The impact of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) on the history of the Indian Ocean Region and its impact on Western Australia

AAPI Lecture 15 May 2014

Dr Nonja Peters History of Migration Experiences, @ Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute; 15 May 2014

Research Focus

Hartog 2016 – 400 year anniversary. How did the earth's peoples, cultures, economies, and polities become so closely interconnected? When did our world become 'global' and what role did the VOC, Asia and Africa play in this new international community?

Aims and Objectives To explore: •  The formation and spread of the Vereinigde

Oost Indisch Compagnie VOC – Dutch East India Company - in the Indian Ocean Region 1595 - 1800; and

•  Its impact on pre and post-British settlement WA -

Pre-European Trade Routes

Silk Road extended from Europe through Egypt , Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Afghanistan,

Central Asia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Java Indonesia, Philipines and

Vietnam into China. Its land routes are red, its the water routes blue.

Portuguese begin to trade in the Indian Ocean Asian tea, coffee, sugar, rice, rubber, tobacco, silk, decorated textiles, gold, copper & tin, textiles, porcelain, and spices: cinnamon, cassia, cardamon, ginger, tumeric, pepper, nutmeg, cloves and mace, plus opium, elephants, slaves and plants.

History of the establishment of the VOC

Colonialism & Imperialism 1450-1950 The Age of Entitlement begins?

The picture is of discovery and occupation. The heroical depiction of the explorer, triumphant reflects the then prevalent Western self-conception of Western man as the pioneer of all progress, and as standing superior to all other civilization. Indeed, the "white man's burden" obliged him to make his superior knowledge available to the rest of the world and in so doing, extend his world rule!

Main Regions Overseas

Nieuwe Paskaart van Oost-Indiën, Amsterdam 1689

Table Bay

Gezicht op de Tafelbaai, Vingboons-atlas, Bussum 1981, p. 29

Bengal

Factorij aan de Hougli, 1665, schilderij van Hendrick van Schuylenburgh, Rijksmuseum

The VOC in Ceylon

The island of Ceylon, was in 1600 the main producer of cinnamon in the world. The coastal area was owned by the Portuguese; the interior was dominated by the king of Kandy.

In 1637 the VOC supported it against the Portuguese in exchange for the promise of a monopoly on the export of cinnamon and elephants.

1658 Portuguese expelled and the VOC secures the monopoly on the world trade

in cinnamon.

Batavia (Java)

Kaart van Batavia, circa 1652, gravure van Mattheus du Chesne, KITLV

Major VOC Trade Settlements Indian Ocean & South-East Asian Region

Hortus Botanicus

VOC and Botanical collections Rare and unusual plant and fruits become as fashionable and expensive to acquire as porcelains and lacquer work.

In 1677 VOC officials reported that:

“ the deck of a ship recently returned from the Cape was covered and obstructed in such a way with boxes, and in such great numbers as if they were whole gardens, resulting in so great a weakening and damaging of the ship by all the weight on top that we were obliged to write it off and prohibit herewith the sending of all those cuttings, trees and plants” (Jardine 2008:241).

Portugal starts to Lose its grip on Indian Ocean Trade

http://www.knmi.nl/cliwoc/index.htm Climatological Database for the World's Oceans 1750-1850 Royal Netherlands Meteological Society

Shipping Movements from the available observations in the CLIWOC database for the period 1750-1854.

Treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494),, between Spain and Portugal

Spanish Shipping Movements for the period 1750-1854.

UK Shipping Movements for the period 1750-1854.

NL Shipping Movements for the period 1750-1854.

VOC’s Demise

"   The Dutch East India Company remained an important trading concern for almost two centuries, paying an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years. In its declining years in the late 18th century it was referred to as Vergaan Onder Corruptie (referring to the acronym VOC), which translates as 'Perished By Corruption'

Cultural Heritage Preservation

The Dutch East India Company (VOC, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie), founded in 1602, and liquidated in 1795, was the largest and most impressive of the early modern European trading companies operating in Asia. About twenty-five million pages of VOC records have

survived in repositories in Jakarta, Colombo, Chennai, Cape Town, Chinsurah, Bengal and The Hague.

The VOC archives make up the most complete and extensive source on

early modern world history anywhere with data relevant to the history of hundreds of Asia’s and Africa’s former local political and trade regions.

In 2003 the Netherlands submitted the necessary documentary heritage needed to recommend the VOC archives be included in the Memory of

the World Register and realized this aim the same year.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-activities/memory-of-the-world/register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-1/archives-of-the-dutch-east-india-company/ Additional information is available at the website www.tanap.net.

