The Seizure of the Sta. Catarina off Singapore: Dutch Freebooting, the Portuguese Empire and Intra-Asian Trade at the Dawn of the Seventeenth Century (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Early Modern History, 2013
This article examines the transition of the Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) from a policy of self-defense into its full espousal of large-scale privateering and plundering. I argue that this shift was driven by both economic and political factors, and can be traced to the very formation of the Company as a unified trading venture. The taking of prizes became a cornerstone not only of the economic fortunes of the company, but the establishment of the Dutch colonial empire in Asia. Of particular interest is not only the instructions emanating from the company directors and the Dutch government in the metropolis, but especially the implementation and adaptation of these directives on the ground. It is this local context that adds a crucial dimension to interpretations of the eager espousal of maritime violence by the VOC and its agents in Asian waters.
Dutch Attacks against Portuguese Shipping in Asia (1600–1625)
Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis, 2019
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.
Luso-Johor-Dutch Relations in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, c. 1600-1623
Itinerario, 2004
The study of the early European colonial presence in Asia has been stimulated in recent years by a series of excellent works. These have been both of general and specialist nature, written not only by historians, but also by political scientists as well as specialists of international relations. The truly excellent study published in 2002 by Edward Keene, can be taken as a point in case. Central to his revisitation of seventeenth-century treaties of the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) with the Emperor of Kandy, is the notion of divided sovereignty expounded by Hugo Grotius around 1600-1610. It was against the backdrop of such concepts of divided sovereignty that the VOC could ultimately conclude its complex web of treaty relationships that broadly characterise the Dutch colonial empire in the East Indies up the advent of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. There is some legitimacy in contending that Keene's postulations effectively rework and reinterpret, at the...
Brooklyn journal of international law, 2006
of Law. I would like to thank the organizers and participants of the War and Trade Symposium for a rich and enjoyable experience. The work and friendship of many of the participants have over the years served as a great inspiration and support. I would also like to thank the remarkable group of Grotius scholars who welcomed me in their midst and, in the course of the workshop on Piracy, Property, Punishment-Hugo Grotius and De lure Praedae, held at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) in June 2005, introduced me to a new multidisciplinary Grotius. Special thanks, however, go to Dan Danielsen for his careful and generous reading of an early draft of this article, but above all for his unflagging encouragement and friendship on the journey. 1. Another form of international relations that intersects with the first two in a number of complicated ways and is perhaps equally pervasive is that of religious or spiritual propagation. The exploration of this third leg of the international relations stool however, is beyond the scope of this article. 8. The text, which bears no title in the manuscript, was named De lure Praedae Commentarius [Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty] by its first editor. It is interesting to note, however, that in his correspondence, Grotius always referred to this early work as De rebus Indicis [On Indian Matters], which tends to hint at its close connection to Francisco de Vitoria's earlier work De Indis Noviter Inventis [On the Indians Lately Discovered], commonly referred to as De Indis. FRANCISCUS DE VITORIA, DE INDIS ET DE lVRE BELLI RELECTIONES (Ernest Nys ed., John Pawley Bate trans., William S. Hein & Co. 1995) (1557), in THE CLASSICS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (James Brown Scott ed., 1995). The edition relied upon spells the author's last name as "Victoria," however, because he is commonly referred to as "Vitoria," all citations will be to Vitoria. 9. The Dutch East India Company, known by its Dutch acronym "VOC," was incorporated on March 20, 1602 by the States-General of the United Provinces. The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie was created by the union of six small companies, usually referred to as the pre-companies. Between them, these pre-companies-of which the Amsterdam and Zeeland-based companies were by far the most significant-had commissioned a total of sixty-five merchant vessels to sail to the East Indies between 1595 and 1602. For a concise summary of the history of the foundation and complex structure of the VOC, see F.S. Gaastra, Foundation of the VOC-The Charter, http://www.tanap. net/contentlvoc/organization/organization_found.htm. The fleet involved in the taking of the Santa Catarina was owned and managed by the Amsterdam-based pre-company, the Gede Amsterdamse Oostindische Compagnie when it set sail from the United Provinces. By the time of the capture, however, which took place on February 25, 1603, the Gede Amsterdamse Oostindische Compagnie had been subsumed under the VOC. Id. 10. 1 GROTIUS, supra note 2, at 30. 11. "At the time, this was equivalent to one half of the paid-in capital of the Netherlands' United East India Company (VOC), established in 1602, and more than double that of its English counterpart, the Honorable East India Company (EIC), founded in 1600."
Journal of Nusantara Studies (JONUS), 2018
This paper attempts to examine the development of the Zheng family's trading activities in the Malay Archipelago, especially during the time of Zheng Chenggong, when the family had to compete with the Dutch in the Straits of Malacca. For this purpose, the qualitative analytical approaches are employed with reference to the primary sources of the Western and Chinese travellers during the 17th century, namely, Willem Ysbrandsz Bontekoe and George Hughes, apart from the gazettes annotated by Li Jinming and Liao Da Ke. In addition, secondary sources, such as the books, monographs, articles and journals written by some distinguished scholars in the field of international maritime research have been studied. The works of Patrizia Carioti, Leonard Blusse, Meilink-Roelofsz and Xing Hang, among others, have also been investigated for their critical views and arguments. In sum, this study aims to show that trade conflicts and competition between the Zheng family and the Dutch in the 17th century have impacted particularly the Chinese traders in the Malay Archipelago. This is because both of these powers are seen trying to assume the role which had hitherto been played by these Chinese merchants as a strong competitor in the marine trade in the east and southeast of the Malay Archipelago. In this regard, discussions on this topic would contribute to a better understanding of the big powers competing in the region to dominate the Straits of Malacca. Additionally, this study sets to prove that private trading activities in the Malay Archipelago which flourished during the 17th century was built and developed by the Zheng family from Taiwan and not merely attributed to the Chinese traders from China.
Negotiating a New Order in the Straits of Malacca (1500-1700)
2014
The Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511 was a watershed moment, revolutionising the history of the Straits region. Its impact and the local response, as well as the arrival of northern Europeans at the turn of the 16th into the 17th centuries, breaking into the Portuguese trade monopoly, are examined and analysed. War was the catalyst for change. The conquest of Malacca in 1641 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was another significant moment in the history of the region and a continuation of the European presence and influence.