Dutch explorers & conquistadors

[Ulyanov]

Hi all!

Can anyone help me out with some information on the most prominent dutch explorers/conquistadors in history? Who were they, and what did they achieve?

Thanx.

 

[BiB]

Sounds like a job for teh history folk!

 

[unmerged(1057)]

Originally posted by Ulyanov
Hi all!

Can anyone help me out with some information on the most prominent dutch explorers/conquistadors in history? Who were they, and what did they achieve?

Thanx.

Hmm..don´t know if you have ever heard of the legendary Oranje?..He had a site up with some valuable info..

 

[w_mullender]

I'll lookup some links and exact dates this afternoon, but here are some appetisers:
-Heemskerck first dutchmen to discover route to the east
-Barentsz famous for his attempt to find the east over the north, got stranded at Nova Zembla, also a navy admiral
-Van Noort, first dutchmen to sail around the earth
-Tasman, sailed around Australia
-Hudson, english captain in dutch service discoverd everything baring his name
-Stuyvesant, founder of New-Amsterdam
-Maurits of Nassau, governor of Brazil
-Coen, effective governor of dutch east india, conquered important parts of Java
-Jan van Riebeeck, founder of the cape colony

Not many conquistadores in any case, it was more kicking out of spanish, portuguese and brits than anything else.

 

[w_mullender]

Here are some:
Brief info on explorers on alphabet
Brief info on explorers
More info Brief history of east coast colonies
There is many more and much more detailed, but almost all of it is in dutch.

 

[unmerged(1104)]

In addition to w mullender's great sites, I always find this one interesting:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Styx/6497/

More about colonies, but still informative.

 

[Ulyanov]

Thank you very much! I'll have a closer look at these pages, hopefully I'll learn something new in addition to all the knowledge I posess already

 

[Dakar]

I´d like to know from where did you kick out the spanish???
(excepting Holland proper, that is )

 

[w_mullender]

Originally posted by Dakar
I´d like to know from where did you kick out the spanish???
(excepting Holland proper, that is )

Dutch Antilles and a couple of skirmishes in Surinam/Brazil/other carribean islands, most of them later lost again.
Dutch Indies, India when Portugal was part of Spain

 

[unmerged(4303)]

What Dutch Admiral captured Spanish treasure fleet?

 

[w_mullender]

Originally posted by laelius
What Dutch Admiral captured Spanish treasure fleet?

Piet Heyn did near Cuba.
There are a couple of nice anecdotes about it:
-One was that on one captured ship a parrot kept yelling "O que buene va" which translates to "Everything is going very good"
-An other one is that when the news of the capture reached Holland a lot of people went to tell his old mother. Her only comment: "I always knew he would end up bad"

 

[unmerged(4303)]

Originally posted by w_mullender
Piet Heyn did near Cuba.
There are a couple of nice anecdotes about it:
-One was that on one captured ship a parrot kept yelling "O que buene va" which translates to "Everything is going very good"
-An other one is that when the news of the capture reached Holland a lot of people went to tell his old mother. Her only comment: "I always knew he would end up bad"

What year was that, and what became of him(Piet Heyn)?

 

[w_mullender]

He captured it in 1628. The thing was that in the years before (from 1624 on) he and other WIC (West Indian Company) commanders had harassed Spanish and Portuguese colonies and ships with huge booties (smaller silverfleets had been captured). The admiral of the WIC then headed home in 1627 to bring back the booty. The Spanish then thought all dutch privateers had gone and let their silver fleet leave, which was a bad mistake as a sizeable fleet (small and fast ships) under Piet Heyn was waiting for them. He blocked them from reaching Havanna, while "plucking" the fleet. The fleet fled into the bay of Matanzas (near Havana) and surrendered without fighting. He then headed back to Holland with a booty of 12 million guilders (not corrected for inflation).
He was immediately a hero and became lieutenant-admiral in the navy. His assignment was to block out the pirates at Dunkerque, during a battle with them he was killed in 1629 (so one year after the capture).
BtW he had a real reason to hate the spanish as he was a galley slave in his youth when he was captured by the spanish.
He was the first in an impressive line of dutch admirals with him, Tromp and De Ruyter being the "top 3".

 

[unmerged(8399)]

Although not very well known, the corsaires of Dunkerque inflicted enormous damage to the Dutch traffic in the North Sea, according to Stradling "The Armada of Flanders" only between 1627 and 1634 they captured 1500 ships, sinking another 350 (many would be small fishing boats), worth 4.5 millions of ducats, (the silver fleet of 1628 was worth 4 millions)

 

[w_mullender]

Originally posted by Aryaman
Although not very well known, the corsaires of Dunkerque inflicted enormous damage to the Dutch traffic in the North Sea, according to Stradling "The Armada of Flanders" only between 1627 and 1634 they captured 1500 ships, sinking another 350 (many would be small fishing boats), worth 4.5 millions of ducats, (the silver fleet of 1628 was worth 4 millions)

Very true. It was started by the "geuzen" the century before, who completely devestated south netherlands fishing. These fishers usually became personel on privateers in Dunkerque/Oostende. These privateers especially targeted Zeeland's fisherman as they were forbidden (by reformed faith) to have arms. Occasionally they targeted merchants, but these were often protected by the navy. Later they became less of a threat and finally reduced to no threat through naval reforms (better navy ships and better command structure), excellent admirals and french advances into the south netherlands.

 

[HJ Tulp]

The Duinkerker pirates were that effective that the Staaten Generaal (the Dutch Governement) ordered Prince Maurits of Oranje-Nassau to conquer it. THe prince was against it but had to give in, the campaign ended in the Battle of Nieuwpoort (1600).

BTW: mullender, Barentsz IIRC never became admiral. He was skipper or something like that during the voyage 'around' russia and died returning

 

[unmerged(1095)]

Oh good - glad you can post again. Now I can relax again

 

[HJ Tulp]

Originally posted by Uglyduck
Oh good - glad you can post again. Now I can relax again

Yeah, the problem is that I can only log in at home, not at school or somewhere else like my uncles house yesterday weird

 

[unmerged(1095)]

Originally posted by HJ Tulp
Yeah, the problem is that I can only log in at home, not at school or somewhere else like my uncles house yesterday weird

You might be able to - I found an extra space had appeared in your Username.
You should be OK everywhere now

 

[HJ Tulp]

The only variation I hadn't tried!
Might have ruined the only change on peace in the 1430s RPG though
Thanks