Dutch Empire The Dutch Empire ( ) comprised the overseas territories controlled by the Dutch Republic and , later , the modern Netherlands from the 17th century to the mid - 1950s . The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire . For this , they were aided by their skills in shipping and trade and the surge of nationalism accompanying the struggle for independence from Spain . Alongside the British , the Dutch initially built up colonial possessions on the basis of indirect state capitalist corporate colonialism , via the Dutch East and West India Companies . Dutch exploratory voyages such as those led by Willem Barents , Henry Hudson and Abel Tasman revealed vast new territories to Europeans . With Dutch naval power rising rapidly as a major force from the late 16th century , the Netherlands dominated global commerce during the second half of the 17th century during a cultural flowering known as the Dutch Golden Age . The Netherlands lost many of its colonial possessions , as well as its global power status , to the British when the metropole fell to French armies during the Revolutionary Wars . The restored portions of the Dutch Empire , notably the Dutch East Indies and Suriname , remained under Dutch control until the decline of European imperialism following World War II . Since the 1950s , the Netherlands has been organized as constituent countries composing the Kingdom of the Netherlands . As of October 10 , 2010 , the countries within the kingdom are the Netherlands proper , Aruba , Curaçao , and Sint Maarten . Origins ( 1543 – 1602 ) . The territories that would later form the Dutch Republic were originally part of a loose federation known as the Seventeen Provinces , which Charles V , Holy Roman Emperor and ( as " Carlos I " ) King of Spain , had inherited and brought under his direct rule in 1543 . In 1566 , a Protestant revolt broke out against rule by Roman Catholic Spain , sparking the Eighty Years ' War . Led by William of Orange , independence was declared in the 1581 Act of Abjuration . The revolt resulted in the establishment of an independent Protestant republic in the north , although Spain did not officially recognize Dutch independence until 1648 . The coastal provinces of Holland and Zeeland had for centuries prior to Spanish rule been important hubs of the European maritime trade network . Their geographical location provided convenient access to the markets of France , Germany , England and the Baltic . The war with Spain led many financiers and traders to emigrate from Antwerp a major city in Flanders and then one of Europe ' s most important commercial centres , to Dutch cities , particularly Amsterdam , which became Europe ' s foremost centre for shipping , banking , and insurance . Efficient access to capital enabled the Dutch in the 1580s to extend their trade networks beyond northern Europe to new markets in the Mediterranean and the Levant . In the 1590s , Dutch ships began to trade with Brazil and the Dutch Gold Coast of Africa , and towards the Indian Ocean and the source of the lucrative spice trade . This brought the Dutch into direct competition with Portugal , which had dominated these trade networks for several decades , and had established colonial outposts on the coasts of Brazil , Africa and the Indian Ocean to facilitate them . The rivalry with Portugal , however , was not entirely economic : from 1580 , after the death of the King of Portugal , Sebastian I , and much of the Portuguese nobility in the Battle of Alcácer Quibir , the Portuguese crown had been joined to that of Spain in an " Iberian Union " under the heir of Emperor Charles V , Philip II of Spain . By attacking Portuguese overseas possessions , the Dutch forced Spain to divert financial and military resources away from its attempt to quell Dutch independence . Thus began the several decade - long Dutch - Portuguese War . In 1594 , the " Compagnie van Verre " ( " Company of Far Lands " ) was founded in Amsterdam , with the aim of sending two fleets to the spice islands of Maluku . The first fleet sailed in 1596 and returned in 1597 with a cargo of pepper , which more than covered the costs of the voyage . The second voyage ( 1598 – 1599 ) , returned its investors a 400 % profit . The success of these voyages led to the founding of a number of companies competing for the trade . The competition was counterproductive to the companies ' interests as it threatened to drive up the price of spices at their source in Indonesia whilst driving them down in Europe . Rise of Dutch hegemony ( 1602 – 1652 ) . As a result of the problems caused by intercompany rivalry , the Dutch East India Company ( , VOC ) was founded in 1602 . The charter awarded to the Company by the States - General granted it sole rights , for an initial period of 21 years , to Dutch trade and navigation east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan . The directors of the company , the " " Heeren XVII " " , were given the legal authority to establish " fortresses and strongholds " , to sign treaties , to enlist both an army and a navy , and to wage defensive war . The company itself was founded as a joint stock company , similarly to its English rival that had been founded two years earlier , the English East India Company . In 1621 , the Dutch West India Company ( WIC ) was set up and given a 25 - year monopoly to those parts of the world not controlled by its East India counterpart : the Atlantic , the Americas and the west coast of Africa . Phillip II - Dutch conflicts . The Spanish - Dutch War was for the Dutch part of their struggle for independence and religious freedom , during the Eighty Years ' War . It was largely fought on the European continent , but war was also conducted against Phillip II ' s overseas territories , including Spanish colonies and the Portuguese metropoles , colonies , trading posts and forts belonging at that time to the King of Spain and Portugal . The Netherlands became part of the domains of the ' Spanish branch ' of the Habsburg dynasty when Emperor Charles V divided the holdings of the Habsburg Empire following his abdication in 1555 . In 1566 , the Dutch revolt erupted and in 1568 the Dutch Republic embarked on the long , torturous path of the Eighty Years ' War ( also known as the Dutch War of Independence ) and began the invasion and looting of Spanish ( and , later , Portuguese ) colonies in the Americas and of Asia , including an attempted invasion of the Philippines . From 1517 , the port of Lisbon in Portugal was the main European market for products from India that was attended by other nations to purchase their needs . But as a result of Portugal ' s incorporation in the Iberian Union with Spain by Philip II in 1580 , all Portuguese territories were thereafter Spanish Habsburg branch territory , and thus all Portuguese markets were closed to the United Provinces . Thus , in 1595 , the Dutch decided to set sail on their own to acquire products for themselves , making use of the “ secret ” knowledge of the Portuguese trade routes , which Cornelis de Houtman had managed to acquire in Lisbon . Pursuing their quest for alternative routes to Asia for trade , the Dutch were disrupting the Spanish - Portuguese trade , and they eventually ranged as far afield as the Philippines . The Dutch sought to dominate the commercial sea trade in Southeast Asia , going so far in pursuit of this goal as to engage in what other nations and powers considered to be little more than piratical activities . The joining of the two crowns deprived Portugal of a separate foreign policy , with King Phillip II ' s enemies becoming Portugal ' s enemies as well . War with the Dutch led to attacks on most of Portugal ' s far - flung trading network in and around Asia , including Ceylon ( modern Sri Lanka ) , and Goa , as well as attacks upon her commercial interests in Japan , Africa ( especially Mina ) , and South America . Even though the Portuguese had never been able to capture the entire island of Ceylon , they had been able to keep the coastal regions under their control for a considerable time before the coming of the Dutch in war . Portugal ' s South American colony , Brazil , was partially conquered by both France and the United Provinces . In the 17th Century , the " Grand Design " of the West India Company involved attempting to corner the international trade in sugar by attacking Portuguese colonies in Brazil and Africa , seizing both the sugarcane plantations and the slave ports needed to resupply their labor . Although weakened by the Iberian Union with Spain , whose attention was focused elsewhere , the Portuguese were able to fight off the initial assault before the Battle of Matanzas Bay provided the WIC with the funds needed for a successful operation . Johan Maurits was appointed governor of " New Holland " and landed at Recife in January of 1637 . In a series of successful expeditions , he gradually extended the Dutch possessions from Sergipe on the south to Maranhão in the north . The WIC also succeeded in conquering Goree , Elmina Castle , Saint Thomas , and Luanda on the west coast of Africa . Both regions were also used as bases for Dutch privateers plundering Portuguese and Spanish trade routes . The dissolution of the Iberian Union in 1640 and Maurits ' s recall in 1643 led to increased resistance from the Portuguese colonists who still made up a majority of the Brazilian settlers . The Dutch were finally overcome during the 1650s but managed to receive 4 million reis ( 63 metric tons of gold ) in exchange for extinguishing their claims over Brazil in the 1661 Treaty of the Hague . Asia . War between Phillip II ' s possessions and other countries led to a deterioration of Portugal ' s Empire , as with the loss of Hormuz to England , but the Dutch Empire was the main beneficiary . The VOC began immediately to prise away the string of coastal fortresses that , at the time , comprised the Portuguese Empire . The settlements were isolated , difficult to reinforce if attacked , and prone to being picked off one by one , but nevertheless the Dutch only enjoyed mixed success in its attempts to do so . Amboina was captured from the Portuguese in 1605 , but an attack on Malacca the following year narrowly failed in its objective to provide a more strategically located base in the East Indies with favorable monsoon winds . The Dutch found what they were looking for in Jakarta , conquered by Jan Coen in 1619 , later renamed Batavia after the putative Dutch ancestors the Batavians , and which would become the capital of the Dutch East Indies . Meanwhile , the Dutch continued to drive out the Portuguese from their bases in Asia . Malacca finally succumbed in 1641 ( after a second attempt to capture it ) , Colombo in 1656 , Ceylon in 1658 , Nagappattinam in 1662 and Cranganore and Cochin in 1662 . Goa , the capital of the Portuguese Empire in the East , was unsuccessfully attacked by the Dutch in 1603 and 1610 . Whilst the Dutch were unable in four attempts to capture Macau from where Portugal monopolized the lucrative China - Japan trade , the Japanese shogunate ' s increasing suspicion of the intentions of the Catholic Portuguese led to their expulsion in 1639 . Under the subsequent " sakoku " policy , from 1639 till 1854 ( 215 years ) the Dutch were the only European power allowed to operate in Japan , confined in 1639 to Hirado and then from 1641 at Deshima . In the mid 17th century the Dutch also explored the western Australian coasts , naming many places . The Dutch colonized Mauritius in 1638 , several decades after three ships out of the Dutch Second Fleet sent to the Spice Islands were blown off course in a storm and landed in 1598 . They named it in honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau , the Stadtholder of the Netherlands . The Dutch found the climate hostile and abandoned the island after several further decades . The Dutch established a colony at Tayouan ( present - day Anping ) , in the south of Taiwan , an island then largely dominated by Portuguese traders and known as Formosa ; and in 1642 the Dutch took northern Formosa from the Spanish by force . In 1646 , the Dutch tried to take the Spanish colony in the Philippines . The Dutch had a large force at their disposal but when they tried to take Manila , they were defeated at the Battles of La Naval de Manila . After this defeat , the Dutch abandoned their efforts to take Manila and the Philippines . Between 1602 and 1796 , the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade . The majority died of disease or made their way back to Europe , but some of them made the Indies their new home . Interaction between the Dutch and native population mainly took place in Sri Lanka and the modern Indonesian Islands . Through the centuries there developed a relatively large Dutch - speaking population of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent , known as Indos or Dutch - Indonesians . Americas . In the Atlantic , the West India Company concentrated on wresting from Portugal its grip on the sugar and slave trade , and on opportunistic attacks on the Spanish treasure fleets on their homeward bound voyage . Bahia on the north east coast of Brazil was captured in 1624 but only held for a year before it was recaptured by a joint Spanish - Portuguese expedition . In 1628 , Piet Heyn captured the entire Spanish treasure fleet , and made off with a vast fortune in precious metals and goods that enabled the Company two years later to pay its shareholders a cash dividend of 70 % , though the Company was to have relatively few other successes against the Spanish . In 1630 , the Dutch occupied the Portuguese sugar - settlement of Pernambuco and over the next few years pushed inland , annexing the sugar plantations that surrounded it . In order to supply the plantations with the manpower they required , a successful expedition was launched in 1637 from Brazil to capture the Portuguese slaving post of Elmina , and in 1641 successfully captured the Portuguese settlements in Angola . In 1642 , the Dutch captured the Portuguese possession of Axim in Africa . By 1650 , the West India Company was firmly in control of both the sugar and slave trades , and had occupied the Caribbean islands of Sint Maarten , Curaçao , Aruba and Bonaire in order to guarantee access to the islands ' salt - pans . Unlike in Asia , Dutch successes against the Portuguese in Brazil and Africa were short - lived . Years of settlement had left large Portuguese communities under the rule of the Dutch , who were by nature traders rather than colonizers . In 1645 , the Portuguese community at Pernambuco rebelled against their Dutch masters , and by 1654 , the Dutch had been ousted from Brazil . In the intervening years , a Portuguese expedition had been sent from Brazil to recapture Luanda in Angola , by 1648 the Dutch were expelled from there also . On the north - east coast of