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De Zeventiende Eeuw. Jaargang 13 (1997)

De Zeventiende Eeuw. Jaargang 13

(1997)– [tijdschrift] Zeventiende Eeuw, De–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

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The consolidation of the Dutch overseas empire: the colonial dimension of the Peace of Munster
Peter J.A.N. Rietbergen

Introduction

It took the Seven United Provinces four years to reach an agreement on the Instruction to be given to the ambassadors who were to be sent to Munster to enter into peace negociations with Spain. This fact alone clearly shows the complexity of the issues at hand.

Anyone who is even marginally aware of the economic and political structure of the Dutch Republic, that strange, even anomalous polity which had come into existence between ca 1580 and 1640, will automatically assume that of all issues to be debated at Munster the colonial question would be among the most important. And yet, delving into the sources, at a first glance one might be induced to revise that assumption, for the colonies were mentioned only rarely and, if they were discussed at all, this was done without the amount of detail that was wasted on other issues. In this paper, I first will try to indicate how the colonial paragraphs of the Munster Instruction and subsequent peace treaty took shape. Then, of course, I will ask within what context of actual power relationships the treaty was concluded and, finally, what its significance was for the future existence of the Dutch Republic as a colonial power.

Between January 1642 and December 1645, the Instruction was agreed upon, albeit with great difficulty. Only four of the 116 articles, viz. the articles 13, 14, 15 and 16, directly or indirectly concerned the Colonial Question or, to put it in other words, trade with the Indies, both East and West. Yet, we should not take this to signify that the question was deemed of minor importance.

Already in Spring, 1642, the province of Zeeland unambiguously stated that any instruction, besides containing orders about the preservation of the True Reformed Religion, should first of all consider the need to maintain the position of the East and West India Companies.1. Zeeland, of course, was sorely frightened lest a treaty would end its profitable privateering activities and, of course, lest the lucrative Brazilian empire of its favourite enterprise, the West India Company, whould be recaptured by the Portuguese, who had recently won their independence from Spain. Consequently, in the final brief given to the representatives of Zeeland who would be part of the committee instituted by the States-General to prepare the draft-instruction for the plenipotentiaries of the Republic, the affairs of the two companies figured large indeed.

Meanwhile, however, the other provinces showed none of the eagerness, and, indeed, commitment of Zeeland. This can be explained both by a certain lack of interest in the specifics to be treated at Munster and by the dawning awareness that the negociations would not start in March 1642 at all, as first had been envisaged.

Only in Spring, 1643, the affairs of Munster once more figured prominently on the agenda of the ruling assemblies of the Dutch provinces and towns. But now, instead of beginning ex novo, the instructions which had been drafted to prepare the succesful negociations of 1608, and the unsuccesful negociations of 1632 were taken in consideration as well.

Once more, Zeeland took the lead, presenting a memorandum that stressed the importance of the colonial question.2. But surprisingly, Utrecht, too, mentioned the preservation of the two colonial companies among the four springing points that would determine whether or not the Republic was going to accept a treaty with Spain.3. The other provinces agreed to enter into negociations without, as far as the sources reveal, specifying their demands.

Due to all kinds of intrigues between Zeeland and the Stadholder Frederick Henry, the final mandate for the committee which was to draw up the Instruction did not contain any references to the colonies at all.4. But in the mean time, on June, 30, 1643, the Zutphen Quarter of the province of Guelders quite surprisingly declared that besides the three points of sovereignty, religion and regional trade, the rights of the East and West India Companies should be safeguarded as well - ‘as being two strong pillars of this State’, to quote their notes.5. Yet when, three days later, the commission of the States-General finally formulated the points to be introduced in the Instruction, only the sovereignty of the State and, consequently, of the seven provinces was made a key issue, and well up into October, the colonies were not mentioned anymore.6.

Meanwhile, the Zeeland representatives tried to find support among the other provinces to include all the topics contained in their memorandum of April 1643 into the final Instruction. Groningen, which only addressed the matters of Munster in September 1643, complied, and also demanded that the maintenance of free trade to the East and West Indies be among the major demands.

