The Kingdom of the Netherlands. A reasonably small country in today's Central Europe whose only other
possessions today are three Caribbean islands, Curaçao, Aruba and Sint-Martin, with a population
of around 17.4 million people. But the Dutch overseas possessions were much larger throughout
history and they once had a significant role as one of the main European colonizer powers
The map I used on the thumbnail and the one here is a little misleading because it is an anachronous
map. This means that these are all the possessions the Dutch Empire had at any time overlapped
meaning they never held all of these at the same time. But still, for the purpose of this video
and to make it more interesting, I'm going to follow the idea that all lands which were at
any time under Dutch rule decided to reunite in current days. It would spread across almost
all continents in the world, from New Amsterdam in North America to the Dutch Guyanas, Dutch
Brazil and territories in today's Ghana, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia
and Taiwan Not to mention the many many trade outposts they established throughout the African coast India Southeast Asia China and Japan and some apparently even in the coast of Chile in South America On top of that we also have to assume
that their rule over the Benelux region would also have maintained itself, or would once again
be a reality, and they would therefore also rule Belgium and Luxembourg in Europe. Now
it goes without saying that this scenario is absolutely and totally impossible. This is
definitely just a what-if hypothetical scenario with no likelihood of ever happening. But I think
it's interesting and fun to think about, especially because looking at the union of the territories
with our current reality allows us to understand the size and dimension that certain empires
in this case the Dutch, really had at their peak. Before checking how the renewed empire would be
like in modern days, let's quickly summarize how the Dutch empire came to be and how it reached
all of these places. The Dutch Empire divided itself into two areas. The East Indies in Oceania
and Asia and the West Indies in America. Africa, I think, was divided along the two. It also divided
itself into two methods throughout both of these areas. The establishment of true colonies with
large territorial rule and the mere establishment of trade factories or fortresses to use the trade routes and have a presence in those regions So let take a quick look region by region to understand which areas they ruled and which areas would now become a part
of the empire again should the impossible ever happen. In Africa, most of their presence was
through these trade factories, essentially military and economical outposts that existed throughout the African coast. However, they did have some territorial exploration and colonies
per se. In South Africa, they briefly ruled the Cape of Good Hope and surrounding areas before
losing them to the British. In West Africa, they held the Dutch Gold Coast in Ghana, a part of
Angola, Senegal, and the island of Arguin, off the coast of Mauritania. In East Africa, they controlled
the island of Mauritius, near Madagascar. In Asia, their presence was gigantic, and although it was
also mainly through trading posts, they also held significant land. The most obvious cases
are Indonesia, of course, Ceylon, and Taiwan. But they also had actual colonies in India
Coromandel and its coast was the major Dutch colony on the mainland. It grew from the fort
at Pulikat, captured from the Portuguese in 1609. In fact, many of the Dutch colonies throughout
America Africa or Asia were captured and taken from the Portuguese In most if not all cases during the time when Spain briefly ruled Portugal The Dutch were at war with the Spanish and since the Spanish cared more about their own
empire than the Portuguese one, they left Portuguese colonies mostly undefended and
the Dutch took the opportunity to seize them. The rest of their Asian empire consisted mostly of those trading outposts in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan
Yemen, Bangladesh, Oman, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, and also Madagascar
So I don't know how any of these would now join a modern Dutch empire, since their presence in
those regions was mostly a group of buildings. Maybe the city in which they were in could join
and the empire would have a network of small city-states throughout the world. In America
they also had significant possessions. New Netherlands consisted of parts of today's
US regions of Albany and the state of New York, and the city of New York itself in Manhattan
at the time New Amsterdam. They also ruled the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean, and this would today give them
ownership of many islands, although they still currently have some of them
Saint Martin, the Virgin Islands, Aruba, Curaçao, and Tobago would be among these
In South America they held Surinam, part of Guiana