Dutch colonization of the Americas
Many of the Dutch settlements were lost or abandoned by the end of the 17th century, but the Netherlands managed to retain possession of Suriname until it gained independence in 1975.
In 1602, the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands chartered a young and eager Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or "VOC") with the mission of exploring North America's rivers and bays for a direct passage through to the Indies.
On March 27, 1614, the States General would move away from traditional monopolistic endeavors and take a new and freer approach to exploration and commercial development of the New World; the issuance of the General Charter for Those who Discover Any New Passages, Havens, Countries, or Places stated that "the said undertaking to be laudable, honorable, and serviceable for the prosperity of the United Provinces and wishing that the experiment be free and open to all and every of the inhabitants of this country, have invited and do hereby invite all and every of the inhabitants of the United Netherlands to the aforesaid search.
Upon his return to Amsterdam in 1614, Block compiled a map, and applied the name 'New Netherland' for the first time to the area between English Virginia and French Canada, where he was later granted exclusive trading rights by the Dutch government.
After some early trading expeditions, the first Dutch settlement in the Americas was founded in 1615: Fort Nassau, on Castle Island along the Hudson, near present-day Albany.
In the Treaty of Hartford, the border of New Netherland was retracted to western Connecticut and by 1653, the English had overtaken the Dutch trading post.
This conflict ended with the Treaty of Breda, which stipulated that the Dutch give up their claim to New Netherland in exchange for Suriname.
However, Aernoutsz's appointed administrator, John Rhoades, quickly lost control of the territory after Aernoutsz himself left for Curaçao to seek out new settlers, and with effective control of Acadia remaining in the hands of France, Dutch sovereignty existed only on paper until the Netherlands surrendered their claim in the Treaties of Nijmegen.
Dutch colonization in the Caribbean started in 1634 on St. Croix and Tobago (1628), followed in 1631 with settlements on Tortuga (now Île Tortue) and Sint Maarten.
The Dutch established a settlement on Tortola (Ter Tholen) before 1640 and later on Anegada, Saint Thomas (Sint-Thomas), and Virgin Gorda.
On 26 January 1654, the Dutch Republic surrendered and signed a capitulation returning control of all the northeastern Brazil colony to the Portuguese.
Under threat of an occupation of Lisbon and a reoccupation of northeastern Brazil, the Portuguese, already involved in a war against Spain, acceded to the Dutch demand.
However, the new Dutch political leader Johan de Witt deemed commerce more important than territory, and saw to it that New Holland was sold back to Portugal on August 6, 1661, through the Treaty of the Hague.
[7] After the devastation caused by World War II, the Dutch government stimulated emigration to Australia, Brazil, and Canada.
A group of approximately 5000 migrants from the province of North Brabant arrived in Brazil, establishing their first colony at the farm of Fazenda Ribeirão in the state of São Paulo.
After a referendum in 1991 where 98% of the population voted in favor of political autonomy for the area, Holambra gained city status in January 1993.
In 1643, Brouwer died before effecting the conquest of the Chiloé Archipelago; his lieutenant Elias Herckmans succeeded in capturing the ruins of the city, which he refortified and named Brouwershaven.
Under the so-called "Chilean General Inspector of Colonization and Immigration", a dozen Dutch families settled between 1895 and 1897 in Chiloé, particularly in Mechaico, Huillinco and Chacao.
[12] In the early twentieth century, there arrived in Chile a large group of Dutch people from South Africa, which had been established where they worked mainly in construction of the railway.
On June 5, arrived by train to their final destination, the city of Pitrufquén, located south of Temuco, near the hamlet of Donguil.
The Dutch traded with the Indian peoples and, as in Suriname, established sugar plantations worked by African slaves.
On July 31, 1667, under the Treaty of Breda the Dutch offered New Netherland (including New Amsterdam, modern-day New York City) in exchange for their sugar factories on the coast of Suriname.
The Netherlands abolished slavery in 1863 and later imported indentured labor from the British Raj and the Dutch East Indies to keep the economy going.
