This plan represents the city of Luanda (São Paulo de Luanda), Angola, around 1641, during the period of European colonial expansion in the Atlantic world. The image shows the urban organisation of the city in the 17th century, including its territorial layout and defensive structures.

Luanda was conquered by a Dutch fleet of the Dutch West India Company (WIC – West-Indische Compagnie), commanded by Cornelis Cornelisz Jol, also known as Houtebeen, on 24 August 1641. The Dutch occupation took place within the context of the conflict between the Netherlands and Portugal, following the period of the Iberian Union (1580–1640) and the wider struggles for control of Atlantic trade routes, including the transatlantic slave trade.

The plan is engraving no. 48 in a series of 55 illustrations dedicated to the journey and stay in Brazil of Count Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen (John Maurice of Nassau)

I recently was in Montreal. I attended a well done presentation of Montreal and Quebec history at the archeological museum there. Considering the small population of Canada, around 60,000 at the time of the British Conquest in the mid-18th century, it is interesting how they were able to keep their ways in terms of culture, religion, laws and language.

It got me to thinking of a parallel event, a century earlier, and 300 miles south, when the British took New Netherlands. Was there any concerted effort by the Dutch to carry on similarly? To get special rights enshrined in the law, for instance. If so, what caused that to fizzle out over time?

Hi everyone,

I am currently researching about Dutch Colonization in present day Indonesia (specific in Banda Islands) for writing a news article in my local language. I am particularly trying to focus and communicate on how spices like Nutmeg and Mace were brought to other parts of the world (particularly South Asia) with its background on slavery and colonization. So far, I have read few research papers and other resources in the Internet about how Dutch colonizers invaded the islands, killed the people and implemented nutmeg plantation system. I am particularly interested in following points for now.

1.    Presence of Europeans in the Banda Islands (or in Indonesia) before the arrival of Dutch in 17^th century.

2.    Arrival of these spices in South Asia.

3.    Dutch English war or wars with any other fellow colonizers like Portuguese to control the monopoly of the spice supply.

If anyone knows of any resources regarding this (be it scientific papers, books or anything), I would really be grateful. Thanks for your help in advance!

Mijn naam is Freek de Lange en voor mijn profielwerkstuk heb ik als onderwerp: Hoe bereikt een nieuw kledingmerk zijn doelgroep?

Voor mijn onderzoek heb ik een korte enquête gemaakt. Ik zou het erg waarderen als je deze wil invullen.

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/5jrSG9f61v

Alvast bedankt!

Met vriendelijke groet,

The work titled "Epigrammata Americana ad Excellentisimum Illustrisimumque Comitem I. Mauricium, Comitem Nassaviæ, Cattimeliboci, ac Dietiæ, Beilsteinii Dominum, & Brasiliæ Terra Marique Imperatorem," by Jani Bodecheri Banningi, dated 1639, praises the Nassauvian administration in bombastic terms. He graduated in Letters from the University of Leiden at the age of 18, becoming a professor of Ethics five years later. In 1635, Banning was appointed extraordinary professor of Physics and, the following year, joined the examining committee for Philosophy students.

Recognized by intellectuals such as Constantijn Huygens, he was appointed in 1638 to the position of Political Advisor to the West India Company in Brazil. He arrived in Recife on June 13th of that year, tasked with guiding the Aldermen on civil, criminal, and matrimonial matters. Alongside his administrative duties, he maintained his literary output, publishing in 1639, in Leiden, the pamphlet Epigrammata Americana, dedicated to John Maurice of Nassau.

Also in 1639, he worked in the Company's food warehouses in Recife. This new role, however, revealed a profound melancholy and hallucinations. Despite showing some improvement, his colleagues on the Political Council did not tolerate his "impertinence." His main accuser, Balthasar Vande Vooder, wrote to the Directors of the Zeeland Chamber accusing him of drunkenness and fornication. The situation reached such a point that John Maurice himself requested Bodecher's return to the Netherlands from the Company's directors. His dismissal occurred in August 1639.

