- Under the name Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie (VOC), the Dutch East India Company was founded about 1602 CE.
- The Dutch established their first facility at Masulipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. They also created commercial terminals in Gujarat (Surat, Broach, Cambay, and Ahmedabad), Kerala (Cochin), Bengal (Chinsurah), Bihar (Patna), and Uttar Pradesh (Agra).
- Their major base in India was Pulicat (Tamil Nadu), which was subsequently superseded by Nagapattinam.
- They defeated the Portuguese in the 17th century and became the most powerful force in European commerce in the East.
- They expelled the Portuguese out of the Malay straits and the Indonesian islands and thwarted English attempts to settle there in 1623.
Anglo-Dutch Rivalry
- The English were also gaining importance in the Eastern trade at this time, posing a severe threat to the Dutch economic interests.
- Commercial competition quickly devolved into bloodshed.
- After years of fighting, both parties reached an agreement in 1667, in which the British promised to relinquish all claims to Indonesia and the Dutch agreed to leave India to focus on their more successful commerce in Indonesia.
- They had a monopoly on the black pepper and spice trade. Silk, cotton, indigo, rice, and opium were the most significant Indian goods sold by the Dutch.
- Also, the Anglo-Dutch competition lasted around seven years, during which time the Dutch lost one by one their colonies to the British until the Dutch were eventually beaten by the English in the Battle of Bedara in c. 1759
Decline of Dutch in India
- The English retaliation ended in the Dutch being defeated in the Battle of Hooghly (November 1759), thereby ending Dutch ambitions in India.
- The Dutch were not interested in establishing an empire in India; their main focus was trade.
- In any event, their major economic interest was in the Indonesian Spice Islands, from which they made a large profit.
