The States General grants the WIC its charter

A Dutch reconnaissance and landing party attempting to find a beachhead on Lontor came under fire and was pushed back. The defense demonstrates that Bandanese communities were active military...

Coen ordered a coordinated assault on several positions on Lontor. VOC troops captured strategic locations, driving defenders and residents toward the island’s interior. The campaign targeted the...

By the end of the assault, VOC forces held key lowland and coastal areas while Bandanese people retreated to the hills. Occupation did not end resistance. The seizure enabled the VOC to destroy...

VOC authorities arrested Bandanese orang kaya (community leaders) and used torture during interrogations about an alleged conspiracy. The proceedings supplied a justification for executions and...

VOC officials executed dozens of Bandanese orang kaya after coercive interrogations and a summary proceeding. Scholarly accounts commonly identify 44 people, while figures and descriptions vary across...

A Dutch West India Company (WIC) fleet seized Salvador, the capital of Portuguese Brazil. The occupation targeted a major sugar-producing colony and port in a region whose wealth depended on...

After a year-long occupation, a large Iberian expedition forced the Dutch garrison to surrender Salvador. The episode shows that Dutch colonial expansion faced organized resistance and depended on...

Piet Hein’s WIC fleet captured a Spanish silver convoy near Cuba. The prize financed the company’s Atlantic war effort. The event belongs to an imperial struggle over American silver, shipping, and...

A WIC fleet landed near Olinda and Recife, beginning a major invasion of Portuguese Brazil. Dutch plans to seize sugar wealth relied on plantation production sustained by enslaved Africans, while...

Dutch troops took Olinda after landing in Pernambuco. The seizure was part of the WIC campaign to control the region’s sugar economy and ports. Its colonial project intensified violence over land...