How WA Figures in this story

Dutch Maritime, Military, Migration and Mercantile links with Australia date back 400 years plus

Themes: •  Mapping, naming coastline, cohabitation with Aboriginals? •  Trade with Captain Stirling 1829.

•  Johannah Jacoba Bruce nee Herklots 1850

•  1942 ABDA Allies – bombing of Broome

•  Evacuees from NEI 1945

•  Indonesian Independence 1945 – unions, Australian government, United Nations

•  Migrants 1949 +

•  Mercantilism – oil and gas, mining •  Heritage Tourism

•  Mutual Heritage

•  Cultural Diplomacy

Cultural Heritage Tourism Culture has always been a major object of travel, as the development of the Grand Tour from the 16th century onwards demonstrates. In the 20th century, some people have claimed, culture ceased to be the objective of tourism: tourism is now culture. Cultural attractions play an important role in tourism at all levels, from the global highlights of world culture to attractions that underpin local identities.

Cultural heritage tourism is important for various reasons; it has a positive economic and social impact, it establishes and reinforces identity, it helps preserve the cultural heritage, with culture as an instrument it facilitates harmony and understanding among people, it supports culture and helps renew tourism (Richards, 1996).

Cultural heritage tourism has a number of objectives that must be met within the context of sustainable development such as; the conservation of cultural resources, accurate interpretation of resources, authentic visitors experience, and the stimulation of the earned revenues of cultural resources.

The Story of VOC contact with Western Australia begins in 1616 when Dirk Hartog in the Eendracht landed on what we now call Dirk Hartog Island on 25 October 1616 and left on 27 October 1616.

Dirk Hartog Story

Dirk Hartog in 1616 marked the first European landing on Australia’s west coast.

Hartog left a hammered pewter plate inscribed with his name and the names of the owners of his ship to commemorate his visit to - Dirk Hartog Island. His ship’s log notes that he called the country Eendracht (Harmony or Unity) Land after his ship.

1697, de Vlamingh came upon Hartog Island in 1699 Englishman, William Dampier

Frenchmen St Alouarn in 1772 & Baudin1801 In 1818 Freycinet took De Vlaming’s Plate to France It was gifted back to Australia in 1949.

Gerritsz, Hessel, 1581-1632. Chart of Malay Archipelago and Dutch discoveries in Australia 1618]

Map of Australia begins to evolve

Marooned on WA coast from VOC Shipwrecks between 1629 -1727

Shipwreck 230 survived 2 marooned4 June 1629 Morning Reef Wallabi Group, Abrolhos Islands

125 later murderedWouter Loos & Jan Pelgrom de By van Bemel

1629 SardamLongboat sent to Abrolhos Islands 13 October 1629

Sent to retrieve a barrel of vinegar, boat not seen again

5 missing sailors Abrolhos Islands

11 missing3 sailors lost inland/ 8 sent to find them

1658 Waeckende Boey

26 February 1658 shore party under Abraham Leeman

Leeman & thirteen abandoned

10 Died en route to Batavia

4/14 made it alive to Batavia

Zuytdorp Zuytdorp

left Cape Good Hope 22 April 1712

Zuytdorp Cliffs Murchison

100 survived; 12 missing88 rescued after many months on Gun Island

2 marooned

100 Known Marooned

TOTAL

75+/- assumed 173-225 or moremarooned

Year ShipLocation

Marooned

1629 BataviaHutt River or Witticarra Creek

Location Shipwreck/

Longboat LostNumber Rescued

Number Marooned

6 sailors made it to Batavia

1656 Witte Valk & Goede Hoop

Sent to find the 68 marooned from the Vergulde Draeck

Long-boot crew lost in the ocean

1656 Vergulde Draeck

28 April 1656, the Vergulde Draeck, five kms off Ledge Point

193 on board, 75 made it to shore Vergulde Draeck found in 1963

68 marooned, left on the WA coastline

TOTAL ESTIMATE

1712Estimates 200-250 on board. Officially 152

Estimated 75-150 or more marooned

Goede Hoop shore party travels several miles inland

1727 ZeewijkHalf-Moon Reef, Abrolhos Islands 9 June 1727

Longboot crew never seen again

Wreck found 1927 confirmed 1959

Replica of the Batavia Lelystad NL

In the end, after it was all over and all the mutineers had been executed, out of 316 people aboard the Batavia, only 116 survived.

Batavia wreck 1629 The Dutch Fort on West Wallabi Island in Houtman’s Abrolhos

Gilt Dragon 1656 In 1890 kangaroo shooters stumbled on a mast, ‘about 40ft [12m]’ long, 25 kilometres north of the wreck site, large rusty iron pot of about 50 litres capacity, a couple of horn spoons, a copper shovel and two crescent-shaped hatchets all indicating that it may have been one of the survivors’ camp sites.