Preparing the Instruction

But by now, the preparations for Munster entered a new phase: the commission from the States-General would begin working on the Instruction by October. This work, however, would be in secret, based on a paper containing 92 items that should be somehow considered.7. A closer look at these 92 articles reveals that, by and large, they contained the very items that had been introduced in the 1609 and 1610 Twelve Years' Truce.8. However, nrs. 12 and 13 of the new Instruction concern the maintenance of the monopoly of the East and West India Companies, while nrs. 65 to 69 refer to the conservation of treaties with sundry allies, both in Europe and overseas.9.

The debates in the provincial estates being secret, we know little about what was actually said on the various topics. Yet we do know that Holland, amongst other things, decided to immediately consult the Gentlemen Seventeen and Nineteen on all topics of the Instruction.10. In its turn, Friesland decided that, even before the negociations at Munster would have formally started, the charter of the two Companies should be renewed; on top of that, it demanded that Frisia, being the province which, except for Holland, paid the largest quota to the Republic's fi-

nances, should now be allowed to also enjoy the fruits of these two companies, which after all had received, and were about to again receive their charter from the States-General.11. Groningen and Overijssel seem to have accepted the proposed articles without further comment.

In March 1644, the final concept of the Instruction was read before the meeting of the States-General. Notwithstanding the opportunities they had had to discuss the piece, the delegates were quite clamorous in their criticism of the various topics. Also, it was decided to invite the representatives of the East and West India Companies to the next meeting, in order to profit from their views of the issue of the ‘navigation and traffic on the two Indies’.12.

Because of all sorts of dissention, the new meeting on the affairs of Munster was postponed. Now, the representatives of the two Companies were asked to present their views both orally and in writing before the wording of the two real colonial articles, nrs 12 and 13 was finally decided upon.13.

The East India Company gave its reaction in a letter dated March, 23, 1644; the West India Company only responded on June, 18. Both texts were short and, one might say, to the point. Without beating around the bush, the directors of the Companies declared they were not at all desirous to effect a peace with Spain. If, however, such a peace were unavoidable, it was their wish that all their rights and priviliges should be fully maintained. The East India Company demanded that Spain should restrict its trade to the territories it still possessed, and leave all conquered regions to the Dutch colonial companies. The West India gentlemen first specifically asked that their charter be prolonged and then continued to stress the need to exclude Spain from any trade in its waters and force it to stop attacking their possessions, as this resulted in great costs for the Company.14. Zeeland, not at all happy with the Munster negotiations, was slightly mollified by Holland's promise of support for the tottering Brazilian empire, but still would consent to a truce, only; a peace treaty was out of the question.

Only on January, 3, 1645, the States-General decided to critically evaluate the position of the two Companies. The proposed members of the delegation would read the documents in the case and consult with Frederick Henry as well before reporting to Their High Mightinesses.15. Five days later, they presented the States-General with a final Instruction; presumably, the affair of the colonies had not bothered them overmuch. The colonial companies were given one more opportunity to react, but had to do so before January, 20. On January, 21, the East India Company agreed to the colonial articles.16. The West India Company first did not bother to reply at all but, after a reminder, also wrote in agreement.17. However, both Companies specifically requested the States-General to include a paragraph that would secure all merchants involved in colonial trade free access to the Spanish markets in Europe, despite their service to the companies.

Meanwhile, the States of Holland were irritated by the delay, blaming the Companies' tardy reactions for the Republic's inabilitity to finally send the delegation to Munster.18. And indeed, especially the colonial matters seem to have been considered not yet mature, for in August, 1645, their inclusion in the Instruction was discussed anew. Now, a 12-point memorandum was produced, summing up the Companies' demands. It was decided these would be added to the Instruction - but, in fact, they do not appear in its final version at all.19.

In October 1645, it was Holland which, once more, concluded that the uncertainties surrounding the affairs of the colonial companies, though of undeniable importance, threatened to delay the departure of the delegates; they suggested that any new opinions on this topic should be incorporated in an additional instruction, to be sent to the delegates in due time. A few days later, when the Instruction was finally read to the States-General, the original 12th article had been eliminated and the 13th article, which had been an unwieldy synthesis of the demands of the two Companies in various fields, had been reformulated in a very general way, to the extent that it only asked that ‘the navigation and traffic on both of the Indies be maintained’.20. In fact, this 13th article originally had been introduced by Holland, but it now was accepted by the others as well. Article 14 stipulated that if a treaty or a peace finally were concluded, it would come into force in the East at last a full year after its ratification, while in the West it would be binding after six months.

