Dutch West India Company (WIC) Founded
The Dutch West India Company received its charter in 1621, designed to exploit Dutch naval power against Spanish and Portuguese possessions in the Atlantic. It operated primarily as a privateering, slave-trading, and colonial enterprise in West Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean. The WIC captured the Spanish silver fleet in 1628, seized most of Portuguese Brazil from 1630, and controlled key points of the West African slave coast. After losing Brazil to Portugal in 1654, the WIC focused on the slave trade, eventually becoming the dominant Dutch institution in West Africa.
- Year: 1621 CE
- Category: Economic