Zuytdorp Shipwreck site

VOC Archives The Hague, Zuytdorp shipwreck 1712 Soldier and Officers list; Jakarta VOC archives hold relevant material

Artefacts & Maps

Shipwreck Artifacts Incense urn handed over to the New Norcia Mission in 1846 found by Juat people at a well about 20 kilometres south of where the Vergulde Draak was wrecked. Single coin, from the Zuytdorp, was given to a station owner at Shark Bay in 1869 found by a man at Woomerangee Hill, 40 km north of the Zuytdorp wreck site. ‘Circle of Stones’ first seen in 1875 in very inhospitable country 200 km north of the Vergulde Draeck shipwreck site, is thought to possibly be associated with survivors. An extremely weathered and fragile skeleton and a clump of coins, found on the beach opposite the Vergulde Draeck wreck site in 1931. Another coin reputedly found on the banks of the Moore Rive in 1957. Inscribed brass‘Leyden Tobacco Tin’ similar to those found at other wreck sites, discovered at Wale Well, 55 km north of the Zuytdorp wreck site in April 1990 is also thought to possibly have come from a survivor of that wreck.

Ethnic Composition of the Soldiers on the Zuiddorp 1712

"   Dutch 39 "   Germans 44 "   Belgians 11 "   Norwegians 4 "   Swiss 3 "   Latvians 2 "   Austrians 1

Heritage Tourism

Heritage Tourism Dirk Hartog Island

Mutual cultural heritage Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs ‘mutual heritage policy’ created for ‘countries whose history intersects with the Netherlands, generating many material and immaterial relics of the past, which are collectively referred to by the term ‘common cultural heritage’. As documented on the Ministry Buitenlandse Zaken website: ‘by maintaining, managing, using and highlighting this heritage, we can foster a critical reflection on our past and generate a mutual understanding of past, present and future. This can strengthen relations and promote cooperation between countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally’.

Mutual Cultural Heritage

In formulating the policy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs settled on the term ‘common cultural heritage’ because it reflects the idea that the Netherlands is not the only party with an interest in and responsibility for that heritage. Rather [that] it is heritage the Netherlands as well as a partner country - agree - must be preserved.

The Agreement between the Netherlands and Australia Concerning Old Dutch Shipwrecks (ANCODS) found off the Western Australian coast was signed on 6 November 1972 and was a schedule to the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act, 1976. The Act protects all shipwrecks in Australian waters older than 75 years. Four VOC shipwrecks have been found off the coast of Western Australian. These ships in order of discovery are Zuytdorp (1712), Batavia (1629), Vergulde Draeck (more commonly known as the Gilt Dragon) (1656) and Zeewyk (1727). Three other old Dutch ships disappeared between the Cape of Good Hope and Batavia (currently known as Jakarta, Indonesia) and have not been located and could possibly be in Australian waters. These ships are Aagtekerke (1726), Fortuyn (1724) and Ridderschap van Holland (1694).

Cultural Diplomacy Cultural diplomacy relies heavily on the exchange of ideas, information, values, systems, traditions, beliefs, and other aspects of culture, with the intention of fostering mutual understanding.

Cultural exchange has been intertwined with the pursuit of foreign relations throughout history.

Certhia novaehollandiae

Garden Island 1829, Cpt Stirling send the Parmelia and Sulphur to Java for food for the fledgling Swan River Colony.

Graden Island 1829 showing the ships Parmelia and Sulphur

John Bruce Pensioner Guard

John Bruce arrived in W.A. on the "Hashemy" in 1850.

He married Johannah Jacoba Herklotz daughter of a Dutch Judge at the VOC settlement Chinsurah Bengal India in 1828 and all of their seven children were born in India except for the youngest who was born in France. They were Charlotte Elizabeth, Jane Mary, Mary, Caroline, Clarrie, Emily Helen and Edward (Nedlands)

Staff Officer to the Pensioner Guard in charge of Convict Stations. Commandant of W.A. Military Force, 1855; MLC and Executive 1854; Acting Governor of W.A. 1868-1869. His daughter Mary married Anthony O'Grady Lefroy;

Henry Bruce (later Premier of W.A.) was her son.

Bombing at Broome 3/3/1942

It took WA Museum staff 10 long hard years of lobbying and research to have the

flying boats acknowledged as a heritage site

Dutch Annex War Cemetery, Karrakatta

DUTCH ANZAC?

Dutch Evacuees in WA, survivors of Japanese internment camps in Java, 1945-1946

Dutch children at Fairbridge Farm School 1945/46

Dutch Club

Dutch High School Burt Hall St Georges Cathederal 1945/46

Arrival

Migrant Camps