Question

What is the difference between the Dutch East Company and the Dutch West Company?

Answer 1

Explanation:

Two Dutch companies controlled much trade for the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Like modern corporations, trading companies had private investors who received charters from European governments to control trade in particular parts of the world. The companies had power to establish and control local governments in their regions. They waged war as necessary to protect their regions from native inhabitants and from other foreign powers.

Dutch East India Company

The East Indies was the European name for the islands centered on what is now Indonesia, southeast of India. They were the source of much profitable trade for European countries in the colonial period.

Dutch West India Company

In the early seventeenth century, European merchants had to sail around South America or Africa to get to India. Explorers searched for a faster route through North America to the profitable Asian markets. In 1609, English adventurer Henry Hudson (d. 1611) explored the river that bears his name, near present-day New York City, for the Dutch East India Company. Failing to find the desired Northwest Passage, Hudson instead established what would prove to be a lucrative fur trade with Native Americans.