Dutch Attacks against Portuguese Shipping in Asia (1600–1625) (original) (raw)

Historians have often mentioned the privateering activity of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) against Portuguese navigation in Asia. However, there have been almost no attempts to measure the phenomenon quantitatively. This article will present a listing as comprehensive as possible of Portuguese ships lost in Asia and on the Cape of Good Hope route as a result of Dutch attacks during the first quarter of the 17th century. Based on Dutch and Portuguese sources, this extensive sample of losses shall allow for a better knowledge of the numbers, the chronological evolution and the geographical distribution of Dutch attacks on Portuguese shipping in the period. It will be seen that the chronological and regional impact of the attacks varied, mirroring the evolution of the broader Dutch-Portuguese conflict in Asia. There was a peak in the number of Portuguese ships lost to the Dutch in the first decade of the 17th century. This was followed by a drop in the number of ships taken during a relatively quiet phase of the conflict. The short-lived alliance between the Dutch and English East India Companies brought about a new time of escalation and contributed to another period of high losses in 1620–1625. Nevertheless, it will be argued that a change in the nature of VOC privateering that took place around the same time in the Straits of Melaka was actually more important. Dutch attacks against Portuguese navigation turned then for the first time into a regular activity, taking place seasonally in accordance to a fixed routine. The data presented shall make clear the centrality of this region for Voc privateering by showing that more than one third of Portuguese losses to the Dutch identified in the period under study took place there.