ITC 59: When the Dutch Met the Dragon

In The Crease (ITC) is where history, mystery, and the human condition collide. Hosted by J E DOUBLE F, each episode blends storytelling, analysis, and dark humor to explore the strange, the forgotten, and the unsettlingly relevant.

🎧 New episodes release bi-weekly.
📅 Current Season: ITC Season 4 (Episodes 61–80).

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Hello, and welcome back to Increase, where we are going
to deep dive into folds of history. Oh one of
their most baby intriguing tale, I am your host Jef
also known as a cosmic bard over on that bird
app or whatever we're gonna call Twitter these days. Today

(02:12):
we're hoisting the sales and setting a course for a
saga of high sea adventure, cutthroat commerce, and swash buckling skullduggery.
This is episode fifty nine, and we're going to focus
on the legendary Dutch East India Company, the VOC, and
some of its epic encounters, which Haines pirates from the

(02:36):
seventeenth to nineteenth century. Now the Dutch East India Company
or they're in nigde O Stringitch Company, which I'm butchering
because I don't have too much finish in my brain,
mercifully shortened to VOC was not your average trading outfit.
It was a corporation so mighty. It had its own

(02:57):
navy and army, and it didn't just negotiate deals, It's
sometimes waged war to get them. We're talking about the
world's first joint stock multinational corporation found it in sixteen
oh two, which well, let's face it could sign treaties,
mint coins, and execute those who got in its way.

(03:19):
And yes, you heard that correctly. In its golden age,
the BOC dominated Asian trade, sending nearly a million Europeans
across oceans on almost five thousand voyages, hauling back spices, silks, teas, porcelain,
and of course the ever important human cargo as part
of the slave trade. And for almost two centuries this

(03:41):
company paid dividends averaging eighteen percent, not exactly shabby for
any shareholder, making it arguably the richest commercial enterprise ever. Now,
some economists like to quip that if you adjust for inflation,
the VOC at its peak was worth over seven trillion dollars. Now,

(04:07):
that much immense wealth and power did eventually come at
a cost. It operated in a rough and tumble world
where European empires and local kingdoms vied for supremacy, and
where the line between merchant and pirate were razor thin.
In fact, the BOC itself wasn't above a bit of
piracy when it suited them. As the boardroom might call
it aggressive business strategies. And who are the rivals in

(04:31):
these high stake games? Well, aside from other European powers
like the Portuguese, Spaine, English, the seas of Asia teamed
with independent actors, arnable local rulers, mercantile communities, and of
course pirates. And we're going to zero in on those pirates,
especially those Chinese pirate confederations that terrorized the South China Sea.

(04:57):
Will mate figures like Xing Xi Shy and other outlaw
captains who clashed for the VOC or its trading world.
So picture this. It's the sixteen hundreds. The Dutch Republic
is in a golden age, rem Brandt is painting masterpieces
and aster Amsterdam, while halfway around the world, Dutch captains

(05:19):
are battling monsoons and marauders to bring back cloves and cinnamon.
The BOC ships cut through the waves laden with riches,
but DC seas are proud by pirate junks under crimson
sales and by local seafaring peoples who don't take kindly
to any foreigners, let alone foreign monopolies. Monopolies. It's a

(05:43):
recipe for conflict and adventure in this episode, where we'll
try to navigate through centuries of history in a little
under an hour, hopefully from the VOC's arrival in Asia
in the early seventeenth century, through dramatic showdowns like the
Heige of Fort Zeelandia and the Battle of Laolow Bay,

(06:05):
all the way to the early nineteenth century when a
Chinese pirate queen commanded a fleet that made Blackbeard's armada
look like it belonged in a kiddie pool. So the
story does start at the dawn of the seventeenth century,
the year sixteen oh two, with Shakespeare's writing Hamlet. In
Twelfth Night, Galileo was peering through his telescope and in

(06:26):
the Dutch Republic, savvy merchants and statements are creating something revolutionary.
The United East India Company think of the VOC as
a startup that immediately became a mega corporation with government backing.
The Dutch government gave it a twenty one year monopoly
on all trade to Asia. In other words, if you

(06:48):
were Dutch and wanted to send a ship to buy
pepper or now silk, you had to go through the
VOC or face legal consequences. So the VOC quickly took
over a bunch of smaller competing companies, pulled resources and
got superpowers from the state. And by superpowers, I mean

(07:09):
literally legal right to make war or peace, seized territory
and administer justice in far off lands. It basically became
a country onto itself, operating quasi under Dutch under the
touch flag. But from day one profit was the motive.
The spice trade was the gold rush of that era.

(07:32):
Spices like cloves, nutmeg, mace, and pepper from the East
Indies or think modern Indonesia were worth their weight in
well spices, which at the time was way more than
what gold was valued at. European consumers couldn't get enough
of these exotic flavors that preserved and enlivened food. Somehow
never made it to Britain, but that's another story. The

(07:54):
Portuguese had a stronghold in these Spice Islands and the
fifteen hundreds, but the Dutch were now mustling in. And
how how do you break a rival's monopoly. Well, if
you're the VOC, you do it with cannons and contracts
and equal measures. Three years after its founding, in sixteen

(08:16):
oh five, the VOC captured the Portuguese fort at Amban
in the Maluca Islands. This was one of the first
of many dominoes to fall over the next decades. The
VOC would methodically oust the Portuguese from key trading ports
across the East Indies, often forming alliances with local rulers
who disliked Iberian edge of money. Excuse me. By sixteen nineteen,

(08:41):
led by the fierce and somewhat fanatical governor General Jan
Pederstone Cohen, the Dutch established Batavia, which is also what
today is Jakarta on Java as their Asian headquarters. Cohen
literally burned down the Javanese town of Jakarta and built
Batavia on top of its ashes. Talk about a real

(09:03):
hostile corporate takeover. Now, Batavia became the bustling hub of
the Voces Empire, a Dutch city with canals and gabled
houses transplanet to the tropics, complete with a bit of
an Asian melting pot population of Dutch, Malay, Chinese, Malucan,
Indian and more. Now, if you think modern multinational corporations

(09:25):
are influential, consider the Batavia was essentially a company town
writ large, an entire colonial capital run by bord of
directors sitting back in Amsterdam, and they were called the
Haren seventeen or the seventeen Lords.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Now.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Running this kind of operation was no easy walk in
the park. The distances at that time and stilled today
to large degree, were enormous. It took months for ships
to go from the Netherlands to Java, rounding the Cape
of Good Hope in Africa, braving the vast Indian Ocean,
and communication lag was measured in years. So the VOC

(10:04):
had to be self sufficient and ruthless. It built forts,
armed its ships, and didn't shy away from using force
to secure trade. There's a reason one historian dubbed the
VOC quote a war making trading company unquote. Trade and
warfare were two sides of the same coin to them. Now,

(10:26):
speaking of coins, one of the BOC's early strategic accusations
read kind of reads like a pirate tale. At sixteen
oh three, a fleet under Captain Jacob Hemskirk captured the
Santa Katarina, a Portuguese rack sailing off the coast of Singapore. Now,

(10:48):
the Santa Katerina was a huge one thousand, five hundred
ton ship stuff with Chinese silk, porcelain, and other Asian goods,
a true floating treasure chest. Its capture was essentially state
sanctioned piracy. The Dutch and Portuguese were at war as
part of the broader eighty years war. So the VOCE

(11:10):
justified the seizure as fair game, but it was controversial
even in Netherlands. After all, if you're trying to establish
a lawful trading empire, outright piracy can be a bit
of a pr nightmare. The Dutch juris Hugo Grotius famously
wrote a legal defense of free seas called mayor Liberium

(11:30):
to rationalize dush actions, basically arguing that no nation could
monopolize ocean trade routes. Now, it was a high minded principle,
though in practice the VOS wanted a monopoly for itself.
A little bit of irony on the bottom line. The
loot from the Santa Caterina's cargo was sold in Amsterdam
for an eye popping sum. The sales reportedly increased the

(11:53):
Voce's capital by more than fifty percent in one go,
So you heard that correct. A single captured ship pumped
the company's value dramatically. Imagine if Apple boosted its market
cap fifty percent overnight by capturing a Samsung shipment. Well,
that's kind of kind of what happened. This windfall gave

(12:14):
the voc a massive early boost, and one might joke
that corporate piracy literally paid dividends. So from the get go,
the VOC showed it could play the pirate when it
had to. Now what the Portuguese largely beaten out of
the spice trade. By the mid sixteen hundreds, the VOC
became the supreme European power in Asian waters. They established

(12:37):
posts not just in Indonesia, but in Sri Lanka, India's
Malibor Coast, Persia, and even as far as Japan. However,
as the VOC expanded, it started to encounter a whole
new set of challenges, and one of these challenges was
the complex world of Asian seafaring works, including the Chinese

(13:01):
traders and pirates who had long dominated the South China Sea.
The VOC wasn't operating in any vacuum. Far from it.
The Asian maritime world had its own powers, its own traditions,
and its own brand of outlaw entrepreneurs. Now, before we
jump to the pirate wars, and I know I've done

(13:24):
one or two shows on pirates. When I see in
the past, I thought it would be worth noting something
about the terminology for the word pirate can be a
bit loaded. One person's pirate might be another person's patriot,
or just a businessman who refuses to play by a
certain emperor's rules. The BOC, for instance, like to label

(13:47):
anyone who traded it in their monopoly zones without permission
it's pirates or sea rovers. This included indigenous sailors and
merchants who had traded freely for centuries before the Dutch
even showed up. In many cases, local Malay and Japanese
traders were just trying to carry on with their normal commerce,
and the voc strict monopoly forced them into smuggling or worse,

(14:10):
an English merchant in the sixteen seventies deserved that the
Malays around Malacca Straits, normally not addicted to robbery, might
have turned to piracy to revenge themselves on the Dutch
for restraining their trade. In other words, Dutch oppression helped
create the very piracy problem they later despised. Shocking. I know,

(14:30):
I know, heavy handed policies breeding resentment. You've never really
seen that in history or today, future and others. So
maybe keep in mind when we talk about pirates in
this era. Sometimes they were independent trade warriors fighting monopoly,
sometimes pure bandits, and often they blended to two the

(14:53):
South China Sea in particular had a rich tradition of
Chinese and Southeast Asian maritime ventures that sometimes slid into
the illicit territory. And it's there in the waters south
of China and around the Indonesian Archipela that the VOC
would meet some of its fiercest adversaries outside of Europe,
not in the form of formal navies, but from pirate fleets.

(15:20):
So let's look to China in the South China Sea
in the sixteen hundreds, the VOC wanted to trade directly
with China's markets silks, porcelain, and tea. Let's face, it
would be usually profitable if they could get to them,
but early on the Dutch found the Ming dynasty a
bit of a tough nut to crack. Ming China wasn't

(15:44):
particularly interested in whatever the Dutch were selling, and they
tightly controlled foreign trade. In fact, for much of the
Ming period, private maritime trade was officially illegal under the
Hajan or sea banned policies. Of course, that just meant
a lot of trade went to more of what you
might call a gray market or even the outright black market.

