| a Dutch merchant company chartered in 1621 to carry on trade with Africa, the West Indies, North and South America, and Australia. |
Dutch West India Company
Dutch trading company, founded in 1621 mainly to carry on economic warfare against Spain and Portugal by striking at their colonies in the West Indies and South America and on the west coast of Africa. While attaining its greatest success against the Portuguese in Brazil in the 1630s and '40s, the company depleted its resources and thereafter declined in power. It was dissolved in 1794.
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