The Dutch colonial archival legacy
in an age of regime change
c.1790 - c.1810
During both the seventeenth and a large part of the eighteenth century, the
Dutch East India Company, abbreviated to VOC (Verenigde Geoctroyeerde Oost-
Indische Compagnie), built up a large network of trading-posts, fortresses and
colonial towns in an area stretching from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa
to the Nagasaki Bay in Japan and from Mokha in Yemen to Bandaneira in Eastern
Indonesia. In fact, the VOC networks are best characterized as a maritime
colonial empire. From about 1640 until about 1755, the VOC empire actually
meant the Dutch were the strongest European nation in Asia. In 1641 they had
taken the strategic Portuguese stronghold Malacca, at the same time thereby
marking the demise of the Portuguese power in Southeast Asia. Simultaneously
the Dutch were also busy attacking the Portuguese possessions in South Asia. In
the 1750s British power was growing stronger by the year, particularly in South
Asia. A turning-point in this process was the battle of Bidara in 1759, at which
the Dutch attempt to play a significant role in the economy and politics of Bengal
was thwarted. After their defeat, the Dutch withdrawal from South Asia gradually
became a reality.
GERRIT KNAAP1
Palace of Buitenzorg.
Palace of the Governor General of the Dutch East Indies in Buitenzorg (nowadays: Bogor).
View at the front side. First half 19th century. National Archive The Hague, Collection of
Maps Foreign Countries Leupe. 4.VELH, inv. no. 467
1 The author wishes to express his gratitude to Rosemary Robson-McKillop for correcting the English of this
article.
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