North America , the West India Company took over a settlement that had been established by the Company of New Netherland ( 1614 – 18 ) at Fort Orange at Albany on the Hudson River , relocated from Fort Nassau which had been founded in 1614 . The Dutch had been sending ships annually to the Hudson River to trade fur since Henry Hudson ' s voyage of 1609 . To protect its precarious position at Albany from the nearby English and French , the Company founded the fortified town of New Amsterdam in 1625 , at the mouth of the Hudson , encouraging settlement of the surrounding areas of Long Island and New Jersey . The fur trade ultimately proved impossible for the Company to monopolize due to the massive illegal private trade in furs , and the settlement of New Netherland was unprofitable . In 1655 , the nearby colony of New Sweden on the Delaware River was forcibly absorbed into New Netherland after ships and soldiers were sent to capture it by the Dutch governor , Pieter Stuyvesant . Since its inception , the Dutch East India Company had been in competition with its counterpart , the English East India Company , founded two years earlier but with a capital base eight times smaller , for the same goods and markets in the East . In 1619 , the rivalry resulted in the Amboyna massacre , when several English Company men were executed by agents of the Dutch . The event remained a source of English resentment for several decades , and indeed was used as a cause célèbre as late as the Second Anglo - Dutch War in the 1660s ; nevertheless , in the late 1620s the English Company shifted its focus from Indonesia to India . In 1643 , the Dutch West India Company established a settlement in the ruins of the Spanish settlement of Valdivia , in southern Chile . The purpose of the expedition was to gain a foothold on the west coast of the Americas , an area that was almost entirely under the control of Spain ( the Pacific Ocean , at least most of it to the east of the Philippines , being at the time almost a ' Spanish lake ' ) , and to extract gold from nearby mines . Uncooperative indigenous peoples , who had forced the Spanish to leave Valdivia in 1604 contributed to get the expedition to leave after some months of occupation . This occupation triggered the return of the Spanish to Valdivia and the building of one of the largest defensive complexes of colonial America . Africa . By the middle of the 17th century , the Dutch had overtaken Portugal as the dominant player in the spice and silk trade , and in 1652 founded a colony at Cape Town on the coast of South Africa , as a way - station for its ships on the route between Europe and Asia . After the first settlers spread out around the Company station , nomadic white livestock farmers , or Trekboer s , moved more widely afield , leaving the richer , but limited , farming lands of the coast for the drier interior tableland . In 1795 , the heavily taxed Boers of the frontier districts , who received no protection against the Africans , expelled the officials of the Dutch East India Company , and established independent governments at Swellendam and at Graaff - Reinet . Rivalry with Great Britain and France ( 1652 – 1795 ) . In 1651 , the English parliament passed the first of the Navigation Acts which excluded Dutch shipping from the lucrative trade between England and its Caribbean colonies , and led directly to the outbreak of hostilities between the two countries the following year , the first of three Anglo - Dutch Wars that would last on and off for two decades and slowly erode Dutch naval power to England ' s benefit . The Second Anglo - Dutch War was precipitated in 1664 , when English forces moved to capture New Netherland . Under the Treaty of Breda ( 1667 ) , New Netherland was ceded to England in exchange for the English settlements in Suriname , which had been conquered by Dutch forces earlier that year . Though the Dutch would again take New Netherland in 1673 , during the Third Anglo - Dutch War , it was returned to England the following year , thereby ending the Dutch Empire in continental North America , but leaving behind a large Dutch community under English rule that persisted with its language , church and customs until the mid - 18th century . In South America , the Dutch seized Cayenne from the French in 1658 and drove off a French attempt to retake it a year later . However , it was returned to France in 1664 , since the colony proved to be unprofitable . It was recaptured by the Dutch in 1676 , but was returned again a year later , this time permanently . The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw the Dutch William of Orange ascend to the throne , and win the English , Scottish , and Irish crowns , ending eighty years of rivalry between the Netherlands and England , while the rivalry with France remained strong . During the American Revolutionary War , Britain declared war on the Netherlands , the Fourth Anglo - Dutch War , in which Britain seized the