(16:07):
And who excelled at gray black market trading better than
anyone else pirates of course, or or maybe we should
use the more neutral term smugglers. In the sixteenth century,
long before the BOC, the South China coast had been
swarming with Woku pirates, a mix of Japanese, Chinese and
others who raided and traded illegally, and by the late

(16:31):
fifteen hundreds those were mostly suppressed. But by the early
seventeenth century a new breed of Chinese maritides ships were rising,
operating from bases in Southeast Asia. These were sometimes called
Hai Shang or sea merchants, or by the Spanish and
Portuguese as simply Chinos or sanglies who traded all over
Asia and occasionally veering into the world of piracy. Now,

(16:57):
one key figure here is Jiangxi, and you might want
to remember that name because his family will be central
to this story. Jang Geelong, also known as Nicholas Ikwan
in some records after he got baptized by the Portuguese,
started out around sixteen twenty as a Chinese pirate merchant
in the South China Sea. He was part of a

(17:19):
network of Chinese traders based in places like Macaw, the
Portuguese in clave in China Manila, which was under Spanish
rule in the Philippines and Huyan in Vietnam. These guys
would do anything to turn a profit, trade silk for silver, smuggle,
contraband raider coast to town if it had an opportunity

(17:39):
that arose in that wild environment. Xiang Geelong proved exceptionally
cunning and capable. At various points. He worked with the Portuguese,
flirted with the Dutch, and eventually made himself so powerful
that the Chinese government decided it's better to have him
on their side and against him now. The voc verse

(18:04):
encountered these Chinese pirates as both nuance and necessity. For instance,
one Chinese trader pirate named leed Dan was operating out
of basically Thailand and present day Vietnam. He and others
controlled much of the junk trades around South China Sea.
Leidan eventually helped the Dutch at times as a broker

(18:26):
for trade with China. In the early sixteen hundreds, when
leed An died, his protege Xiang Xilong, inherited part of
his fleet, and by the late sixteen twenties, Xiang was
running a huge pirate enterprise along the Fijian coast of China.
He had hundreds of ships to his name, European cannons
mounted on them, and a polygot crew including Chinese, Japanese

(18:49):
ruin in, even some Portuguese renegades and some African slaves
that had turned pirates. Now that's said, this was no
rag tag bunch thinks it was basically a pirate or
private navy. The Ming navy was too feeble to control
the seas, so Zeng and other pirate lords, well, they

(19:10):
decided to take on that mantle and do it themselves.
So now we have the voc entering the scene. They
really really desperately wanted that China foothold. The thought of
silk and porcelain as high value goods that they could
then trade to so, I don't know, Japan for silver
or to carry back to Europe was just they they

(19:36):
had an erection for it, let's just put it that way.
But the Ming court just wasn't really granting them trades.
So the Dutch tried a strategy. They tried to use
force to open China. In sixteen twenty two, they actually
attempted to seize Macaw from the Portuguese and failed. They
then occupied Pinghu Islands in the Taiwan Straight territory was

(20:00):
claimed by Ming China, hoping the pressure the Chinese to
let them trade now. That led to a war with
the Ming forces from sixteen twenty three to sixteen twenty four,
which the Dutch lost. As a result, the Ming commanded
commanded them to move off Penghu, and the Dutch relucillly

(20:20):
com complied and instead set up a base on the
relatively unclaimed island of Formosa, which is now Taiwan. In
sixteen twenty four. This new Dutch colony in Taiwan, anchored
by Fort Zielandia, would become a pivotal outpost. And remember
that place, Fort Zelandia. I know we instantly think of

(20:40):
that awful movie, But zi Landia, it's going to be
a bit of a sight of maybe a climactic pirate showdown.
A few decades later, but the Dutch started to realize something,
if they couldn't beat the Chinese pirates, maybe join them,

(21:03):
or maybe get them to join you. So that's what
they tried to do. And the voc eventually struck up
a relationship with Jing Xai Loong. And here's what basically
the deal consisted of. Xing was so dominant in the
Fujian coastwaters that by sixteen twenty eight, the Ming Emperor
basically offered him amnesty in a job the Ming made

(21:27):
Jing xai Loong and naval admiral essentially co opting the pirate.
And this was kind of a you know, an age
old imperial tactic used barbarians to check barbarians, or in
this case, you know, use a pirate to catch pirates.
Once Jiang got the official hat, some of his more
hardcore pirate lieutenants started to split off, preferring the life

(21:51):
of a free man. And guess who Xang enlisted to
help him hunt down those rogue ex pirates. Yep, the VOC.
So in a bit of an odd twist, the Dutch
became allies with the former pirate enemy, Governor Hans Putsman,
a VOC chief in Taiwan, agreed to assist Admiral Xing
Xailong in exchange for the promise of trade privileges in China.

(22:16):
So the VOC provided ships and firepower to Zing's campaign
against a rival pirate leader, Lee Kuki, which was actually
one of Zing's former official who decided on mutiny in
sixteen thirty that they together defeated Lee Kuki's fleet. The

(22:36):
Dutch probably thought, great, we're helping Ming clean up the pirate. Surely,
just surely they'll reward us with a nice trade agreement now,
right right, But bureaucratic China decided to not play along.
A new Ming governor in Fujian Province took charge, who

(22:56):
had no interest in opening ports to the red haired
Dutch barbarians Jing Xai Long despite his early promise, as
the Dutch couldn't or maybe wouldn't deliver the trade rights
he had dangled in front of them. From the Dutch perspective,
it looked like they had been duped or even stonewalled.
Governor Putnam's well. He grew frustrated, specting Zing had taken

(23:19):
them for a ride all along. After all, the Dutch
had risk ships and men to help Zing eliminate his competition,
and now they were basically left holding an empty bag.
And this is when the VOC's patient ran out. Putman's
decided to use force to get what diplomacy could not.

