The discovery of the world
In the 15th century Spain and Portugal
were engaged in a race to discover the world. The Portuguese,
who explored the coast of Africa and took possession of the Azores,
the Cape Verde islands and Madeira, initially had a head start.
In 1486 the Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz reached the
Cape
of Good Hope and shortly after this Columbus ‘discovered’ the
American continent for the king of Spain (1492).
World map from 1570 by Abraham Ortelius
Clashes between
the two countries were inevitable. Because of rising tensions
they turned to the pope for a decision. The pope then divided
the world
into a Spanish part and a Portuguese part by drawing a meridian
line 480 km west of Cape Verde. Everything east of this line
was to be Portuguese and everything west of it Spanish (Inter
Caetera
Bull, 1493). Just one year later, in the Treaty of Tordesillas
(2 July 1494), this demarcation line was moved west to 1170
km from Cape Verde. As a result Brazil, which was discovered soon
after, fell to Portugal.
Of course these developments were keenly watched by other sea-faring
nations. France, England and the Netherlands also wanted to conduct
trading in the new areas and possibly to occupy them. But for the
Northern Netherlands the question became even more acute when they
rebelled against Spain and renounced the Spanish king as their
ruler (1581). Within a few years this revolution escalated into
a full-scale war.
The ships of the new Republic of the Seven United
Provinces sailed the seas with three somewhat contradictory goals:
to conduct trade, to cause damage to the enemy, and to found
colonies. It should be noted that conquests were often made in
the interests
of the first two goals and were by no means always aimed at founding
settlements.
Foundation of the first colonies
The first colonies were founded on private initiative
on the Wild Coast of South America. The colonists who engaged
in these ventures would enter into an agreement with a patroon
or
a trading company which then financed and led the enterprise.
After the foundation of the Dutch West India Company in 1621
these patroonships
continued to be established. The oldest patroonships were
located on the Wild Coast, but there were also patroonships in
the
Antilles, New Netherland and Brazil. Often these settlements
were small
and did not last for long; some patroonships had disappeared
without a trace just a few years later. After the 1650s no new
patroonships
were founded; colonies were established and managed only
by or on behalf of the Dutch West India Company. 
Sea map of the Caribbean sea, 1676 We know of patroonships established in the early times on the
Amazon, the Xingú, the Ginipape, the Essequibo, Surinam
River, the Wiapoco, in Cayenne, on the Berbice, on Tobago (New
Walcheren), on the Orinoco and in many other places. There were
settlements with more possibilities and greater stability in New
Netherland, Brazil (New Holland), Surinam, the islands of the present-day
Netherlands Antilles, and Essequibo, Demerary and Berbice. Groups
of Dutch people also settled on islands governed by other nations.
A good example is Santa Cruz, which was governed by the Danish
West India Company.
Considerable research will be needed before
it is clear which settlements were significant enough to maintain
their own population registers and before it has been fully established
how much of this information can still be found. |
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