topic seven

What was the VOC?

Holland is a country in Europe. Holland is sometimes also called ‘The Netherlands’. The people who live in Holland speak a language called Dutch and interestingly enough, the people are also call "the Dutch". Holland became a very rich and powerful country in the 17th century.

Some rich men in Holland formed a trading company called the Dutch East India Company (DEIC). The Dutch name for this company is the ‘Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie’ (VOC).

What journeys did the VOC ships go on?

After 1600 the Dutch began to compete with the Portuguese for control over the sea route to the East. Dutch sailors discovered they could sail east from the Cape on the west winds before they turned north to India and Java. They returned on the south-east trade winds. This meant they made only one land stop at South Africa.

The VOC wanted to send their ships to sail around Africa to buy spices in the east, take the spices back to Holland and sell them for a profit in Europe. But, as you have already read, the Portuguese had control over the sea route around Africa to the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese had set up trading ports along the African coast. So, the VOC ships attacked the Portuguese fleets and slowly took over most of the Portuguese trading ports in Africa and in the east. The VOC did not only trade, it was powerful enough to rule over territories too. It took over land that did not belong to them and they made it their own.

Do you think this was right? What do you think some of the consequences could have been for the local Khoikhoi farmers?

Life of a sailor on a VOC ship

Ordinary people in Holland were very poor. It was not easy to find a job. If a man got a job on a VOC ship, he faced a lot of hardship.

Sailors went on long sea journeys. They:

• were separated from their families for a long time.

• had to sleep on the open decks and got cold and wet in the wind and the rain.

• did not get much sleep.

• ate food like bread, porridge, dried peas or beans with salted meat or fish.

• ate in groups of seven from one bowl or plate.

The food sailors ate

There were worms and insects in in the water and it was not safe to drink. Sometimes they stirred the water with a hot iron rod to try to kill the worms and insects. The sailors would drink the water with their teeth closed so that they would not swallow the dead insects and worms.

A sailor wrote in his dairy

A sailor on board a ship wrote in his diary:

‘We were three months and twenty days without any kind of fresh food. We ate biscuits that had turned to powder, swarming with worms. The biscuit powder stank strongly of the urine of rats.’

Adapted from a diary in the Dutch East India Company Archives,

EXTENSION ACTIVITY

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