Dutch Empire: Did you mean...?

The Portuguese Empire was established from the 15th century and eventually stretched from the Americas to Japan. Very often a string of coastal trading centres with defensive fortifications, there were larger territorial colonies like Brazil...

The Egyptian Empire rose during the period of the New Kingdom (c. 1570- c. 1069 BCE), when the country reached its height of wealth, international prestige, and military might. The empire stretched from modern-day Syria in the north to modern-day...

Boran (r. 630, 631-632) and Azarmiduxt (r. 630-631) were the only queens of the Sassanian Empire who ruled with the power of absolute monarchs. Daughters of Shahanshah (king of kings) Khosrow II (r. 590-628), Boran and Azarmiduxt, tried to...

The Khmer empire was a powerful state in South East Asia, formed by people of the same name, lasting from 802 CE to 1431 CE. At its peak, the empire covered much of what today is Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and southern Vietnam. By the 7th...

The government of ancient Persia was based on an efficient bureaucracy which combined the centralization of power with the decentralization of administration. The Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) founded by Cyrus the Great (r. c. 550-530...

Dutch East India Company's warehouse and living quarters in Surat, India, as seen in April 1629 by Pieter van den Broecke (1585-1640), a Dutch cloth merchant in the service of the VOC.

The front and reverse of a Dutch East India Company duit - an old Dutch copper coin.

A plate from the Edo period (1615-1868) in Arita, Saga Prefecture in Japan, 1670-1740. "VOC" is the monogram for the Dutch East India Company, whose name in Dutch is Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie. Inspired by contemporary and previous...

In 1533 CE the Inca Empire was the largest in the world. It extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the south. However, the lack of integration of conquered peoples into that empire, combined with a civil...

A c. 1640 painting showing a Dutch ship in the harbour of Recife, Portuguese Brazil. Painted by Abraham Willaerts. (Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam)