Company Dutchwoman of the Western Indies

The Company Dutchwoman of the Western Indies (in Dutch West-Indische Company or WIC) was a company of Dutch merchants.

The June 3rd 1621, the Republic of the United Provinces grants to him, by a Charte, the monopoly of the trade bound for the west. The zones concerned included the West Africa (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope), and the America, including the Pacific Ocean and the oriental party of the New Guinea. The charter explicitly envisaged to put an existing term at competition between the various commercial counters. The company became the major actor of colonization Dutchwoman of America.

The WIC was organized in a way similar to the Compagnie Dutchwoman of the Eastern Indies (VOC), which laid out of the monopoly for the Asia since 1602, if it is not that the WIC could not carry out military actions without the approval of the government. The company had five offices, called rooms ( Kamers ), with Amsterdam, Middelburg, Rotterdam, Hoorn and Groningen, those of Amsterdam and Middelburg being most important. The board of directors counted 19 members, known under the name of Heeren XIX .

The company knew at the beginning a good success. Between 1620 and 1640, many colonies and counters of trade were established successfully. There were first of all the New-Country-Low, which covered in North America part of the actual positions of the Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Other establishments transfer the day in the Dutch West Indies, other islands of the the Caribbean as well as the Guyana and the Surinam. In 1630, the colony of Dutch Brazil - with for capital Mauritsstaad (Recife) - was founded on the Brazilian territories removed with the Portuguese. In Africa, the company seizes the fort protugais of Elmina on the Gold Coast (current Ghana) in 1667 and founds new counters in Angola which were during several century among the principal ones centers export of slaves.

Another of successes of the Company is the capture of a Spanish fleet charged with money, which brought back its cargo of the New World in Europe, by Piet Hein in 1628 - piracy constituted one of the acknowledged objectives of the WIC.

In America, the Fur (in north) and the Sugar (in the south), constituted large goods, while Africa provided Or, Ivoire and slaves - the majority being mainly intended to work in the plantations of the Antilles and Surinam.

However, success was blown quickly. The Portuguese took again Dutch Brazil in 1654, after a long war, and much of other counters were destroyed or fell between the hands from other colonial powers. The New-Countries-Low did not know a better fate. Rivals of the New England, they ended up being invaded by the English troops in 1664. In addition, the policy practiced by the company, which granted to the director establishments an exaggerated capacity, did not encourage the colonists to come to settle.

After being itself involved in debt during several years, the original WIC ceased its activity in 1674, and a new business was formed. The hacking was abandoned, and the activities were centred on the trade of the slaves and the management of the remaining colonies in Surinam and the Antilles.

After the Britanniques had seized Surinam during the Années 1780, the company had new problems. The government of the United Provinces, in 1791, repurchased its goodwills and placed the territories under its direct administration.

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