(23:40):
In sixteen thirty three, he took a VOC fleet and
started to basically get in the way of Chinese shipping.
The Taiwanese straight Essentially, the Vos tried to chok off
the sea lanes and show Ming's China who was really
the boss around here, a strategy that might sound eerily
similar to me like a protection racket. You know, nice

(24:03):
trade you have here, shame if something happened to it.
This provoked an open confrontation with Admiral Geelong, who of
course was now an official main commander. So for my
ally turned adversary once more, if your head isn't spending,
don't worry. This is typical seventeenth century maritime politics. It's

(24:25):
like a very extreme corporate merger gone wrong. First your partner.
Then you find your partner has taken your ip or
you know, sunk your battle chefs, and you Bacti fating
once more.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Now.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
The result was the Battle of Lao Lu Bay in
October thirty three, sixteenth sixteen thirty three, one of the
largest naval battles of that century. So picture this scene,
Lao Lay Bay off the Fujian coast, hundreds of ships
on either side, Xing's armada of Chinese war junks and

(24:58):
fire ships versus the voc squadron of well armed sailing
ships under Hans Putsman's the stakes, control of the waves
and the fate of the Dutch trade ambition in China.
It was literally East meets West and a spectacular showdown.
In fact, it's noted as the biggest clash between Chinese

(25:18):
and European navies before the Opium Wars two centuries later. Now,
if this were, say a Hollywood movie, maybe the tech
superior Europeans would route the pirates. But what we've discovered
over a lot of these episodes of by TC history
has a bitter sense of humor. The battle turned into

(25:40):
a disaster for the Dutch. Jan Xilong was a very
good commander. He prepared fireships, old vessels filled with combustibles,
and at the opportune moment sent these flaming kamikazes drifting
into the anchored Dutch fleet. The local fishermen and militia
he recruited were prom was handsome bounties for every Dutch

(26:01):
had taken or ship earned. You know, nothing like a
little extra incentive, you know. For the battle. One night
of fiery cast and the Dutch found their ships ablaze
and according to accounts, the BOC flagship was surrounded, bordered,
bordered and sunk. Another ship was driven around and captured.

(26:22):
The Chinese even used small swift boats to swarm any stragglers.
They found Footman's himself barely escaped with the remnant of
his force. It was a massive, decisive Ming victory. The
VOC was humiliated. Now, in this aftermath, the Dutch had

(26:43):
to shove their dreams of bullying Ming China. They retreated
the Taiwan to lick their wounds. The irony is actually
kind of rich, because the VOC had to help create
this Chinese naval power and then got their asses handed
to them by it. And as Jan gilongry well, the
Ming court was pleased and gave him more authority. The

(27:06):
Dutch were left without the free trade access they won it,
and without a cautionary tale to tell, it was clear
that in these waters, Chinese maritime forces, even semi outsiders
like Xing, could match European firepower. Now, remember, the Jing's
ships did have European cannons that they likely obtained through
trade or previous alliances or other means. So Asia wasn't

(27:30):
completely defenseless or backward at sea, not even by a
long shot. However, the wheel of fortune kept turning fast
forward a decade. The sixteen forty four we go, the
Ming dynasty has fallen overthrown by internal rebellion and the
evading Munchas who established the King or Queing diet dynasty.

(27:52):
I can't I never know if it's king or queen.
It's q Qi in g China was basically chaos, Ming
loyalist forces retreated to the south, and who emerges as
the leader of the loyalist resistance none other than our
favorite man here, Xing Xing Long, sort of because it

(28:13):
was his son who is now the loyalist resistance leader
Xing Shingong, better known to history as Gokshining meaning Lord
of the Imperial surname a little bit of a egotistical boast,
do say so myself here now? His son is a

(28:34):
name that lives in legend, especially in Taiwan and Chinese folklore.
He's often portrayed as a patriotic hero who fault the
foreign Manchu Quing King to restore the Ming Empire, but
he was also in many respects just following the family
business makes a merchant, it's a pirate maybe a little
bit of you know, warlord too. And he was born

(28:58):
in Japan to a Japanese mother in Chinese his father
raised partially in the Japanese samurai culture. After the king
took Beijing, he established himself as a coastal stronghold leader
of Amoi and rallied an army and navy of loyal
Ming supporters, many of them maritime folks pirates now turned patriots.