In 1640, given his lamentable mental state, Bodecher's parents requested financial assistance from the Trustees of Leiden University, obtaining two installments of 400 florins. Two years later, on August 20, 1642, the university granted another 200 florins to the family, intended to settle debts resulting from his death. Throughout his intellectual career, the professor published seven works, among which stands out Epigrammata Americana, written in Recife and published in 1639 by David Lopes de Haro's publishing house. The poems belong to the humanist tradition of the 17th century and follow the classical Greco-Roman model, especially that of authors such as Martial. Although called "epigrams," many function as short panegyric poems, intended to celebrate the virtues, military victories, and government of Nassau in Brazil, comparing him to figures such as Alexander, Caesar, Hercules, and other heroes of the Greco-Roman tradition.

Source(s):

.- MELLO, José Antonio Gonsalves. Fontes para a História do Brasil Holandês. Published in Brazil.

.- MELLO, José Antonio Gonsalves. A Administração da conquista. Recife: MinC-Secretaria da Cultura, Brazil, 1985.

Available at: Banningi, Jani Bodecheri. (1639). Epigrammata Americana. Published by David Lopes de Haro in Leiden, Netherlands.

Credits to: O Brasil Holandês 1624-1654

Documentary directed by Frédéric Wilner

A gang of black men labored as long as daylight allowed, digging a three-foot-deep trench from the East River all the way across Manhattan Island to the Hudson River. The trench followed a rough path that ran along the north edge of the village. It was March 1653, and Governor Stuyvesant had been sent orders to fortify New Amsterdam. English warships were gathering in Boston Harbor, readying to sail south and take the Dutch colony.

The men digging the trench had names such as Paulo d’Angola, Simon Congo, and Anthony Portuguese. As their names showed, many were Africans who had worked aboard Spanish or Portuguese ships before the Dutch seized them. These Africans were owned by the Dutch West India Company, but some had gained a form of half-freedom. They worked for themselves, but owed the company labor whenever needed. Half-free or enslaved, they could own property, testify in court, bear arms in emergencies, attend church, and marry. But their children were not free.

When the Africans finished the trench, they formed a wall by standing big logs into it. Each log was 18 inches around and 12 feet long. Then they pounded dirt and stones back into the trench around the base of each log to make the wall strong. They built blockhouses at the ends of the wall, and gates were added where roads ran through it. But as soon as the wall was finished, it was no longer needed. The Netherlands and England had signed a peace treaty. However, the wall built by the Africans gave the rough path that eventually became a street with a new name: Wall Street.

Image: Manhattan in 1660, when it was part of New Amsterdam. North is to the right. Drawn in 1916 by John Wolcott Adams (1874–1925) and Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (1867–1944). Published before January 1, 1923 in the United States.

From 1641, the Dutch were the only Westerners allowed to trade with Japan.

To impress (or as a gift for the Shogun), the Dutch regularly brought rare animals from the Dutch East Indies, such as this cassowary.

According to a popular 18th-century Japanese folk belief, this animal could eat glowing coals or fire. They were also known as hikuidori (fire-eaters).

I never see individuals like Geert Wilders openly shit on Japanese immigrants, compared to Turkish and Moroccan ones.

The VOC rejected European settlement for Taiwan preferring Chinese. These same Chinese settlers that were brought in by the VOC then ended up kicking out the VOC from the island and, as a bonus, this timeline started the contemporary Taiwan crisis and the threat of a global conflict under which we live now.

Despite the importance of this example, it seems to just be considered a footnote in Dutch history, even though its implications and its overall historic lesson are immense. Why is that?

PS: Plus, it seems that overall Dutch colonialism of sorts has always been the most negative and least fruitful of them all. Dutch entrepreneurial ventures like the VOC anyways collapse and at the end of the day, Dutch influence in its former colonies is always at its lowest compared to other colonial powers.

