5. The Dutch-Portuguese War expanded the Dutch trading empire
During the 17th century, the European continent endured several wars over issues such as religion, dynastic successions, and territorial expansion. Early in the century Portugal, then a leading maritime and colonial power, shared a dynastic throne with the Spanish Empire as the Iberian Union. Their chief trading competitor, in the Caribbean, the African Coast, and the Spice Islands of the East Indies, were the Dutch. In 1602, while embroiled in an ongoing struggle for independence from the Iberian Union, the Dutch created the Dutch East India Company. A megacorporation, the East India Company became the first publicly traded corporation in the world. It maintained its own army and fleet, created and governed colonies, negotiated treaties, and grew to dominate the spice trade. The Dutch West India Company attempted to establish a Dutch empire in the New World, and in Africa.
In the late 16th century, Philip II of Spain ordered an embargo against spices shipped by the rebellious Dutch provinces, then known as the Republic of the Seven United Provinces. Following the creation of the Dutch East India Company open warfare broke out between the Dutch company and the Portuguese. Portugal complained to the Spanish throne that it paid more attention to Spanish colonies and little to the defense of the Portuguese, as the Iberian Union. The Dutch took advantage of Spanish laxity. The war over the spice trade created a Dutch Empire in Africa, India, Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and in the islands and archipelagos throughout the Indian and Southwest Pacific oceans. The war over the spice trade lasted over 60 years.