(29:24):
His father Jing actually surrendered to the king, perhaps figuring
it's best to be a basically a live turncoat than
a dead hero, and the King, in a classic move,
promptly imprisoned Xing Xai loong and later executed him. So
much for you know. The imperial clemency that left his
son with a personal vendetta and a loyal following of

(29:44):
soldiers and pirates who refused to surrender of a sizeable
force became a thorn in the side of the new leaders,
launching seaborn raids and holding onto the last besieges of
the Ming territory and coastal Fuji. But by the late
sixteen fifties, the Sun was in a bind. The new

(30:06):
rulers were pressing him hard on the mainland. He needed
a secure base, and he looked across Taiwan straight at
Taiwan and the beautiful island of Formosa. But who was there, well,
the Dutch VOC, sitting relatively pretty in their colony at
Fort Zelandianny, small fort upriver. The Dutch had turned Taiwan

(30:31):
into a little bit of a profitable venture. They traded
deer hides, sugar rice. They even converted some indigenous inhabitants
to Christianity, but they were still vulnerable. The entire Dutch
garrison of Taiwan was maybe two thousand soldiers with a
handful of fortifications. Jing Son had tens of thousands of

(30:55):
battle hardened troops and hundreds of junks. After he had
a cause that could rally me into extreme risk, reclaiming
territory to build a base for Ming restoration. At least
that was his stated goal, but I'm sure there was
a bit of a personal ambition playing a role too,

(31:18):
so q the showdown Jing the Sun versus the VOC,
and April sixty one, the suns armana roughly four hundred
ships carrying an estimated twenty five thousand soldiers, set sail
for the mainland and invaded Dutch Taiwan. And this is

(31:38):
one of the most dramatic Eats meets West military encounters
in history. The Dutch at Fort Zelandia was caught off
guard by a scale of that assault. Jing the Sun
forces landed and quickly laid siege to the Dutch stronghold.
Now that said, the siege of Fort Zilandia would last
nine months, and it was really a lot of fierce fighting,

(32:01):
deception and heroism. And we actually have detailed records from
both sides about this siege. The Dutch governor Taiwan Frederick
Koyet hold up in Fort Zelandia with his men and
refuse initial surrender demands. Jing the Son's army overran the
rest of the island, slaughtering or capturing Dutch colonial families.

(32:23):
When outlying farms, several hundred Dutch women, children of missionaries
fell into Jing the Son's hands, which created well some
tragican horrifying situations. We have actually one incident was the
fate of Reverend Antonius Hembrook. Hambrook was a Dutch clergyman who,
along with two of his daughters, had been captured by

(32:45):
Jing the Son's forces during the siege. And according to accounts,
Jing the Son sends Hambrook as an envoy to the fort,
forcing him to carry a surrender demand to Governor koyat
surrender or everyone inside will be killed, and Jing the
Son made it clear that if Hambrook returned with a no,

(33:08):
it would cost him his life. Talk about a little
bit of pressure here. Hambrooke went into the fort and
urged the Dutch to keep resisting, essentially saying, don't give
in on my account. Now, this was a bit of
a true act of self sacrifice. He must have known
he was signing his own death warrant, and sure enough,

(33:28):
when Hambrook returned to Xang the Son's camp with news
that the Dutch said fuck you and would fight on
the pastor was executed. To add insult to injury, or
perhaps in lieu of injury to others, Jing the Son
took one of Hambrook's teenage daughters as a concubine, and

(33:50):
many other captive Dutch women were distributed to his officers
or sold as slaves slash wives. And it's kind of
grim stuff. The brutality of seventeenth century warfare really spared
few and Dutch paintings later, because yes, the siege became
a subject of many plays and paintings in Europe. Hambrooke
was portrayed as a martyr, a symbol of pious courage.

(34:13):
One such painting by Jean Wilhelm Pieneman in eighteen ten,
titled the Self Sacrifice of Reverend Ambrook of Formosa, shows
the pastor taking leaves of his daughters before returning to
facing the Sun with a somber scene of resolve and heartbreak.
Not despite Hambrook's noble sacrifice, the odds were stacked against

(34:34):
the voc garrison, saying the Sun's cannons bombarded relentlessly against
the fort. The Dutch made some daring attempts to break
the siege, and at one point a relief fleet from
Batavia arrived and there was a naval battle and additional fighting,
but ultimately it just wasn't enough. Food inside the fort
grew scarce, morale dropped, and the walls began crumbling under

(34:56):
the bombardment. Finally, in February of sixteen sixty two, Governor
Koyat surrendered surrendered Fort Zelandia to Jing the Sun, effectively
seating the entire island, and then terms were thus negotiated.
The Dutch could evacuate to Batavia with their personal belongings

(35:18):
and remaining arms, which you know, Zing the Sun actually
honored for the most part, and just like that, thirty
eight years of Dutch colonial rule in Taiwan ended. It
marked one of the few times the European colonial base
was completely overthrown by an Asian force. Now, Jing the

(35:38):
Sun transformed Taiwan into the Kingdom of cheung Ying, a
base of Ming loyalist to regroup. In reality, it just
really became his personal fiefdom. Sadly, Xing the Sun himself
didn't live much longer. He died in sixteen sixty two,
just a few months after his victory, likely of some

(35:58):
sort of illness, and some reports have dysentery or malaria
like symptoms, though colorful legends claim he went mad and
died after hearing of his father's execution, which also probably
had some impact. Regardless, his family continued to rule Taiwan
until sixteen eighty three, when the king finally conquered the island.