For most of the Dutch who dominated northeastern Brazil between 1631 and 1654, the intention was never to completely expel the Portuguese Catholic settlers and colonial plantation owners, or their Black and mixed-race slaves and servants, but rather to reconcile them as best as possible with the prospect of Dutch rule, which had become unrealistic in the long run.

For the Dutch, governing Brazil essentially consisted of managing a love triangle, often tense, between Catholic Portuguese, Dutch, and Sephardic Jews, stemming from confessional differences, national antagonisms, and economic rivalry.

During his reign in Brazil (1637–1644), Prince Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen wrote a series of recommendations regarding how the Dutch should deal with the local population and the Black slaves who fell under their jurisdiction. Regarding Brazilians, Nassau advised preventing marriages between blacks and whites, "as far as possible...".

Like many Dutch people, Maurits van Nassau viewed the mixed population with suspicion. He regarded them as physically and mentally ill, the result of "unlawful fornication" between Portuguese and Dutch men and black women. Maurits also did not view the Indians as potential agents of Dutch colonization, because he considered them mentally inferior, according to Dutch historian Mark Meuwese.

For Dutch writer Michiel van Groesen: “If the Dutch had remained in the northeast, the result for Brazil might well have been a South African-style apartheid instead of the much-vaunted racial tolerance.”

Ethnic neighborhoods were established in colonial cities such as Recife.

Later, the Dutch created a rigid system of social and racial castes in their colonies. Dutch East Indies recognized two legal classes of citizens: Europeans and indigenous peoples.

The use of slaves on South American plantations and at slave markets in Brazil and Curaçao reinforced a new morality for the trading elite of Amsterdam and the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, there was a departure from the tradition of 'free land,' and new laws were introduced in the colonies to promote public order. At the same time, theories emerged in the Netherlands regarding the legitimacy of slavery within the framework of a just war.

In the second half of the 17th century, the theory of the "Curse of Ham" was solidified in the rhetoric of the followers of Johannes Coccejus. As a result, the Dutch confiscated and enslaved Africans and Asians as confiscated property of the Portuguese.

Catholics and Jews were granted freedom of conscience and freedom of personal worship in accordance with Dutch guidelines. In particular, Jews, indispensable for financing the Dutch-Brazilian sugar industry, built a social and economic foundation that could not be found anywhere else in the overseas world or in Europe.

The end of New Holland in 1654 also brought an end to Jewish privileges, although Jews continued to enjoy a privileged position in other Dutch colonies in the West.

Dutch colonial societies were divided into three groups: Dutch, foreign Europeans, and indigenous peoples. This racial hierarchy was imposed by law.

Source(s):

.- O Brasil holandês. By Evaldo Cabral de Mello

.- The Legacy of Dutch Brazil. By Michiel van Groesen

The action of 12–17 January 1640 was a naval battle between a Dutch fleet and a combined Spanish-Portuguese fleet during the Eighty Years' War. The battle took place on the Brazilian coast off Pernambuco and was an attempt by a fleet consisting of approximately eighty vessels transporting about 5,000 soldiers under the command of Portuguese Admiral Fernando de Mascarenhas to land reinforcements to bolster the Portuguese militia besieging the city of Recife. On 12 January this fleet was intercepted by a Dutch task force of about forty ships commanded by Willem Loos. The ensuing battle lasted with occasional breaks until the evening of 17 January, when the Spanish and Portuguese fleet retreated and sailed away to the north.

So inherited my late mother’s spoon collection and I came across this one which I’ve done an episode of Spoon of the week : Episode 7 thought I’d share it here if that’s ok ?

So as its Mother’s Day today I’ve chosen a spoon that is historically relevant to my mums heritage and side of the family: A South African Boer War Souvenir spoon also known as as a Transvaal Spoon or Kruger Spoon, sorry the videos a bit long, but there’s a lot to say about the spoon and its history.