Dutch Trade in the Pacific, South Africa, and Japan
Overview
Dutch Trade in the Pacific, South Africa, and Japan
Holland (also called The Netherlands) entered the world of trading and shipping relatively late in comparison to its European rivals: Spain and Portugal. Early efforts by the Dutch to establish ports and trade networks in South Africa and the Far East were met with limited success due to underfunded missions, as well as rival claims by the Portuguese and the English. The Dutch were very interested in getting trade goods from the region that they colonized. One of the qualities of the Dutch that made other regions, like China and Japan so willing to trade with them, was that the Dutch's interest in only trade matters. Contrastingly, the Dutch found unexpected success developing trade with Japan. Indeed, during Japan's seclusion, Holland became the "world's window" into a closed society.
Learning Objectives
- Examine Dutch influence and trade in the Pacific.
- Evaluate the relationship between Dutch traders and Japan during the Japanese period of isolation.
- Examine the impact and legacies of the Dutch settlement in Cape Town.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Spice Islands: nickname given by Europeans to island-nations in Indonesia
VOC: Dutch abbreviation for the Dutch East Indies Trading Company; a joint-stock company heavily involved in the Spice Trade
Spice trade: lucrative trade in exotic, “eastern” spices, such as nutmeg
Batavia: (present-day Jakarta) former capital of the Dutch East India Trading Company in the Pacific
Cape Town: 1652 settlement by the Dutch in South Africa near the Cape of Good Hope
Khoisan: a group of diverse, indigenous Africans who lived in south and southwest Africa
Boer: Dutch name for Dutch farmers who settled permanently in South Africa
archipelago: a chain of islands
Sakoku: the period of Japanese isolation during the early seventeenth to mid-nineteenth centuries
Deshima: island in Nagaski Bay off Japan's coast that was home to Dutch settlers and artists during Japan's isolation period
The Dutch in the Pacific and the Rise of the VOC
Background
In 1596, the Dutch arrived at the present-day island of Java in the South Pacific. Rich in natural resources and especially spices, the Dutch saw the Spice Islands as a market rich with economic potential. Coffee, indigo, wood, and Asiatic spices such as nutmeg were all discovered on the island. However, early Dutch settlements were under-protected. As a result, an omnipresent threat of attack from the British or Spanish existed.
At the turn of the seventeenth century, two economic-political events evolved that catapulted the Dutch into the forefront of trade in the Far East. First, rivalry expanded between European countries as wealth from colonies poured into Spanish, Portuguese, and English coffers. The second event was the sharp escalation of Dutch wealth. Described as the first capitalists, the Dutch developed a strong banking business with Amsterdam as their economic center. Pulling from their capital and investors, the Dutch strengthened their navy to fully engage in the lucrative trade with the Far East.
The VOC and the Spice Trade
In 1602, the Dutch consolidated their merchant sailors and traders to form the massive, Dutch East India Trading Company, abbreviated as VOC. The VOC served as the political, military, and commercial power for the Dutch in Southeast Asia. Through the successive years, the Dutch built forts, storage facilities, and plantations that stretched from the Spice Islands in the South Pacific, all the way to South Africa. Under the direct administration of the ruthless administrator, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the Dutch established a strong trade network with a capital at Batavia, which is present-day Jakarta. Dutch fleets were deployed to patrol the waterways and coasts surrounding the Spice Islands and other Dutch territories.
Dutch legacy towards Pacific Islanders is riddled with conflict and bloodshed. Beginning in 1621, the Dutch dispatched forces to quench resistance on the Banda Islands. Because their military technology far outpaced that of the islanders, by the end of the conflict over 15,000 indigenous peoples had been massacred by the Dutch. Survivors were forced off their lands and into a system of forced agriculture. They were required to strip their farms of all crops, growing instead spice trees such as clove and nutmeg. As these spice farms increased in size and scope, local food sources diminished, and many islanders starved.
Dutch Decline in the Pacific
For nearly two centuries, the Dutch retained a monopoly on the spice trade. Despite their efforts, though, their monopoly dwindled as spice trees were spread beyond their islands to places as far as Africa’s eastern coast.
And yet, the Dutch remained a powerful influence in Indonesia for the proceeding century. Their capital city flourished as an international trading port where Chinese ships moored, and Portuguese merchants traded in the streets. Wealth flowed into Holland’s banks, but even more striking was its status as a significant world power in political and commercial affairs. With colonies established in the Philippines and throughout the Pacific, Holland had become an empire. But even as their influence in the Pacific grew, so too did internal rivalries and threats. And Dutch eyes were turned to further expansion of their realm.