(36:21):
But that's really beyond our boc story. By then, the
Dutch were long gone from Formosa. A fall a Freezelandia
reverberated in Europe. It was a blow to the Dutch pride,
the voc known for beating Portuguese armadas and holding their
own against English fleets have been outsmarted and outfault by

(36:42):
an Asian warlord's pirate army Jing. The Son's exploits earned
him a kind of notori notoriety. To some he was
a pirate trader, and to the local Chinese and even
some Europeans he was a bit of a heroic figure,
which the French writer Voltaire later wrote irony of seeing
the Sun's conquest of Taiwan, somehow exaggerating it as a

(37:05):
triumph of Chinese civilization over Europeans. But we won't go there.
The VOC had to think hard about how to deal
with such non European threats that surely were coming down
the pipeline now, As you might expect that after that
humbling experience, the VOC would still steer clear of Chinese

(37:25):
pirates for a while. Indeed, in the late sixteen hundreds
in the early seventeen hundred, SEVOC focused on consolidating its
holdings in an Indonesian archipela, fighting several tough wars against
local states, where it would eventually have the South China
Sea rear its ugly head again, where Chinese maritime traders

(37:51):
and pirates continue to thrive, especially in periods of instability
in the big storm. Does you have to come with that?
We will be back in a little over three minutes.
I think, I mean refresh, refresh my beverage, and we'll

(38:13):
get on with the rest of the story shortly.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Sails claw the sky hunger and to spice runs red.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
Where the rivers flow greens cold grip.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
They twist the knife, carving ampires from stolen knife.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
Favy sweats of fever or cannon.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
Lust cracks the forea shore Chaine.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
By deep the air turned.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
Sour sleighs fuel their fuck gates, our.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
Clove and rust. They grind the throat and lace.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
The arrow from the balls last fray croup and often
in a three.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Vag monopoly arms a serpent's coil. Villages drowned in their

(40:21):
boiling oil. Sweat stains the deck. The tide runs black.
The fastest laugh of the world cracks.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
Rust.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
They grind the throne, leech the marrow from the bonea.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
East to west of Vulture's reign profits puls in every
Fay empire's faith. Their steedsholds tigs sold carving less night.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
Welcome back, I hope you're enjoying. Is really deep dive
into some history that you probably didn't want to know,
so thank you for tuning in the night, and I
appreciate you guys being here and winning wherever you get
the chance to listen to this. Now, before we get

(41:54):
to the grand finale of pirate confederations, let's go back
and breathely survey how about you was doing in the
seventeen hundreds and with their run ins with other pirates
and privateers. By seventeen hundred, the VC had basically secured

(42:14):
its monopoly in East Indies. It has controlled now the
prime spice producing islands. It had forced most local rulers
into contracts ended up benefiting the company. European rivals were
kept at bay as the Portuguese never really recovered in

(42:36):
the East and the English East India Company turned its
focus to more of India after a few failed attempts
to break Dutch spice monopoly, especially after its incidents in
the brutal Enboenare massacre in sixteen twenty three, where basically
the Dutch executed a group of Englishmen and others accused
of conspiracy. That said monopoly, it is a bit of

(43:00):
a double edged sword at ten and does make you rich,
but it will make you that target for smugglers and
pirates as well. And indeed, in the eighteenth century, despite
VOC patrol, smuggling of spices by Malay, Chinese and other
Asian traders became ramped. Why well, because the prices of

(43:21):
VOC fixed were unfair and people could profit by sneaking
clothes out and selling to other merchants. The company's own
employees got in on this too. Corruption was legendary by
the late seventeen hundreds. They saying in Dutch was say
that VOC stood for the agan ondo corrupti perished by corruption.

(43:43):
When local was engaged in unauthorized trade, the VOC often
labeled them as pirates, just as the general blanket term.
This led to a series of punitive expeditions basically an
anti piracy campaign that were as much about eliminating competitors
as it was actually just keeping the sea safe. Now
in Southeast Asia, one perennial problem area was the Straits

(44:05):
of Malacca, the narrow choke point between Sumatra and the
Malay Peninsula. Piracy had been epidemic there for centuries. It
was often carried out by oranglut or sea people, who
actually were historically aligned with Malay sultans to control the
trade and the voc Era some some of these groups,

(44:31):
now sidelined by Dutch control Malacca, turned to rather a
more independent piracy nature. The voc and then later Britain
after say seventeen eighties would complain endlessly about these Malay pirates.
Sometimes this was real, with pleets of raiders from you know,
Sulu Sea who did prey on the shipping routes. Other

(44:55):
times it was an oriental stereotype, forming Europeans st at
the brand all Malays as natural pirates, which wasn't really
true in any real sense, but persistent piratsy ended up
giving it fuel. The truth is piracy spiked whenever central
authority was weak or trade was overly restricted. In eighteenth

(45:18):
century voc had weaknesses, and so piracy in that region
started to find some breathing room. And we can't forget
European pirates who occasionally wandered in the Asia. The so
called golden age of piracy in the Caribbean and Atlantic
think you know Blackbeard, Captain kid All spilled into the
Indian Ocean. Famous pirates like Henry every and Thomas who

(45:41):
made voyages of plunder the Mugha treasures, fleets of the
Indian oceans in the sixteen nineties. One pirate even took
the Great Mogall ship Ganji II SWA in sixteen ninety five,
causing basically an international incident when the voc as a
quasi naval power in those seas, would sometimes tangle with

(46:04):
these pirates or at least report it on them. But
those Western freebrooterers rarely went as far east as the
South China Sea or Indonesia. They tended to kind of
stick to the Indian Ocean in the Red Sea route
because that's where the rich Mulga pilgrim ships sailed. So Ironically,
while Johnny Depp style pirates captured imaginations in BOC territory,

(46:27):
the more pressing pirates threats were local Asian groups or
intra Asian smugglers. Now, by the late seventeen hundreds, the
BOC was just a kind of a shadow of its
former self. Years of corruption, endless wars, and a change
in global scene. Any of this sounds familiar took their toll.

