Honduras to Havana were captured, and then Piet Heyn, a Dutch
admiral in service with the Company, captured a whole Spanish treasure fleet in Matanzas
Bay on the north coast of Cuba.
• This was the first time a whole fleet had been captured and Heyn found prizes of gold,
silver, pearls, spices and hides to the value of four million ducats. • However, the value of
the treasure was not the most important part of this Dutch success.
• It was the greatest loss the Spaniards had ever suffered in the Caribbean
and it gave the Dutch confidence to continue raiding Spanish ships and
settlements and turn the Caribbean into a Dutch lake.
• The weakness of the Spaniards was exposed and the English and the
French were encouraged to establish colonies in the Lesser Antilles. •
After Heyn's great raid the Spaniards made one last attempt to preserve
their monopoly by driving all foreigners out of the Caribbean.
• In 1629 they sent de Toledo with a fleet to capture St Kitts, which he did,
but this was an isolated and temporary success as they could not send
forces to other parts of the Caribbean or back up the seizure of St Kitts. •
The contribution of the Dutch towards breaking the Spanish monopoly in
the Caribbean was immense
• • Firstly, as bitter enemies of the Spanish they weakened them in Europe,
attacked them in their empire and drove them from the sea. • Secondly,
they captured the trade of the Spanish empire to such an extent that they
dominated it even before Piet Heyn's raid in 1628
• This well established carrying trade was able to supply the infant colonies of the English
and French with slaves and carry away their tobacco and, later, sugar. • Thirdly, with the
expertise the Dutch had gained in Brazil, they ensured the success of the plantation
colonies on the islands.
• • Finally, as a result of their commercial success and prosperity they were able to supply
credit to foreign planters who had neither private funds nor government support.
DUTCH INVOLVEMENT IN THE SUGAR
REVOLUTION
The Dutch contribution was so great that we can say they made the change possible.
• Around 1640, the Dutch were easily the greatest traders in the Caribbean Region, almost
having a monopoly over trade. They were barely interested in setting up permanent
colonies. For them, the Caribbean was primarily an economic opportunity.
• The Dutch traders and captains were very invested in increasing their trade. They noticed
that encouraging planting of sugar was a great opportunity as they would be hired to
transport sugar across the Atlantic ocean.
• Sugar needed capital which the small planters of the eastern Caribbean did not have, but the
Dutch came to the rescue by supplying credit.
• They concentrated their efforts on harassing Spanish shipping and trading
in smuggled goods.
• The Dutch were traders and seamen by profession.
• The English and French colonies were settled by private enterprise or by
joint stock companies. Such companies encompassed the Company of St
Christopher and the Company of Isle of America.
• When these companies went bank-rupt, the colonies were abandoned by
the mother countries as the English and French crowns were not
prepared to be responsible for and to finance ventures in far off lands that
at the time did not appear profitable. In return, the Dutch offered, as
previously stated, credit to these colonies that would encourage the
continuation of English and French business which would hire the
assistance of the Dutch traders.
The Dutch assisted these colonies in the following ways:
* They brought supplies which was crucial in the early days as they were not too familiar
with the foods that the Indigenous people were planting.
* They gave them advice on their early choice of crop and when they eventually changed to
sugar, they gave technical advice on the cultivation of sugarcane as well as the care and
expertise they had gained from their sugar experience in places like Brazil.
• The Dutch came with slaves and machinery in addition with their knowledge oof sugar
crop production which were all essential in commencing the English sugar industry.
• They provided shipping to bring their crops to European and cheap freight rates.
• They provided slaves as they were already involved in trade supplying the Spanish
colonies.
• They provided indirect defense.
• The Dutch West India Company's navy was in Caribbean waters from 1630 to 1640.
They drove all Spanish ships (warships and trade ships) from these waters •
• Due to the protection and assistance of the DWIC, the French and English were able to
establish colonial control through colonies in the Lesser Antilles.
• They found markets for their products in Europe. •
• This close relationship among the Dutch, English and French colonists was to last until the
mother countries imposed their mercantile systems in the 1650s and 1660s.
• Around 1640, the Dutch were easily the greatest traders in the Caribbean region, almost
having a monopoly of the trade.

The Dutch traders and captains were looking for ways by which to increase the trade and they
saw that encouraging the plantation of sugar was a great opportunity.
Sugar needed capital which small planters of the eastern Caribbean did not have, but the Dutch
came to rescue by supplying credit.
* A Dutch merchant would put up the capital on the security of the crop.
• In this way many planters started.The Dutch took over the export and sale of crop in
return for providing the initial capital.
• Not only did the Dutch provide highly specialized labour, but they also provided the
ordinary manual labour in the form of slaves. The Dutch brought slaves from west Africa
to the West Indies at a rate of about 3000 per year.
• It has been said that the Dutch made West Indies black.At least they started off the
process which led to a decline in the white population and the rise in the black. England
could not have provided this essentials for the development of the sugar industry.
• In any case the English system was not one of support in the West Indian colonies
through a wealthy company or through government. Colonies and plantations were
individual enterprises which were expected to manage on their own