Dutch colony of Ceylon . Under the Peace of Paris ( 1783 ) , Ceylon was returned to the Netherlands and Negapatnam ceded to Britain . Napoleonic era ( 1795 – 1815 ) . In 1795 , the French revolutionary army invaded the Dutch Republic and turned the nation into a satellite of France , named the Batavian Republic . Britain , which was at war with France , soon moved to occupy Dutch colonies in Asia , South Africa and the Caribbean . Under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens signed by Britain and France in 1802 , the Cape Colony and the islands of the Dutch West Indies that the British had seized were returned to the Republic . Ceylon was not returned to the Dutch and was made a British Crown Colony . After the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and France again in 1803 , the British retook the Cape Colony . The British also invaded and captured the island of Java in 1811 . In 1806 , Napoleon dissolved the Batavian Republic and established a monarchy with his brother , Louis , on the throne as King of Holland . Louis was removed from power by Napoleon in 1810 , and the country was ruled directly from France until its liberation in 1813 . The following year , the independent Netherlands signed the Anglo - Dutch Treaty of 1814 with Britain . All the colonies Britain had seized were returned to the Netherlands , with the exception of the Cape Colony and Guyana . Post - Napoleonic era ( 1815 – 1945 ) . After Napoleon ' s defeat in 1815 , Europe ' s borders were redrawn at the Congress of Vienna . For the first time since the declaration of independence from Spain in 1581 , the Dutch were reunited with the Southern Netherlands in a constitutional monarchy , the United Kingdom of the Netherlands . The union lasted just 15 years . In 1830 , a revolution in the southern half of the country led to the " de facto " independence of the new state of Belgium . The bankrupt Dutch East India Company was liquidated on 1 January 1800 , and its territorial possessions were nationalized as the Dutch East Indies . Anglo - Dutch rivalry in Southeast Asia continued to fester over the port of Singapore , which had been ceded to the British East India Company in 1819 by the sultan of Johore . The Dutch claimed that a treaty signed with the sultan ' s predecessor the year earlier had granted them control of the region . However , the impossibility of removing the British from Singapore , which was becoming an increasingly important centre of trade , became apparent to the Dutch , and the disagreement was resolved with the Anglo - Dutch Treaty of 1824 . Under its terms , the Netherlands ceded Malacca and their bases in India to the British , and recognized the British claim to Singapore . In return , the British handed over Bencoolen and agreed not to sign treaties with rulers in the " islands south of the Straits of Singapore " . Thus the archipelago was divided into two spheres of influence : a British one , on the Malay Peninsula , and a Dutch one in the East Indies . For most of the Dutch East Indies history , and that of the VOC before it , Dutch control over their territories was often tenuous , but was expanded over the course of the 19th century . Only in the early 20th century did Dutch dominance extend to what was to become the boundaries of modern - day Indonesia . Although highly populated and agriculturally productive , Java was under Dutch domination for most of the 350 years of the combined VOC and Dutch East Indies era , many areas remained independent for much of this time including Aceh , Lombok , Bali and Borneo . In 1871 , all of the Dutch possessions on the Dutch Gold Coast were sold to Britain . The Dutch West India company was abolished in 1791 , and its colonies in Suriname and the Caribbean brought under the direct rule of the state . The economies of the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean had been based on the smuggling of goods and slaves into Spanish America , but with the end of the slave trade in 1814 and the independence of the new nations of South and Central America from Spain , profitability rapidly declined . Dutch traders moved " en masse " from the islands to the United States or Latin America , leaving behind a small populations with little income and which required subsidies from the Dutch government . The Antilles were combined under one administration with Suriname from 1828 to 1845 . Slavery was not abolished in the Dutch Caribbean colonies until 1863 , long after those of Britain and France , though by this time only 6 , 500 slaves remained . In Suriname , slave holders demanded compensation from the Dutch government for freeing slaves , whilst in Sint Maarten , abolition of slavery in the French half in 1848 led slaves in the Dutch half to take their own freedom . In Suriname , after the abolition of slavery , Chinese workers were encouraged to immigrate as indentured laborers , as were Javanese , between 1890 and 1939 . Decolonization ( 1942 – 