The Dutch expansion began in the context of the war against the Hispanic Monarchy. From ports on the North Sea, especially those in the cities of the northern provinces of Holland and Zeeland, they set out for the East and West Indies. The motivation for this expansion was commercial, since the closure of Hispanic ports to Dutch merchants caused them to try to directly control the points from which the merchandise departed (Israel, 1997: 90-97). This is the story of the Dutch in America
Leaving aside the East Indies (which would deserve an article of their own) the Dutch appeared in the West Indies in 1623 when the cities of Hoorn Y Enkhuizen They tried to take over the transport of Caribbean salt by controlling Punta de Araya, in the Caribbean Sea area. But the great thrust of the United Provinces in the New World came with the creation of the West India Company (West-Indische Compagnie or WIC).
The WIC was founded on June 3, 1621 despite deep resistance from the cities of North Holland. for fear of jeopardizing access to needed salt (1). It was the great commercial institution that, together with other smaller companies and private conglomerates, dealt with the commercial and productive management of the colonies. The monopoly company had great power and its high positions were linked to the administrative and governmental elites of the United Provinces. Its directors were mainly members of the group of great merchants who dominated the Dutch social structure of the 17th century (2). The company was a privileged institution and operated by shares as “They constituted (both companies) companies with the participation of many shareholders and, hierarchized according to their internal-administrative organization…they were practically a state within a state” (Crespo Solana, 2006:49). He was financially capable enough to pay for his own convoys despite needing state support on occasion. Nobles, bourgeois and even the monarch were shareholders and supported, sponsored and gave military and economic support when she needed it.
The first place that the WIC took was Bahia, in Brazil, which barely lasted in their hands (3). Meanwhile, the chamber of the province of Zeeland, which since before the WIC, was establishing itself in the Guianas and the Amazon (which later became controlled by the company) where tobacco plantations and the timber trade prospered (4) .
American WIC Possessions
The possessions that the United Provinces had in America were Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba, Essequibo and Demerara, Suriname and Nieuw Nederland, the latter in North America.. All these territories were taken throughout the 17th century in different campaigns, taking advantage of the blind spots of the Iberian powers, especially from the critical period of 1634-1640. It was at that moment that the United Provinces considered the need to obtain colonies at any price, since it was the only way to guarantee stable trade without the intervention of another power. In 1635 the WIC took the island of Curaçao along with other small islands in the Caribbean, taking advantage of the clashes held in Brazil against the Monarchy for the possession of Pernambuco.
The WIC in the late 17th century was reorganized and the American colonies were divided into two categories: first class and second class. The first class were under the direct control of the WIC (Curacao) and the second ones were managed by other private companies that could exploit them in exchange for a payment to the company (Surinam either Nieuw Netherlands).
The Dutch Caribbean: economy and society
The Dutch Caribbean was defining itself as a mainly mercantile space although by the end of the 17th century it began to convert to the plantation model under the control of large landowning families of the commercial bourgeoisie. This elite of owners was absent from their domains, leaving the administration to foremen and the commercial management to companies linked to their person and to the WIC itself. These territories were controlled by the company throughout the installation, consolidation and exploitation process until its disappearance at the end of the 18th century (Crespo Solana, 2006:39-60).
The Dutch began their presence in America with a system of mercantile intrusion through smuggling and looting in the Iberian space, something that never disappeared in the Caribbean area (5). By the end of the 17th century, in a context where the war against the Hispanic Monarchy had ended, the Dutch colonial model began a rapid path towards commercial capitalism through the use of financial and banking mechanisms of an increasingly capitalist nature. This phenomenon began with the plantation system in the Caribbean area, based on a monoculture (6) and that he introduced the capitalist model (7). With the plantation model installed in the colonies, an inexcusable need was created without which it would not have been able to prosper.: slave labor. To ensure the necessary human capital, the Dutch took an active part in the slave trade and their own possessions in Africa.
