Dutch West India Company records
Item
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Country
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US
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Language of name of institution
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eng
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Contact information: postal address
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1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
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Contact information: phone number
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001 (215) 732-6200
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Contact information: email
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chutto@hsp.org (Director of Archives)
ssmith@hsp.org (Director of Research Services)
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Reference number
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0183
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (official language of the state)
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Dutch West India Company records
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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West-Indische Compagnie (WIC)
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Date note
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17th century/18th century
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Language(s)
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dut
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eng
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Extent
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0.3 linear metres (3 boxes and 1 file)
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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This collection comprises minutes, legal documents, letters, resolutions, agreements, instructions to shipmasters, and other business records of the Dutch West India Company on ventures in South Africa, Brazil, and other parts of the world. Among these records are letters of Governor Peter Stuyvesant (1612-1672) regarding the early settlement of Jews in New Amsterdam.
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Archival history
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These papers are part of a lot sold at auction in Amsterdam in 1867, known as the Bontemantel papers, because most of the papers are in the handwriting of Hans Bontemantel (1613-1688), one of the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber. The other portion of the collection is now in the possession of the New York Public Library.
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(source: Historical Society of Pennsylvania online catalogue)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The West-Indische Compagnie (WIC), the Dutch West India Company, was founded in 1621 mainly to carry on economic warfare against Spain and Portugal by striking at their colonies in the West Indies and South America and on the west coast of Africa.
A board of 19 members (the Heerem XIX) governed the WIC, which had five offices (Kamers) corresponding to the various regions of the Netherlands. Having the monopoly of trade with the Americas, Africa, and the Atlantic regions between them, the WIC was militarily and financially supported by the States General (the Dutch national assembly).
It reached its zenith during the administration of Count John Maurice (1636-44) with the conquest of the northeastern region of Brazil and the foundation of New Holland, which ended up capitulating to the Portuguese in 1654. Between 1634 and 1648, the WIC established several colonies in the West Indies and Guyana, including Aruba, Curaçao, and Saint Martin, but later lost many of them to the French. New Netherland, the Dutch colony in North America, became a province of the WIC in 1623 and remained so until 1667, when it was ceded to the English.
The loss of Brazil to the Portuguese and later of other colonies to the French and the English reflected the decline of the WIC. The Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars also threatened its influence on the west coast of Africa. Deeper in debt, the WIC was dissolved in 1674 and, in the same year, created a new company, the Tweede West-Indische Compagnie, which lasted until 1794.
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(source: Britannica Encyclopedia)
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2023
