Dutch Begin Asian Exploration

In 1595, a small fleet of four ships set sail from the Dutch Republic for the East Indies, the first Dutch voyage to Asia by the sea route around Africa. Although the expedition was commercially disappointing and costly in lives, it showed Dutch merchants that they could reach the spice markets directly, without relying on Portuguese or other intermediaries. That realization helped launch a wave of Dutch voyages and, within a few years, the creation of the Dutch East India Company, one of the most powerful trading enterprises in history.

The background lay in Europe's hunger for Asian spices such as pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and mace. For much of the sixteenth century, Portugal dominated the sea route to Asia, and Lisbon served as the main distribution point for spices bound for northern Europe. Dutch merchants had long taken part in that trade as carriers and distributors. But the Dutch were in the midst of a prolonged revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule, and after Spain and Portugal were united under one crown in 1580, access to Lisbon became increasingly restricted. Seeking another way to obtain the goods, Amsterdam merchants formed a trading venture known as the Compagnie van Verre, or "Company of Far Lands."

The expedition was commanded by Cornelis de Houtman, who had spent time in Lisbon and gathered information on Portuguese routes, and it carried the knowledge of navigational charts and sailing directions that Dutch cartographers and travelers had begun to publish. The fleet left the Netherlands in April 1595 and reached the Indonesian island of Java, notably the port of Banten, in 1596. The voyage was troubled from the start. Disease, especially scurvy, killed a large share of the crew, and tensions grew among the commanders. In Asia, the Dutch also quarreled with local rulers and traders, and some violent clashes occurred. The survivors returned in 1597 with a modest cargo of spices, enough to roughly cover costs but not to make a great profit.

Even so, the voyage proved that the route was practicable, and its reports of Asian markets encouraged competitors. Several rival companies sprang up in Dutch cities and sent their own fleets over the following years. Their competition drove up prices in Asia and cut profits at home, which led the Dutch government to push for consolidation. In 1602 the States General granted a charter to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC, giving it a monopoly on Dutch trade east of the Cape of Good Hope.

The VOC became a model of the joint-stock company, able to wage war, make treaties, and found colonies. Over the following centuries it built a trading network across the Indian Ocean and Indonesia, and its legacy, both commercial and colonial, shaped the history of the region for generations.