So, in the end, the delegates left the Republic with an Instruction containing one article only that directly bore upon the colonies. It was decided that if any additions were deemed necessary, these would be forwarded to the ambassadors at Munster.21.

Having surveyed the genesis of the colonial article in the Munster Instruction - an Instruction, by the way, that only Zeeland considered to be absolutely binding - we may conclude two things. Rather surprisingly, the considerable amount of paperwork, in the form of memoranda and notes exchanged, that had been produced in the three preceding years, does not show up in the one, remaining colonial paragraph of the Instruction. In comparison to the very detailed articles dealing with matters of sovereignty, religion and trade, the text referring to colonial matters seems almost ludicrously simple; at first sight one might argue that it reveals little or nothing of the actual interests at stake.

But at a second glance, this opinion has to be altered. For, indeed, the only thing the two Companies and their backers asked, the maintenance of the status quo was, in fact, also the only essential demand, that covered everything else: on their behalf, the representatives of the Republic asked no more, but also no less than full recognition of their right to trade with the East and West Indies and, implicit in that demand, recognition of their right to keep all the territorial gains that had accrued to them in the past decades.

To know what the status quo was, we should go back in time and find out which policies had been followed by the Republic in its earlier negociations with Spain. And then, finally, we should look at the outcome of the Munster negociations and ask, what gains, if any, the Dutch had won when the treaties of Westphalia were finally ratified in 1648.

Preserving the ‘status quo’

In 1605, one of the key developments in the ongoing war with Spain was the conquest by the Dutch East India Company of the vital spice-producing islands of Ambon, Ternate and Tidore. From then on, Spain was powerless to prevent Dutch influence from further spreading in the East Indies. Soon, the government in

Madrid proposed to trade Dutch independence in Europe for its withdrawal from the East, which clearly indicates the relative importance of the colonial issues in Spanish eyes.

The negociations of 1605 and 1606 led to a cease fire in 1607. Spain then thought the Republic would disband the East India Company and abort the projected West India Company. But Grand Pensionary Oldenbarnevelt, however much desirous for peace, simply could not substantiate his oral promises to that effect: the climate in Dutch regent circles, closely related to the trading company, was dead against it. Indeed, in a few years' time, the newly-founded East India Company had gained too much political clout, what with so many regents and elite merchants having invested heavily in its first capital outlay.

Still, Oldenbarnevelt hoped at least to halt the implementation of the project to create a West India Company. But here, too, he met with heavy opposition, especially from Zeeland, but also from Amsterdam and Delft. In 1608, the various factions joined forces; the directors of the East India Company and of the private Guinea Companies petitioned to the States of Holland and Zeeland, and Willem Usselincx, the vociferous champion of the West Indian plans staged a very effective publicity campaign using the weapon of the pamphlets; all tried to stop the Grand Pensionary to realize his dream of making peace by sacrificing what they thought of as their vital interests. What resulted was a compromise: Oldenbarnevelt got his truce accepted by Holland and, in the end, by the Republic; this meant that the territorial expansion of the East India Company was halted, at least formally. But the Company was not dissolved.

Indeed, after 1609, the men who ruled in the East, such as the first governorgeneral, Pieter Both, and his successors, did their best to consolidate what had been gained before the truce treaty had been ratified and, more importantly, had been promulgated in Asia; in the process, they found many loopholes to expand the Company's authority.22.

After the Truce had been signed, King Philip III still was willing to sell the Dutch their independence in lieu of their withdrawal from the Indies: Spain increasingly became aware of the fact that the Dutch presence in both East and West posed the major threat to the Iberian colonial empire; there were Dutchmen in the Guyanas and the Caribbean, as well as in the East, and, moreover, the Truce simply did not function, resulting, in 1614, in the decision of the States-General that they could not be expected to uphold it any more.