Dutch colonial societies were multicultural, mostly made up of Sephardic Jews (8) and Dutch Calvinists as a population of European origin. Thanks to the plantation system, an elite of absentee landowners was fostered. In general, among the members of the group of European origin there were social conflicts such as the struggle between some members of the merchant-planter elite with the administrative and military officials of the province of Zeeland first and the WIC later. Over time, this colonial society developed into a plutocracy where there were only members of the white population.
Moving forward to the 18th centurythe group of European origin was becoming smaller and smaller until it was a very marked minority of white owners, merchants and sailors, The latter, although they were not directly part of the elite, had the option of joining it through the acquisition of land. Beneath this group was a mass of largely African slave labor. To this must be added a not well studied percentage of the Native American population that was displaced or enslaved (Crespo Solana, 2006:149-150).
Resistances and consequences of domination colonial
The demographic difference between the two ethnic groups led the powerful but fearful white minority to force the subjugated black majority to dress in a certain way, eat and have customs different from the white elite, as well as to suffer brutal punishments for any infringement of colonial law. It can be said that a society was almost created”apartheid”(Crespo Solana, 2006:177).
As a result of this situation, the phenomenon of Maroons either Wegloopers, escaped black slaves from plantations who banded together in the jungle (or joined groups of Amerindians hostile to Europeans). This caused war conflicts within the colony as was the first war brown during the decades of 1730-1740 in Suriname. These conflicts were a great problem for the survival of the Dutch colony, to which all kinds of political, social and economic difficulties were added.
The boni maroons they managed to organize their own space within Dutch territory and had an impact beyond direct confrontations. The maroons they were the reason why the absenteeism of Creole planters skyrocketed during the 18th century. After several wars, the Maroons managed to be recognized as an “independent nation” towards the end of the 18th century, acquiring legal recognition (Crespo Solana, 2006:180). In addition these maroons either boschnegersas they were known after their recognitiontried to create an identity contrary to the European planters, even trying to identify the term boschneger with Creole.
Grades
1-Salt was used in the Netherlands for the herring industry and therefore it was a first-rate resource, so it became a monopoly of the company.
2-His senior officials signed their documents as heerden IX by the number of rulers of the company and at times they became the most powerful men in the Dutch state (Crespo Solana, 2006:48).
3-The Hispanic Monarchy managed to expel them from the Amazon area in 1625.
4-For the sale of different products from the East or from the metropolis in local American or foreign markets.
5-Curaçao will be an island converted into a warehouse for products for re-export and smuggling with the Caribbean territories.
6-The South American colonies became monocultures, especially sugar (although there was also production of cotton, tobacco, indigo, rubber and dye wood), to respond to the demand of European markets. “In the case of the Caribbean plantations, in Suriname, and even in some enclaves of the small Antilles, where the Republic practiced extensive agriculture, its economic policy was certainly mercantilist… The Amsterdam market needed to attract a large quantity of products ” (Crespo Solana, 2006:57).
7- In fact it can be said that “Dutch economic power was founded (and had been founded even during its Gouden Eeuw) on the arbitrary application of capitalist claims (based on the perfection of credit and transport strategies) but imposed, in many cases by force , about archaic, if not feudal, power structures of production and power relations.” (Cespo Solana, 2006:143).
8-Most were originally from the groups of Jews established in Amsterdam who were mainly originally from the territories of the Hispanic Monarchy (especially Lisbon and Antwerp) or directly Jewish-Portuguese who migrated from the Brazilian area to the Dutch settlement
Bibliography
–The Atlantic World: America and the Netherlands. (http://frontiers.loc.gov/intldl/awkbhtml/)
-CRESPO SOLONA, Ana (2006) America from another border. Dutch Guiana (Suriname):1680-1795Madrid, Higher Council for Scientific Research.
-Israel, Jonathan I. (1997): The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic world, 1606-1661Madrid, Editorial Nerea,
– Shorto, Russell (2011): Manhattan. secret history of new york Barcelona, Duomo Editions.