Dutch West India Company

 The Dutch West India Company was chartered by a group of Dutch merchants in 1621.  It was modeled on the better-known Dutch East India Company.  The trade monopoly included West Africa between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope and the New World.  Its merchants traded slaves, gold, and ivory in Africa (mostly in the Gold Coast, now Ghana).  The New World was an expansive term and meant virtually anywhere not covered by the Dutch East India Company’s monopoly.  New Amsterdam, for example, included not only present-day New York, but also Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware.  The Dutch influence in Lewes, Delaware remains vibrant to this day.  Other settlements were established in the Caribbean, Suriname, and Guyana.  In 1630, the colony of New Holland was founded in Mauritsstad (present-day Recife) in an attempt to wrest control of Brazil from Portugal.  The Portuguese regained full control over Brazil in 1654.  Manhattan Island and the Hudson River were first charted by Henry Hudson (an Englishman sailing for the Dutch) in 1609.  The Dutch West India Company controlled the area and its lucrative fur trade from 1625 through 1674, when it was finally transferred by treaty to English control.  Suriname gained its independence in 1975 and is the only Dutch-speaking country in South America.  Control of Guyana was transferred to Great Britain in 1814.  The area was renamed British Guiana and eventually gained its independence in 1966.  The Dutch possessions in the Caribbean have maintained their ties with the Netherlands.  Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao are located off the coast of Venezuela.  Aruba was granted “status aparte” in 1986, one step short of full independence.   The other two islands, along with Sint Eustatius, Saba, and Sint Maarten, comprise the Netherlands Antilles.  The Netherlands Antilles is scheduled to be dissolved on October 10, 2010, with each of the five islands acquiring a new status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  The Dutch West India Company, which started this evolution, went bankrupt and folded in 1674.