(46:48):
The company's profits declined, and it's loaded itself with debt.
The once fearsome corporate juggernaut limped on until seventeen ninety nine,
when the Dutch government finally dissolved the BOC and nationalized
its act sets After nearly two hundred years, the company
was no more. The Dutch state took over its colonies.
This was the birth of the Dutch East Indies as

(47:09):
a formal colony rather than a corporate domain. Now you
might think the age of privateering or piracy had ended
by eighteen hundred, No, not so in South China Sea.
In fact, right around the turn of the nineteenth century,
we actually end up seeing the largest pirate armada in
history coalesce on the Chinese coast. This is where Shinghxi,

(47:34):
the pirate queen, enters the chat And even though the
BOC itself was gone by then, the Dutch merchants and ships,
now under state control, were still sailing those waters, and
the legends of those pirates would loom large for all
trading companies. So let's set the stage, shall we. It's
the early eighteen hundreds. The King dynasty ruled China, but

(48:02):
they have their hands full. The empire is huge and
facing internal problems. The southeastern coast of China, particularly the
Guangdong province, is a hotbed of maritime activity. Foreign trade
at Canton is booming with Westerners buying tea and porcelain.

(48:23):
Now once again, this is just before the Opium Wars,
but outside in control trade in Canton, a lot of
uncontrolled trade and rating is happening along the coast and
around the South China Sea, and the vacuum of authority
at sea, pirate coalitions emerged. The most notorious was the

(48:45):
Guangdong Pirate Confederation around the year eighteen oh five to
eighteen oh nine, and this was basically a coalition of
several pirate fleets, each identified by a collared flag. There
were red flag, black flag, white flag, blue flag, yellow flag,
in green flag fleets, a veritable pirate rainbow coalition. So

(49:07):
probably not you know, championing, you know, any diversity and inclusion.
But at its height, this confederation had estimates of fifty
to seventy thousand pirates manning six hundred to eight hundred ships.
Now let that number sink in. That is larger than any,

(49:30):
well not any many national navies of the time, and
it dwarfed the pirate crews of the Caribbean Golden Age.
These Chinese pirates essentially ran a parallel domain on the water.
They extorted to coastal towns extracted protection money from merchant junks,
and they're to challenge the Chinese navy outright. And the

(49:53):
story of how this confederation formed is kind of fascinating,
at least to me. I remember earlier we talked about
the Chinese pirates working as mercenaries in Vietnam during the
tense stands. Well around the seventeen nineties, Vietnam was in
chaos talker due to a civil war. Now the Taiysan
Brothers rebels she toppled. The new Ween lords employed many

(50:14):
Chinese pirate groups as auxiliary naval forces, names like chen Taibo,
mo Ganfa, zeng Qi, and Wu shiya Uh. These were
pirate leaders from Guangdong who fought in Vietnam's wars as
hired guns, and in eighteen o two, the Nun dynasty,
with help from the Chinese, helped ended up defeating the

(50:35):
Tay Sun. Suddenly, those thousands of armed Chinese fairs in
Vietnam were unemployed and unwelcome, or the new regime just
didn't want them around here. Then they wanted them gone.
So what do they do? They just put back to
what they knew best piracy and they regroup in the
waters of Guangdong and built an alliance to survive, and

(50:57):
heading this alliance initially was Jing Yi, a descendant of
the same Xing klan of our friend xing Xi Xiong,
and some sources say he claimed to be from that lineage,
but we really don't know. And Sing Yi gathered various
pirate forces under a joint code of conduct and profit
sharing system. In eighteen oh one, he took an interest

(51:21):
step or interesting step from pirate chief for he got married,
and not just to anyone. He married a Cantonese woman
named Shi Yang, who would later be known as xing
Yao Sao, meaning Xen Yi's wife. We know her today
as Ching Si, the Pirate Queen. At the time of

(51:43):
their marriage, she was about twenty six and he around
thirty six, and according to legend, she had been a
prostitute in Canton and Xingyi was so impressed by her
intelligence and then probably some other skills that he married her.
But she didn't just sit around. She became actively involved
in the pirate operations. Xingyi and Shingxi together led the

(52:08):
Red Flag Fleet, the largest of the confederation. They even
adopted an able young pirate Jiang Vao as Saying's hair.
The rumor had at Jing Yao and Chiang Po may
have been in a Greek lover kind of mentor relationship,
and after Jing's death, Cheng Kao, Sai and Shing Xei

(52:30):
became lovers and later married themselves. Yes, the family dynamics
are spicy enough to rival TV drama from prostitute. The
pirate wife, husband dies, wife takes over the fleet, and
then marries the adopted son has some redneck ship right there, well,

(52:56):
I said, tragedy struck in eighteen oh seven when Jingyi
did die, either in a typhoon or an accident. I'm
using air quotes around accident. Overnight, Hingsey found herself at
a crossroads. Many a pirate band would fragment after her
leader's death, but she was savvy. She swiftly moved to
assume command of her late husband's entire confederation, and of

(53:18):
course this was highly unprecedented a woman leading thousands of
ruthless men in a very patriarchal society. But she ended
up basically up the task. She had the support of
her adopted son now future partner, and key lieutenants, and

(53:39):
she laid down the law with an iron fist. She
implemented a strict pirate code, a set of rules to
govern the conduct of her fleets, and I have to
say her code makes the Pirate of the Caribbean's parlay
look like kindergarten nap time. Some of her rules, as
recorded in later reports, dis abandon order first time you

(54:03):
get your ear cut off. Second time, you're dead. Steal
from the common plunder before it's divided. That's also your
dead rape of a female captive. Yep, yep, you guessed
it dead as well. In fact, if a pirate had
consensual relationships with a woman captive without permission, the punishment