The Dutch in South Africa
Dutch exploration was not limited solely to the Pacific Islands. As with the Portuguese and English, the Dutch sought to trade with Southeast Asia. However, as trade routes to Southeast Asia were charted, the southern coast of Africa became a natural halfway stop for sailors traveling from Europe to Asia. By the sixteenth century, a port emerged on the cape of South Africa--Table Bay. For a century, Europeans sailed into this southern port, trading with local Khoisan clans who raised and herded livestock. Then, in the mid-seventeenth century, a Dutch explorer landed at Table Bay; and altered it forever.
The Founding of Cape Town
In 1652 Dutch explorer Jan van Riebeck landed three ships at Table Bay. Immediately, he began to construct a permanent settlement in the name of the VOC. His immediate goal was to negotiate fair prices for meat between the local Khoisan clans, and the Dutch sailors who stopped off at Table Bay on their way to Batavia in the Pacific. The settlement grew in size and in its Dutch population and soon took the name, Cape Town. Trading between the Khoisan and the Dutch initially prospered. Prices were regulated. The Dutch procured livestock, especially cattle. In exchange, the Dutch did not force their religious or social beliefs onto the Khoisan people. In contrast to other European colonizers who sought to spread Christianity and European social practices, the Dutch largely respected Khoisan traditions and practices. Moreover, the Dutch introduced European fruits and vegetables to the diets of people in Cape Town. Initial goodwill soon gave way to reluctant tolerance, though. And then to resentment and conflict.
Khoisan Resistance and the Emergence of the Boers
For their part, the Khoisan were uneasy about the permanent Dutch settlement at Cape Town. Within five years of the settlement's establishment, the Dutch demanded impossibly high cattle quotas. In exchange, they offered luxury goods such as beads and precious gems, but little in the way of practical goods.
Worse developments came within the first few years of the settlement. The Dutch VOC assessed the situation at Cape Town and determined that they had more soldiers than necessary. Slowly, soldiers were released from their service with the VOC and allowed to establish private farms outside of Cape Town. These Dutch farmers encroached on traditional Khoisan land. And are forever remembered by their Dutch name, Boers. (Boer means "farmer" in Dutch).
Tensions boiled over in 1659, seven years after the founding of Cape Town. United Khoisan clans attacked the Boer farms outside of Cape Town and drove the settlers back into the city, within the walls of the VOC fortress. Despite strong efforts, though, the Khoisan were unable to successfully overtake the fortress. Instead, they negotiated terms with Jan Van Riebeck, who told them in no uncertain terms, Khoisan land was now Dutch land.
Legacies of Dutch Settlement
Jan van Riebeck's settlement of Cape Town established far more than a permanent Dutch trading post. It led to the permanent establishment of Dutch men, women, and children throughout South Africa. Not only traders and artisans but also the Boers who would transform South African agrarianism. Moreover, the Dutch presence in South Africa demonstrated the growing power of the VOC to a global audience; thereby increasing rivalries in Europe.
For the Khoisan, the arrival of the Dutch was an initially beneficial relationship that turned sour in less than a decade. Their ancestral grazing lands were illegally seized; their traditional ways of farming were depleted and abused. While the 1659 conflict between the Khoisan and the Dutch saw unity between the Khoisan clans, it would not be repeated. Clannish differences prevented further unity and allowed for the Dutch, and later the English, to secure a strong foothold in South Africa.
A Window to the World: The Dutch Presence in Japan
Dutch success in both South Africa and the Pacific Islands positioned them well to explore another set of islands in the Pacific. Ones largely shrouded in secrecy--the Japanese archipelago. Although the Dutch were not the first Europeans to engage in exploration or commerce with the Japanese, they quickly won Japanese favor in the early 1600s. In contrast to Catholic European Jesuits and Franciscans who had visited Japanese shores, the Protestant Dutch remained largely focused on trade rather than converting Japanese people to Christianity. Economically progressive and more respectful of Japanese culture and beliefs, the Dutch sailors and settlements became the world's window to Japan during the period of sakoku.
The Landing of the Liefde
In 1598, a young English navigator named William Adams sailed with the Dutch fleet from Rotterdam toward China aboard the Dutch vessel, Liefde. As representatives of the VOC, the sailors would engage in trade and commerce in the Far East. Storms, disease, and skirmishes with the Portuguese and Spanish soon turned the voyage perilous. In 1600, the Liefde limped toward Japanese shores.
