March 20th

On this day - March 20th 1602 - The Dutch East India Company was founded 

The Dutch East India Company was established in 1602 when the Dutch government helped establish a company and granted it a 21-year long monopoly in Dutch spice-trade and Asian trade. The background for the monopoly was to limit price-risks for traders, mainly in the spice industry. The company was also granted the rights to build forts, maintain armies and conclude treaties with Asian rulers. The English East Indian Company had been established for the same reason two years earlier. The Dutch East India company grew into a huge and very successful firm. It grew into a multinational company (the first in the world), they sent almost a million Europeans to work in Asia and traded over 2.5 million ton Asian goods. The first of many foreign port was acquired in Jakarta in 1619. The native inhabitants in Jakarta was either driven away, killed or starved to death.

The firm went bankrupt and was dissolved in 1799, almost 200 years after it was first established.

March 4th

On this day - March 4th 1665 - England declared war against the Netherlands

In 1665 started the second anglo-dutch war which lasted until 1667. Tis was the second conflict between the two countries, and two more were yet to come. The reason for the conflict was Englands wish to end the dutch trade domination of world trade. Although England started out as the most successful ended the conflict with the Netherlands as the winner. The reason the Netherlands won this war was simply because they were in a better financial situation than England. This ment that they could continue supplying their fleet with new ships as the war dragged on, and in the end this led to their victory. In fact, the war led to increased share in the world trade for the Netherlands who could increase their world trade without fear of the English, who did not have enough ships left. In 1667 was the treaty of Breda signed between the two countries.