How Powerful Was the Dutch East India Company?

The Dutch East India Company was likely the most successful company in world history, a trading company so large it established its own colonies managing trade throughout the Indian Ocean for nearly 200 years, so just how was it established, how did it work, and how did it fall?

MUSIC:
"All Men on Deck" by Bonnie Grace*
"On A Hunt" by Philip Ayer*

*via EpidemicSound

👕 MERCH!

📖 SOURCES:
*Just because I have sources doesn't mean my research is infallible. Though I aim for as much accuracy as I can manage, there are likely some facts I have gotten wrong.

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[KhAnubis]

Alright, I'll just get it out of the way...


*G E K O L O N I S E E R D*

[gamerplaypal]

I'm from Indonesia, and I'm currently learning about the history of my country, specifically the VOC period. The textbooks and 'Power Points' that I got were kinda confusing, and this video helped me a lot, thank you...

[LizziesLukas]

It's so powerful they actually shape Indonesia in every way possible to this day

[taniamanik]

It's funny how in Indonesian school history the VOC was never mentioned as a legitimate powerful company with factories all over the world and that they fell simply because of corruption, while in reality there were a lot of factors contnibuting to downfall.

[manghariz]

Thank you so much to create this video
I as an Indonesian find that VOC isnt that much talk about (at least internationally)
and one point VOC never conquer whole of East Indies it only conquer major city such as batavia, makassar, etc but they puppeteer alot of local kingdoms either directly or indirectly and VOC is always said as Nation filled with Nation

[maryllthemusicman]

"the only significant piece of land the dutcch managed to hold on to"
*cries in Dutch Surinam*

[eustache_dauger]

3:57 The Dutch never colonised/occupy the entirety of Borneo. Only the Southern Coast of the island.

[Tom-vkrv]

As a dutch person i can confirm this. Every dutch person who starts talking about the voc is like a highschool baseball player talking about his peak in highschool now that he is a janitor.

[paapeeraa]

I was blasting Wilhelmus van Nassouwe before watching this lol

[rubenvanbelzen]

It is often forgotten but the headquarters weren’t only in Amsterdam, but also in Middelburg, a city in the Dutch province of Zeeland(southwest of the Netherlands)

[artificialgravitas]

Great Video on an excellent part of history often overlooked despite how influential some of the developments in it have since become

[Mercilessonion]

Damn, China and Japan were driving luxury cars since a long time

[Blackdeathgaming-yvkk]

What's also very interesting to me is that the VOC at the end of the day was just there to make money. They didn't really care about actually colonizing or enforcing Dutch language and culture. This is also one of the reasons why we were one of the only ones to trade with Japan. We weren't actually "imperialistic" yet.. the only colony that was administered by the VOC that was meant for settlement was south Africa. Despite normal Dutch people settling there it was meant as a retirement settlement for VOC employees. It's only after the colonies came under direct administration of the Dutch government that we really started become the classic imperialist enforcing more Dutch culture and language into the colonies yet at the same time we began building schools and hospitals as well. One thing I'll never understand though is who thought it was a good idea to teach the Indonesians about freedom, democracy etc while they didn't have either of those. We were heavily investing in the Dutch east indies because we weren't really powerful anymore and the Dutch east indies was the only "pride" we really had left from our glory days. We were building it up to be our crown jewel like India was for the British.

[parmentier]

The Dutch have done many bad things, but also things that Indonesia now benefits from.

The Dutch were also interested in discovering and exploring new areas and documenting flora and fauna, new animal species, wildlife, historical temples and old civilisations.

The first railway lines were built in 1867 and by 1930 all major cities in Java and Sumatra were connected to the railway. This was a difficult task given the mountainous and tropical landscapes.

Construction of the Grote Post Weg in 1808. A 1000 km main road from west to east Java. Using this route, a journey from Bantam to Balambangan shortened from 14 days to four days. Small villages along this route became large cities such as Bandung, Malang and Sukabumi.

Coffee beans from Arabia and tea plants from India were brought by the Dutch to start their own plantations in the Dutch East Indies. Of course the VOC was about profit and the locals were poorly paid and treated. But nowadays Indonesia is one of the largest coffee and tea exporters in the world.

The Dutch also searched for oil in the 19th century and mapped the entire archipelago for possible oil fields. Royal Shell also originated in Indonesia and has found the first oil fields here. The former Dutch oil refineries were later taken over by Pertamina.

And don't forget the Bahasa Indonesia, the national language of Indonesia. The colonial government and under pressure from nationalist organizations wanted one language in the Dutch East Indies. For practical reasons, Malay languages ​​were investigated, because most people in the archipelago already used this as a linga franca.

In 1908, under the leadership of the Dutchman Dr. G.A.J. Haseu, the Language Committee was established. He had to investigate which Malaysian language was most suitable for the entire archipelago. Javanese was intended to be introduced as a national language, but populations from Sumatra and Sulawesi disagreed. In 1918, the Dutch East Indies-Malaysian-language, the predecessor of Bahasa Indonesia was introduced as an administrative language in the Volksraad (parliament). And in 1926 it became an official language throughout the Dutch East Indies.

[ableable]

VOC is basically a country in itself. Like, what private company can mint their own currency and wage war.

On a slightly better note, at least the VOC (and later the Dutch) didn't force us to speak Dutch, although schools which were almost exclusively reserved for foreigners and high ranking natives (kings, sultans, regents, and their families) were conducted in Dutch. When they established their colonies here and started trading, they found out that the archipelago already has a lingua franca and they just roll with it.

[aaanawaleh]

Thumbnail is decent. I guess we're going to have the British East India Company next. Great Video.

[domenicosumma]

I like that you choosed the minectafy kcoms for the gold and materials

[MyBestBuddiesForever]

Its unbelievable how could an enormous spice companies eventually fall, i feel like that's a big relief for the natives at that time.

[LeoStaley]

4:39 that sweet Bill Wurtz reference goes down smooth and is always satisfying.

[filipusandikawicaksana]

Alright, since there are way too much "gekoloniseerd" already, Imma gather the M E R D E K A squad here 😔✊