The landing of the Liefde marked a critical turning point in Japanese foreign relations at the time. The Period of the Warring States had recently ended with the triumphant victory of the powerful daimyo, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Under his leadership, the Japanese islands were unified for the first time in recent history. But the Tokugawa rule was militaristic, hyper-conservative, and sought to eliminate all threats--including the proselytizing Europeans who tried to convert Japanese citizens to Christianity. Tokugawa Ieyasu considered the European presence subversive and sought to remove Europeans, especially the Portuguese and Spanish, from Japan.
And yet, when the Liefde crashed ashore with William Adams and twenty Dutch sailors, the Japanese immediately provided help to the survivors. Moreover, interest arose in the "Red-haired barbarians." Tokugawa Ieyasu recognized the Dutch as different from other Europeans in two key areas. Firstly, the Dutch were capitalist traders and economically prosperous and progressive; quite possibly more than any other European nation. Secondly, they were Protestant and uninterested in preaching conversion or changing Japanese cultural values. Moreover, the Dutch possessed state-of-the-art military and naval technology. For these reasons, Tokugawa Ieyasu found ways to invite the Dutch VOC to trade in Japan on a limited scale. In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu received the title, Shogun--supreme military leader of Japan. His policies soon forced Europeans from Japan's shores with one exception--the Dutch.
Early Trading Relations
Trade between Tokugawa Japan and the Dutch VOC began in earnest in 1609 when Dutch ships consistently appeared in Japan's southern bays. Respected for their purely business interests, a special relationship developed between the Dutch and the Japanese. Dutch factories appeared in Hirado on Japan's southernmost island and ultimately replaced the Portuguese factories and workers. Some Dutch sailors settled permanently in Hirado and became subjects of fascination to Japanese artists who marveled at their red beards.
In exchange for Western military technology such as muskets and canons, the Japanese traded fine arts and porcelain products. The Dutch later sold these finely-made pieces of art for exorbitant prices in Europe. The price of Japanese-made products skyrocketed in the 1630s following the Tokugawas's enactment of sakoku-- a foreign policy that expelled foreigners and made Japan a closed society. No one could enter or leave the country's border without the Shogun's knowledge and permission. While this significantly reduced the European presence, the Shogun continued to make an exception for the Dutch. Although even they would no longer be entirely welcome within Japanese society for the next two hundred years.
The Dutch Relocate to Deshima
The Dutch maintained close connections to Japan during the sakoku. The relationship was not without problems, however. Xenophobic attitudes and anti-foreign policies escalated during the 1630s and 40s in Japan. Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Portuguese were forcefully evicted and Christians were violently persecuted. In Hirado, tension mounted between the Dutch and the Japanese. Dutch industry continued to thrive, but anti-foreign measures increased within Japan. In 1640, the Shogunate restricted Dutch freedom of movement. The same year, a Dutch merchant unthinkingly engraved "Anno 1640" just below his warehouse roof. The use of the Christian-Latin dating system was enough for the Tokugawas to relocate the Dutch. Forced from Hirado, the Dutch were relocated to a manmade island previously constructed for the Portuguese a century early--Deshima Island.
Located in Nagasaki Bay, Deshima was small. But the Dutch relocation proved enormously successful. It allowed the Japanese to enforce their isolationist policy, but also attract the attention of the world. From August to October, Dutch VOC ships unloaded cargo from around the world, and returned to Europe with Japanese lacquerware, teas, and silks. Moreover, Dutch sailors shared stories of Japan--a country cloaked in mystery to the rest of the world.
The Dutch who lived permanently at Deshima also attracted attention. They became subjects of endless fascination for Japanese artists and scholars. They served as translators, and many Dutch words slowly were integrated into Japanese. Over time, the Japanese took a more active role in learning from the Dutch at Deshima. By the early 1700s, the Japanese removed the ban on Dutch books, with the exception of religious texts. The result was a practice of "learning from the Dutch" called Rangaku." Schools and institutions emerged within Japan in which students studied Dutch concepts of anatomy, botany, chemistry, and military science. For more than a century, the VOC supplied Japan with Western knowledge and ideas. But while Japan learned much about the Western world through books, the Western world remained largely ignorant of Japan until 1853 when American, Matthew Perry, arrived in Tokyo Bay.
Attributions
Images from Wikimedia Commons
Matsuda, Matt K. Pacific Worlds. Cambridge University Press, 2012. 70; 77.
The Netherlands and You. "Japan and the Netherlands."
https://www.netherlandsandyou.nl/your-country-and-the-netherlands/japan/and-the-netherlands/dutch-japanese-relations