Calvinism & its Effects on the Dutch West India Company & Dutch Caribbean Colonization – Allison Komosa

In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was founded. The company itself was heavily Calvinist and formed directly after the Synod of Dordrecht, which affirmed Calvinism as the newly appointed religion of the Dutch Republic. The religious climate of the Netherlands shaped the nation’s next moves. Calvinism was at the very root of the newly founded Dutch West India Company (WIC), and its founding members were majority pro-Calvinism. With the members themselves being Calvinists, the company itself was inherently religious and its religious beliefs and ideals actualized the company’s movements and intentions.

The WIC’s founding members were referred to as the Heeren XIX (the Lords Nineteen), and were deeply influenced by the Calvinist reformation. Many of the founders came from the south, which was where the Calvinist reformation thrived. “They were more likely to be Calvinist if they came from the south, because the Reformed worship flourished there first,”^[1] writes D. L. Noorlander. Since a significant portion of the founders were Calvinists, the WIC’s very leadership was influenced heavily by religious beliefs and practices. One of the founding members, Johannes de Laet, proved to be much more influential than most, if not all, of the other members. De Laet was a wealthy individual with a hefty amount of capital to invest in the new company, along with being a very well educated man. De Laet argued himself that a successful mercantile company required two specific elements: capital and information, of which he both personally provided. “As the third-largest single donor, he invested the astronomical sum of 54,000 guilders himself, more than enough to obtain a seat as bewindhebber (‘director’) in the Company’s powerful Amsterdam Chamber,”^[2] remarks author Michiel van Groesen. In today’s money, a single Dutch guilder from the 1600s would be worth around 20-45 United States dollars, which would be about $1,080,000-2,430,000 today.

The WIC was split into two factions, with different administrators focusing on one of the two factions. These two factions being settlement and trade. De Laet himself focused more on settlement, and strived to create colonies and conquer new land in the name of the Dutch Republic. In terms of the Caribbean, there were some major victories won for the Dutch, including the capturing of the Spanish Silver Fleet by Admiral Privateer Piet Hein in 1628, which proved to be a powerful boon for the WIC’s coffers, as the Spanish Silver Fleet was plentiful in both goods and coin. Another victory for the WIC was the colonization of Brazil in 1630, which was a sugar hotspot during the time, and a major win in terms of generating more revenue. Maintaining this control over Brazil proved to be quite costly, since the land was so sought after, everyone in the Caribbean wanted a piece. “Deciding the degree to which the directors were willing to fund their religious mission in the Dutch Atlantic—putting a total price tag on religion, so to speak—is impossible now, but it was not cheap,”1 states D. L. Noorlander. The directors had some serious decisions to make when it came to choosing to continue to fund their Brazilian enterprise.

The WIC’s presence in the Caribbean proved to be quite the threat to Spanish and Portuguese interests, as these three were often after the same things as one another. However, when it came down to things, the Dutch were often unable to hold down their ground and retain control over what they wished to control in the long term. In 1654, the Netherlands lost control over Brazil, and therefore lost control of its sugar trade and revenue generation. This loss was a massive blow to the WIC, as the company had spent a significant amount of capital in an attempt to upkeep the Brazilian colonies. Without the profits from Brazil, the WIC was struggling to stay afloat. Constant warfare and battles with England had caused immense strain on the WIC’s coffers. Finally in 1674, the WIC declared bankruptcy and was unable to repay its debts. Shortly after the bankruptcy of the WIC, a second West India Company emerged. This new second WIC focused more on the colonization aspect of the original company. However, the second WIC was unable to live up to the glory of the first, and it eventually ceased to exist in 1791, and the control over the colonies in the Caribbean was turned to the Dutch government.

To conclude, the Dutch West India Company was a central player in the middle stages of the colonization of the Caribbean. The WIC itself blended elements from Calvinism, warfare, and commerce into an instrument of intense imperial capability. The achievements of the WIC are nothing to scoff at, and while it was not ultimately successful in the long run, it was still able to conquer portions of the Caribbean and establish a powerful presence over the Atlantic as a whole.