VOC officials banish Herry to Robben Island

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...

The ship Hasselt arrived with 228 enslaved people from Popo, in the Gulf of Guinea region. The voyage shows the Cape’s integration into Dutch slavery routes spanning West Africa and the Indian...

Khoikhoi groups raided settler herds, beginning a period of open conflict. The action opposed the loss of grazing land and colonial restrictions on livestock and movement. Dutch records called such...

Zacharias Wagenaer took over the Cape station as Van Riebeeck’s successor. The change in leadership came as VOC settlement and agricultural expansion increasingly constrained Khoikhoi land and...

Jan van Riebeeck left the Cape for Batavia after directing the VOC station for a decade. The settlement outlasted its founding commander and continued its expansion into Khoikhoi territory, with...

Dutch officials surrendered New Netherland to an English fleet, and New Amsterdam became New York. The transfer changed the European ruler but left Indigenous land claims and African enslavement...

The treaty ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War formalized territorial exchanges: England retained New Netherland while the Dutch retained Suriname. The agreement treated colonized territories as...