Page 14 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ
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Pic. 2: Flag of the Dutch East India company VOC
The VOC maintained trading posts similar to the Portuguese, in Africa, the Middle
East, South Asia, mainland South East Asia, maritime South East Asia and the Far
East. The VOC established its first Asian headquarters on Ambon Island in Indonesia
in 1610 where it tried to start the production of cloves originally from Ternate in the
Moluccas. They moved their headquarters in 1619 to Batavia – today Jakarta –
founded by Jan Pieterszoon Coen – the 4th Governor-General of the Dutch East
Indies. The Banda Islands – home of nutmeg cultivation – became the first colonial
possession of the Dutch in Asia giving them a monopoly over nutmeg production and
trade. The massacre of the indigenous population of the Islands is one of the darkest
sides of the Dutch rule in the Archipelago. In 1621, almost all of the 15,000
inhabitants of the Islands were killed and the surviving Bandanese were sent as slaves
to Batavia.
Pic. 3: Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587 – 1629), Governor-General of the Dutch East
Indies
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Similar to the Portuguese in India and China the Dutch also were not strong enough
in the beginning to alter the established trade rules in Asia and they had to find
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