Dutch East India Company Case Study

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Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie,VOC) traders, under the command of Jan van Riebeeck, were the first people to establish a European colony (initially not constructed to become a colony)in South Africa. The Cape settlement was built by the Dutch in 1652 as a re-supply point and way-station for Dutch East India Company vessels on their way back and forth between the Netherlands and Batavia (Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies. These sea expeditions were implemented to further expand the Dutch economy by creating a trade route with the East with regards to spice, silk, bullion, etc. The support station gradually became a settler community, the forebears of the Afrikaners, a European ethnic group who are greatly involved in a South Africa's history. The American War of Independence (1775-1783) drew the French and the Dutch on to the side of the American colonies (due to their dislike of the British). The Cape became a strategically important location as a supply station, as it was used in breaking the British blockade of the United States. French guns were shipped on VOC vessels, via the Cape to St Eustacius in the Caribbean and from there on American vessels to the rebel colonies …show more content…

At the Cape the Dutch, fired on by liberal ("Jacobin") ideas were in revolt against the VOC's maladministration and we're defying their "masters".The British fleet was looking for new bases to supply, repair and refit its ships in transit to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific to assist in its territorial expansion of trade and conquest. The Cape of Good Hope was seen as a vital link in this global network as it was ideally situated for defensive and economical

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