When, after twelve years, the Truce expired, it was obvious that both parties had won, and lost. In the East, the merchants and soldiers who served the Gentlemen Seventeen had been very succesfull in cementing their empire in the Indonesian archipelago. They continued to add to it after the expiration of the Twelve Years' Truce: in 1637, the Dutch entered Ceylon, forcing the Portuguese to leave the coastal region they had occupied for so long and thus securing the cinnamon trade. In these same years, they could rejoice over the final decision of the Japanese shogunate to oust the Portuguese and the Spaniards from the island empire and leave the Dutch the sole entry to its many riches. In 1641, the Dutch fleet took Malacca, opening the Malaysian peninsula for their trade and influence as well.

In the Americas, however, the Spanish-Portuguese forces had stood their ground, halting Dutch expansion. But precisely because, in 1621, the Truce ex-

pired, the factions which had fought for the establishment of a Dutch West India Company took courage again, and in the same year succeeded in obtaining a charter. This went against Prince Maurice's grain; as he wanted the Truce to continue, he would have been willing to offer concessions as, e.g. the continued abeyance of the plans for a West India Company. The fact that Spain, though eager to renew the Truce, too, could not or would not lower its demands for complete evacuation of the East and West Indies, blocked the way to further negociations.

Consequently, the West India Company could try and reach its goals. Though it had some difficulty in accumulating the necessary starting capital, it managed to do so after three years. Obviously, seizing the silver fleet in 1628 was an event that fired the imagination both of contemporaries and of later generations. But the first big success was the capture of Recife, in Portuguese Brazil, in 1630, which gave the West India Company a firm hold on the export of sugar to Europe. No wonder the Spanish soon wanted to negociate for a truce again. But the discussions of 1632-1633 led to nothing precisely though. Spain demanded the evacuation of Brazil, offering Breda and huge cash reparations instead.

For, by and large, the powers in the Republic did not want to stop colonial expansion. Though some Holland towns, such as Amsterdam, Dordt and Rotterdam, considered giving way to Spanish demands, hoping that this would ease negociations over Dutch trading rights in Europe, Frederick Henry was against it; this was not because he really cared about the colonies, but because his own power play had become inextricably intertwined with the various factions in the Republic and the economic issues at stake in the negociations with Spain. In the end, the States-General decided to break off the negociations - five of the provinces voting in favour of the decision, with Holland and Overijssel being against.

Meanwhile, despite this success and despite its continued hold over part of Brazil, the West India Company, far more than its East India counterpart, remained heavily dependent upon the States-General for subsidies. This did not greatly alter when, in 1634, the island of Curacao, with its magnificent natural harbour, was taken from Spain, and became the Company's main base for operations in Central and South America. In 1637, the fort of Elmina on Africa's West Coast was taken from the Portuguese, giving the Dutch a hold over the Gold Coast. With the capture of Loanda, in 1642, they also secured their position in the Afro-American slave trade, which they soon exploited to their advantage.

And yet, the West India Company remained in debt. From a financial, commercial point of view, it should have been liquidated. It was not. Obviously, in the case of this malfunctioning company, more was at stake than mere financial gain. To be sure, the Dutch presence in the West, that is to say in America and Africa, continued to be a commercial colonial venture, but it also was an element in a complex play of international relations, a pawn to be used in the continuing battle against Spain.

Negociating the colonial issues

Thus, we have come full circle. The Dutch colonial empire that had been established at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century and had been consolidated af-

ter the expiration of the Twelve Years' Truce, by 1642 had grown to such importance that its preservation had to be amongst the main gains to be won via the Munster treaty. Not only colonial trade had become a prime economic and financial interest of many of the Republic's most influential capitalists, it also had become an important factor in the Republic's internal power struggles as well as in its status in the field of international relations.

When, from 1645 onwards, negociations at Munster were finally under way, the interdependency of the various colonial issues within the larger context of the necessity to end a war which was crippling the Republic with a debt that could be paid no longer, became clear.23.

