20 March 1602
Dutch East India Company chartered
The States General chartered the VOC with extensive commercial and governing powers in the Indian Ocean world.
View in timelineOn 20 March 1602 the States General of the Dutch Republic chartered the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), merging the competing pre-companies that had sent Dutch merchants into Asian waters. The charter granted the Company a 21-year monopoly on Dutch navigation and trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. It also authorised the Company to make treaties, build forts, appoint officials, administer justice and wage war in the chartered region on behalf of the Republic.
The VOC was therefore both a commercial corporation and an instrument of delegated state power. The charter did not establish a Cape colony in 1602, and the Cape remained a place of maritime contact and provisioning until the Company later authorised a permanent station at Table Bay. Its legal and military powers nevertheless shaped the institution that would direct that occupation.
Significance
The charter gave the VOC the monopoly, administrative authority and military capacity that later enabled its permanent occupation and government of the Cape.
Why it matters
The charter created the corporate and imperial institution that later established and governed the Cape settlement, while giving it monopoly and delegated sovereign powers across the Dutch Asian trading sphere.