Events relating to the dutch empire

Jan Pieterszoon Coen destroys the town of Jakarta, on the coast of Java, and rebuilds it as a Dutch trading centre under the name Batavia

The Dutch gradually exclude the Portuguese from the immensely lucrative trade in cloves from the Spice Islands (or Moluccas)

Peter Minuit purchases the island of Manhattan from local Indians and calls the place New Amsterdam

Rival Dutch, English and French colonies are established in Guiana, the northeast coast of south America

The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman attempts to land in Golden Bay, New Zealand, resulting in a clash with the Maoris

Peter Stuyvesant begins a 17-year spell as director-general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America

To protect their market, the Dutch destroy all clove trees in the Moluccas except on two islands, Amboina and Ternate

After a six-month siege, the Dutch capture Colombo from the Portuguese in Sri Lanka

Peter Stuyvesant accepts the reality of the military situation and yields New Amsterdam to the British without a shot being fired

In the treaty of Breda, England keeps New Amsterdam and New Netherland, and Holland keeps the English-held territory of Surinam

Easter Island is reached by the Dutch, beginning a spate of European discovery in the islands of the Pacific

Dutch nomads, pressing far north from Cape Town, become known as the Trekboers

Dutch Boers begin calling themselves Afrikaners, to emphasize that Africa is their native land

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