1975 ) . Indonesia . In January 1942 , Japan invaded the Netherlands East Indies . The Dutch surrendered two months later in Java , with Indonesians initially welcoming the Japanese as liberators . The subsequent Japanese occupation of Indonesia during the remainder of World War II saw the fundamental dismantling of the Dutch colonial state ' s economic , political and social structures , replacing it with a Japanese regime . In the decades before the war , the Dutch had been overwhelmingly successful in suppressing the small nationalist movement in Indonesia such that the Japanese occupation proved fundamental for Indonesian independence . However , the Indonesian Communist Party founded by Dutch socialist Henk Sneevliet in 1914 , popular also with Dutch workers and sailors at the time , was in strategic alliance with Sarekat Islam ( q . v . ) as early as 1917 until the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence and was particularly important in the fight against Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies in the Second World War . The Japanese encouraged and backed Indonesian nationalism in which new indigenous institutions were created and nationalist leaders such as Sukarno were promoted . The internment of all Dutch citizens meant that Indonesians filled many leadership and administrative positions , although the top positions were still held by the Japanese . Two days after the Japanese surrender in August 1945 , Sukarno and fellow nationalist leader Hatta unilaterally declared Indonesian independence . A four and a half - year struggle followed as the Dutch tried to re - establish their colony . Dutch forces eventually re - occupied most of the colonial territory and a guerrilla struggle ensued . The majority of Indonesians , and - ultimately - international opinion , favored independence , and in December 1949 , the Netherlands formally recognized Indonesian sovereignty . Under the terms of the 1949 agreement , Western New Guinea remained under the auspices of Netherlands New Guinea . The new Indonesian government under President Sukarno pressured for the territory to come under Indonesian control as Indonesian nationalists initially intended . Following United States pressure , the Netherlands transferred it to Indonesia under the 1962 New York Agreement . Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles . In 1954 , under the " Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands " , the Netherlands , Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles ( at the time including Aruba ) became a composite kingdom . The former colonies were granted autonomy , save for certain matters including defense , foreign affairs and citizenship , which were the responsibility of the Realm . In 1969 , unrest in Curaçao led to Dutch marines being sent to quell rioting . In 1973 , negotiations started in Suriname for independence , and full independence was granted in 1975 , with 60 , 000 emigrants taking the opportunity of moving to the Netherlands . In 1986 , Aruba was allowed to secede from the Netherlands Antilles federation , and was pressured by the Netherlands to move to independence within ten years . However , in 1994 , it was agreed that its status as a Realm in its own right could continue . On October 10 , 2010 , the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved . Effective on that date , Curaçao and Sint Maarten acceded to the same country status within the Kingdom that Aruba already enjoyed . The islands of Bonaire , Sint Eustatius and Saba were granted a status similar to Dutch municipalities , and are now sometimes referred to as the Caribbean Netherlands . Legacy . Generally , the Dutch do not celebrate their imperial past , and anti - colonial sentiments prevail since the 1960s . Subsequently , colonial history is not featured prominently in Dutch schoolbooks . This perspective on their imperial past only recently shifted with prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende ' s contentious call for the return of the VOC mentality . Dutch diaspora . In some Dutch colonies there are major ethnic groups of Dutch ancestry descending from emigrated Dutch settlers . In South Africa the Boers and Cape Dutch collectively known as the Afrikaner s . The Burgher people of Sri Lanka and the Indo people of Indonesia as well as the Creoles of Suriname are mixed race people of Dutch descent . In the USA there have been three American presidents of Dutch descent : Martin Van Buren , the first president who was not of British descent , and whose first language was Dutch , the 26th president Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D . Roosevelt , the 32nd president , elected to four terms in office ( 1933 to 1945 ) and the only U . S . president to have served more than two terms . Dutch language . Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350 years , the Dutch language has no official status and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation , or employed in the legal profession , as some legal codes are still only available in Dutch . The Indonesian language inherited many words from Dutch , both in words for everyday life , and as well in scientific or technological terminology . One scholar argues that 20 % of Indonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words . The century and half of Dutch rule in Ceylon and southern India left few to no traces of the Dutch language . Today , in Suriname , Dutch is the official language and 58 percent of the population speak it as their mother tongue . Twenty - four percent of the population speaks Dutch as a second language , and in total 82 percent of the population can speak Dutch . In Aruba , Bonaire , and Curaçao , Dutch is the official language but spoken as a first language by only seven to eight percent of the population , although most people on the islands can speak the language and the education system on these islands is in Dutch at some or all levels . The population of the three northern Antilles , Sint Maarten , Saba , and Sint Eustatius , is predominantly English - speaking . In New Jersey in the United States , an extinct dialect of Dutch , Jersey Dutch , spoken by descendants of 17th century Dutch settlers in Bergen and Passaic counties , was noted to still be spoken as late as 1921 . The greatest linguistic legacy of the Netherlands was in its colony in South Africa , which attracted large numbers of Dutch farmer ( in Dutch , " Boer " ) settlers , who spoke a simplified form of Dutch called " Afrikaans " , which is largely mutually intelligible with Dutch . After the colony passed into British hands , the settlers spread into the hinterland , taking their language with them . As of 2005 , there were 10 million people for whom Afrikaans is either a primary and secondary language , compared with over 22 million speakers of Dutch . Other Creole language s with Dutch linguistic roots are Papiamento still spoken in Aruba , Bonaire , Curaçao , and Sint Eustatius ; Saramaccan and Sranan Tongo still spoken in Suriname ; Berbice spoken but in danger of extinction in Guyana ; Pecok spoken but in danger of extinction in Indonesia and the Netherlands ; Albany Dutch spoken but in danger of extinction in the USA . Extinct Dutch - based creole languages include : Skepi ( Guyana ) ; Negerhollands ( aka " Negro Dutch " ) , Jersey Dutch and Mohawk Dutch ( USA ) and Javindo ( Java ) . Placenames . Some towns of New York and areas of New York City , once part of the colony of New Netherland have names of Dutch origin , such as Brooklyn ( after Breukelen ) , Flushing ( after Vlissingen ) , the Bowery ( after Bouwerij , construction site ) , Harlem ( after Haarlem ) , Coney Island ( from Conyne Eylandt , modern Dutch spelling Konijneneiland : Rabbit island ) and Staten Island ( meaning " Island of the States " ) . The last Director - General of the colony of New Netherland , Pieter Stuyvesant , has bequeathed his name to a street , a neighborhood and a few schools in New York City , and the town of Stuyvesant . Many of the towns and cities along the Hudson in upstate New York have placenames with Dutch origins ( for example Yonkers , Hoboken , Haverstraw , Newburgh , Staatsburg , Catskill , Kinderhook , Coeymans , Rensselaer , Watervliet ) . Nassau County , one of the four that make up Long Island , is also of Dutch Origin . Many towns and cities in Suriname share names with cities in the Netherlands , such as Alkmaar and Groningen . The capital of Curaçao is named Willemstad and the capital of Aruba is named Oranjestad . Both are named after the Dutch King Willem van Oranje - Nassau ( William of Orange - Nassau ) - the first heir to the Dutch House of Orange . Half of South Africa ' s major cities have Dutch names i . e . Johannesburg , Kaapstad , Vereeniging , Bloemfontein and Vanderbijlpark . The country name " New Zealand " originated with Dutch cartographers , who called the islands " Nova Zeelandia " , after the Dutch province of Zeeland . British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicized the name to New Zealand . The Australian island state Tasmania is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman , who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642 . He first named the island Anthony van Diemen ' s Land after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen , the Governor of the Dutch East Indies . The name was later shortened to Van Diemen ' s Land by the British . It was officially renamed in honor of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856 . Arnhem Land is named after the Dutch ship named Arnhem . The captain of the Arnhem ( Willem van Coolsteerdt ) also named the large island , east of Arnhem Groote Eylandt , in modern Dutch spelling Groot Eiland : Large Island . There are lots more Dutch geographical names in Australia . Architecture . In the Surinamese Capital of Paramaribo , the Dutch Fort Zeelandia still stands today . In the