VOC: Did you mean...?

Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. A leading figure of the Scientific Revolution, Huygens combined research into mathematical-based theories, such as the movement of light waves, with practical...

Diogenes of Sinope (c. 404-323 BCE) was a Greek Cynic philosopher best known for holding a lantern to the faces of the citizens of Athens claiming he was searching for an honest man. He was most likely a student of the philosopher Antisthenes...

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...

The English East India Company (EIC) was founded in 1600, and it came to control both trade and territories in India, as well as a trade monopoly with China. Goods the EIC traded included spices, cotton cloth, tea, and opium, all in such...

The East India Company (EIC) was first England's and then Britain's tool of colonial expansion in India and beyond. Revenue from trade and land taxes from territories it controlled allowed the EIC to build up its own private armies, collectively...

The island of Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) became a focus of European attention soon after the Portuguese entry into the Indian Ocean in the late 15th century. Large swaths of the island would come first under Portuguese control...

A map of European empires c. 1700. By the 18th century, European power had become truly global through a combination of maritime expansion, state-backed commerce, and military force. The leading Atlantic empires, Spain, Portugal, the Dutch...

Map of East India, taken from the Atlas van der Hagen, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague Part 4. This map of South East Asia was published by Nicolaas Visscher II (1649-1702). The map shows the entire trading region of the Dutch East India...

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.

Blue and white Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) logo from 1650-1674. Made in Japan to order by the company's directors in Batavia (Jakarta). Date between 1615 and 1674.