Dutch forces surrender Recife

Jan van Riebeeck came ashore at Table Bay to establish a refreshment station for VOC ships. The Cape was not empty: Khoikhoi and San communities had their own economies, territories, and political...

Dutch officials established Beverwijck beside Fort Orange, consolidating a settlement in an Indigenous region shaped by Haudenosaunee diplomacy and trade. The village’s growth depended on colonial...

The WIC granted New Amsterdam a city charter. The legal change formalized Dutch municipal authority on Lenape land and served colonial settlement and commerce. African residents, including enslaved...

Cape records state that an enslaved man named Abraham, described as a stowaway from Batavia, was given to Van Riebeeck. This dated entry makes visible the coercive labor system developing at the...

Cape records report that Autsumao (Herry) killed a cattle herder and took livestock. In a decolonial reading, this action belongs to a wider contest over grazing, livestock, and land as Dutch settlers...

Swedish forces captured the Dutch fort and renamed it Fort Trefaldighet. The conflict unfolded on Indigenous land where European powers competed for river access, trade, and settlement, often treating...

A Dutch expedition under Stuyvesant departed to retake the Swedish colony on the Delaware. The campaign sought to consolidate Dutch claims against a European rival, while the river and its surrounding...

Dutch troops captured Fort Christina, which they renamed Fort Altena, and brought New Sweden under Dutch control. This transfer between European empires furthered colonial settlement on Indigenous...

An Indigenous force attacked New Amsterdam in an episode later called the Peach War. The label and surviving accounts reflect colonial perspectives; the violence occurred amid Dutch encroachment and...

The VOC captured Colombo from the Portuguese after a long siege, extending Dutch control over Sri Lanka’s coast. The Dutch had allied with Kandy against Portugal, but the company’s takeover imposed...