centre of Malacca , Malaysia , the Stadthuys Building and Christ Church still stand . There are still archaeological remains of Fort Goede Hoop ( modern Hartford , Connecticut ) and Fort Orange ( modern Albany , New York ) . Dutch architecture is easy to see in Aruba , Curaçao , and Bonaire . The Dutch style buildings are especially visible in Willemstad , with its steeply pitched gables , large windows and soaring finials . During the period of Dutch colonization in South Africa , a distinctive type of architecture , known as Cape Dutch architecture , was developed . Although the Dutch already started erecting buildings shortly after they arrived on the shores of Batavia , most Dutch - built constructions still standing today in Indonesia stem from the 19th and 20th centuries . Forts from the colonial era , used for defense purposes , still line a number of major coastal cities across the archipelago . The largest number of Dutch buildings is found on Java , particularly in the big cities such as Jakarta , Bandung , Semarang , Yogyakarta , Surabaya and Malang . “ In the beginning ( of the Dutch presence ) , Dutch construction on Java was based on colonial architecture which was modified according to the tropical and local cultural conditions , ” Indonesian art and design professor Pamudji Suptandar wrote . This was dubbed " arsitektur Indis " ( Indies architecture ) , which combines the existing traditional Hindu - Javanese style with European forms . Many public buildings still standing and in use in Jakarta , such as the presidential palace , the finance ministry and the performing arts theatre , were built in the 19th century in the classicist style . As the 20th century approached , the number of Dutch people in Indonesia increase , and smaller residential dwellings were built , many in the more modern art - deco style . The most ‘ Dutch ’ city in Indonesia , architecturally speaking , is Bandung , some 180 kilometres east of Jakarta . This city , situated on the higher plains of West Java , was largely rural grounds until the Dutch decided to develop it into a city in the late 19th century . Since Indonesia ’ s independence , few governments have shown interest in the conservation of historical buildings . Many architecturally grand buildings have been torn down in the past decades to erect shopping centres or office buildings e . g . Hotel des Indes ( Batavia ) . Presently , however , more Indonesians have become aware of the value of preserving their old buildings . “ A decade ago , most people thought I was crazy when they learned of my efforts to save the old part of Jakarta . A few years later , the negative voices started to disappear , and now many people are starting to think with me : how are we going to save our city . In the past using the negative sentiment towards the colonial era was often used as an excuse to disregard protests against the demolition of historical buildings . An increasing number of people now see the old colonial buildings as part of their city ’ s overall heritage rather than focusing on its colonial aspect . ” , leading Indonesian architect and conservationist Budi Lim said . Infrastructure . Beyond Indonesia ’ s art deco architecture also much of the country ’ s rail and road infrastructure as well as its major cities were built during the colonial period . Many of Indonesia ’ s main cities were mere rural townships before colonial industrialization and urban development . Examples on Java include the capital Jakarta and Bandung , outside Java examples include Ambon and Menado city . Most main railroads and rail stations on Java as well as the main road , called Daendels Great Post Road ( Dutch : Grote Postweg ) after the Governor General commissioning the work , connecting west to east Java were also built during the Dutch East Indies era . Between 1800 to 1950 Dutch engineers created an infrastructure including of roads , of railways , many large bridges , modern irrigation systems covering 1 . 4 million hectares ( 5 , 400 sq mi ) of rice fields , several international harbors , and 140 public drinking water systems . These Dutch constructed public works became the material base of the colonial and postcolonial Indonesian state . Agriculture . Crops such like coffee , tea , cacao , tobacco and rubber were all introduced by the Dutch . The Dutch were the first to start the spread of the coffee plant in Central and South America , and by the early 19th century Java was the third largest producer in the world . In 1778 the Dutch brought cacao from the Philippines to Indonesia and commenced mass production . Currently Indonesia is the world ' s second largest producer of natural rubber , a crop that was introduced by the Dutch in the early 20th century . Tobacco was introduced from the Americas and in 1863 the first plantation was established by the Dutch . Today Indonesia is not only the oldest industrial producer of tobacco , but also the second largest consumer of tobacco .