The existence of the West India Company was defended, mainly, by the provinces where the major shareholders were in power, Friesland, Groningen and, of course, Zeeland, that with its interests in the Scheldt-region had other fish to fry as well. Such provinces as Guelders and Utrecht that, for various non-colonial reasons, were opposed to peace, sometimes used Spain's intransigence on the colonial issue as an argument to reject all the Spaniards' offers. But, mainly, the simply-worded demand of the colonial article never was seriously discussed at all. It was, indeed, unnegociable. Also, it was, in a way, a ‘now, or never’. For the independence of Portugal, from 1640 onwards, soon was seen to pose a major threat to the Dutch overseas' empires both East and West; if Portugal were to regain its strength and, even worse, were to conclude a peace with Spain, the combined Iberian forces once more would close the overseas' world to the Dutch. If ever, the favourable conjunction of the late-1640's offered a chance not to be missed.

All this became apparent during the first round of negociations, in Spring 1646. Within less than a month, the outline of the treaty had been agreed upon - but the issues of the colonies and of religious freedom for the Roman Catholics in Brabant remained unsolved. The colonial question became aggravated when the long-awaited further instructions from The Hague arrived. Spain now realised that not only it had to give up all the, mainly Portuguese territories in East and West conquered by the Dutch since the 1590's, but that it also was forbidden to even trade with those regions.

In December 1646, negociations started anew, but in the end Spain's wish for peace proved stronger than its fear to loose its valuable overseas possessions: Madrid unconditionally accepted the Dutch demands. Consequently, the peace treaty was signed in January 1647. But its ratification took one more year. With Utrecht and Zeeland, as well as Frederick Henry against, the five remaining provinces finally got their way. In the end, Utrecht got round to ratification as well, but Zeeland continued to refuse to do so, although it consented to publish the peace. And even so, its limited compliance had a price: Zeeland forced Holland, and the States-General to mount and finance a costly expedition in aid of the West India Company's tottering empire in Brazil.

Of the 79 rather oddly disorganised articles comprising the Munster peace treaty, only articles 5, 6 and 7 dealt with the colonies.24. But they signified a complete victory in the colonial field: the Dutch delegates had indeed succeeded in maintaining the colonial status quo and, thus, in opening the road towards further expansion, that is to say if the colonial companies would be capable of exploiting their chances.

It is strange to note that the one single article of the Instruction resulted in three articles in the Treaty; actually, the demands that had been suppressed in the final version of the Instruction, now resurfaced again: apparently the delegates, while in Munster, had reconsidered the various items as first proposed by the two companies, deciding to incorporate them after all. Thus, for example, article 6 repeated the specific request that those parts of Portuguese Brazil which the West India Company had conquered in the 1630's but had lost again after Portugal had regained its independence in 1640 were to be considered part of the Company's territory and included under the terms of the peace treaty.

The colonial gains of peace

If we look at the colonial results of the Munster peace, we may conclude that it spelled the end of the ‘Tordesillas era’, that period of European colonial history that had started in 1493 with the papal division of the world between the Iberian monarchies. With Portugal de iure excluded from the negociation table, and Spain in no position to counter the strongly-voiced Dutch demands, the Republic was able to break the Iberian colonial monopoly.

In Asia, Spain lost all its power outside the Phillipine area, with the exception of a few forts on the islands of Ternate and Tidore. The Portuguese retained Timor and, outside the archipelago, Macao and Goa. But from the 1640's onwards, the East India Company continued to expand in the Indian Ocean and the Chinese Sea - also moving into Formosa - till, at the end of the century, its empire had reached its zenith.

In Africa and the America's, the West India Company tried to hold on to what it had gained since its establishment in 1621, and what now had been confirmed by international law. Yet, the Gentlemen Nineteen soon suffered their greatest loss when in the mid-1650's the Portuguese managed to wrench from them their Brazilian possessions. What might have become a thriving Dutch colony, in fact the only thriving Dutch colony of any territorial significance in the Western hemisphere, had to be abandoned. Still, the West India Company used the position it had gained in the previous decades to expand its interests in the slave trade; the commercial triangle it had created by the exchange system of European products, African slaves and American sugar continued to be profitable.

Moreover, from 1648 onwards, the legalization of the Dutch commercial presence in the Spanish ports gave them full access to the Spanish colonial empire, which greatly strengthened their position on the global market.

Thus, the Munster Treaty was extremely advantageous to the Republic's colonial ventures, especially since the English and the French offered no serious competetion, yet. At least till the end of the 17th century, the Northern Netherlands continued to profit from the gains the Munster Treaty had brought them.


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