Dutch Empire

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Dutch Empire

Flag
An anachronous map of the Dutch colonial Empire. Light green: territories
administered by or originating from territories administered by the Dutch East
India Company; dark green the Dutch West India Company.
An anachronous map of the Dutch colonial Empire. Light green: territories
administered by or originating from territories administered by the Dutch East
India Company; dark green the Dutch West India Company.
The Dutch Empire (Dutch: het koloniale rijk van Nederland) comprised the
overseas territories controlled by the Dutch Republic and, later, the modern
Netherlands from the 17th century to the mid-1950s. The Dutch followed
Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire. For this, they
were aided by their skills in shipping and trade and the surge of nationalism
accompanying the struggle for independence from Spain. Before and later
alongside the British, the Dutch initially built up colonial possessions on the basis
of indirect state capitalist corporate colonialism, via the Dutch East and West
India Companies. Dutch exploratory voyages such as those led by Willem
Barentsz, Henry Hudson and Abel Tasman revealed vast new territories to
Europeans, particularly in the Arctic Sea, North America, in the Pacific, Australia,
and New Zealand.

With Dutch naval power rising rapidly as a major force from the late 16th
century, the Netherlands dominated global commerce during the second half of
the 17th century during a cultural flowering known as the Dutch Golden Age. The
Netherlands lost many of its colonial possessions, as well as its global power
status, to the British when the metropole fell to French armies during the
Revolutionary Wars. The restored portions of the Dutch Empire, notably the
Dutch East Indies and Suriname, remained under Dutch control until the decline
of European imperialism following World War II. Since the 1950s, the Netherlands
has been organized as constituent countries composing the Kingdom of the
Netherlands. As of October 10, 2010, the countries within the kingdom are the
Netherlands proper, Aruba, Curaao, and Sint Maarten.