VOC forces retake Negombo

After a prolonged siege, Dutch forces captured Malacca from Portugal with local allies. The conquest shifted control of a major port and strait, but Malay and regional powers remained central actors...

The two states signed a truce intended to suspend conflict, though fighting continued in several colonial theaters. The agreement illustrates how European diplomacy treated overseas territories as...

A WIC fleet captured Luanda, with support from Queen Njinga’s forces and the Kingdom of Kongo in the wider conflict against Portugal. Dutch occupation aimed to secure access to enslaved people for...

Abel Tasman’s VOC expedition sighted the South Island. Māori had long inhabited and named these lands; describing the sighting as “discovery” centers European records and obscures Indigenous knowledge...

Tasman’s ships anchored in the bay of Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri. On the evening of December 18, Māori waka approached the unfamiliar ships. The encounter unfolded between communities with different...

Portuguese-Brazilian forces defeated Dutch troops at Mount Tabocas, an early turning point in the Pernambuco uprising. The resistance joined local interests against Dutch rule, whose plantation...

Pieter Stuyvesant arrived to govern New Netherland. Dutch rule was layered over Lenape and other Indigenous homelands and relied on unequal trade, land pressure, and military power. The colony also...

Portuguese-Brazilian forces defeated the Dutch in a major battle near Recife. The coalition included people of African and Indigenous descent alongside Portuguese settlers. Their victory challenged...

A Portuguese fleet from Brazil forced the Dutch to surrender Luanda. The Dutch occupation had been tied to the Atlantic slave trade and the supply of enslaved Africans to Brazil. African polities...

Portuguese-Brazilian forces defeated the WIC again at Guararapes. The battle weakened Dutch control inland and helped sustain the uprising. African and Indigenous participants were central military...