(54:25):
was beheading for him and drowning for her, which basically
they put weights on her legs and center overboard, so
basically a zero tolerance HR policy. The loot was to
be registered and fairly distributed twenty percent of the fleet's
public fund and or twenty percent for the fleet's public
fund and the rest split among the crew. This discipline

(54:46):
is often credited as the key to her success. She
kept her men in line and maintained ordered in what
could have been a very chaotic band of cutthroats. Now
under shing Zi's leadership, the Pirate Confederation would reach its
apex by eighteen oh nine. Estimates did say that she
commanded some four hundred junks and forty to sixty thousand

(55:10):
pirates directly with the red flag fleet at the core.
Coastal villages ended up paying them for protection money lest
they be raided, and local officials were either in the
pocket or terrified. It said that the name given by
Europeans to one group, Ladrone Spanish for thiebes, became synonymous

(55:33):
with the south the China pirates. Her power was such
as the Chinese navy such as it was them lost
several pitch battles against her. They even tried a pardon
scheme early on, which some pirates took, but the hardcore
remained with her, emboldened by their success against the Chinese leadership. Well,

(55:55):
we should not forget in all of this this confederation
was not just a Chinese affair. They attacked foreign ships too.
European trading vessels, Portuguese ships from Macau, and even East
India Company mer merchant ships crossing the South China Sea
all had to be on guard. One notable incident in

(56:17):
September of eighteen oh nine, her pirates captured a Portuguese
brig and even an important person, the Portuguese governor of Timor,
Antonio de Almira, for he was on board and would
end up getting taken hostage of This was a huge
affront to the Portuguese, who had a colony at Macaw,
and it would end up galvanizing them to act. The

(56:40):
pirates had also captured several English sailors. The most famous
account comes from Richard Glasspole, an officer of the British
East India Company, who was captured by the pirates in
eighteen oh nine and held for months. He later wrote
a report in eighteen twelve about his captivity. He described
the pirates as well organized and numerous, basically arming that

(57:00):
the Ladrones were running the show on the coast. He
was ransomed eventually, but his story spread in the West
and added to her notoriety. So by light eighteen oh nine,
the Chinese government was basically losing control of the South
China Sea. So imagine a pirate queen was taxing the

(57:22):
pearl rubber Delta's commerce more effectively than the emperor was.
That's when the authority said, all right, you know what,
enough is enough time to call in reinforcements, even if
their foreign barbarians. So that's what the Chinese provincial officials did.
Reluctantly and awkwardly, they ended up seeking help from the

(57:42):
Portuguese and indirectly the British. I remember, normally the Chinese
Empire prided itself on not needing foreigners to solve its problems,
but this was starting to become an act of desperation.
The Portuguese at Macaw were ear for payback after their
governor's capture, and the British ic merchants at Canton also

(58:06):
wouldn't mind seeing these pirates gone, as piracy was bad
for business unless you were the pirate. So at eighteen
oh nine late a joint effort was launched. A fleet
of Portuguese warships from Macw including Briggs and a frigate,
together with the Chinese navy junks, went on the offensive
against Ching Xi's fleet. One major confrontation took play at

(58:29):
Tung Chung Bay there Lanau Island, not far more not
actually far from where Hong Kong is today. The Portuguese
managed to bottle up the red flag fleet in a
bay by blockading the entrances with their ships, while the
Chinese forces amassed in support. A stalemate ensued for weeks.
The Pirates were stuck, but the allies couldn't really finish

(58:51):
them off, So the Chinese government once again sent fire
ships you know again classic tactic for them, and they
set forty three of their own vessels of blaze and
sent them drifting into the pirate anchorage. However, the Pirate
Queen's men were not so easily burned. They fully towed
the fire ships aside or put the flames out, and

(59:13):
even a shift in the wind blew some of the
ships back to the Chinese squadron, causing mayhem there. It
kind of had to have been a spectacular and terrifying sight,
a bay lit up by burning ships at night, no
one probably knowing which way they were going. In early

(59:34):
eighteen ten we saw the climax. The Portuguese engaged the
Pirates in a series of battles often referred collectively as
the Battle of the Tiger's Mouth, and at one point
around December eighteen to oh nine, facing mounting pression pressure
and perhaps sinsing the tide was turning, the Pirate Queen
made a shrewd decision, she entered into negotiations for surrender,

(59:56):
but of course she wasn't going to just you know,
give up and face execute. Instead, she leveraged her position
to hear an amnesty deal, one of the most generous
and pirate history. In short, the Chinese government offered a
pardon to all pirates who surrendered and handed over their
ships and weapons. Not only that, the pirate queen and

(01:00:19):
her top lieutenants could keep their wealth and get military
positions within the Chinese Navy, once again going back to
that old adage, if we can't beat them, hire them,
And of course, her adopted son Lover was granted iraq
a rank in the Chinese bureaucracy navy, and she personally

(01:00:41):
negotiated terms to ensure her followers, those who hadn't been
killed or captured, could disband peacefully, and in April eighteen ten,
the Great Pirate Confederation formally surrendered. It's said that out
of tens of thousands of pirates, only a few hundred
refused to pardon and fled, and just one hundred and

(01:01:02):
twenty six were banished or executed for crimes, likely the
ones you know who had probably committed the most egregious
at atrocities, the vast majority simply walked free. And what
became of that, you know, infamous former horse slave pirate
wife Yoko or not a Woody Allen kind of married relationship.

(01:01:26):
Here in a final twist that fits her her life,
she retired. She was about thirty five years old, rich
beyond measure with loot, and she had outmaneuvered the Chinese
imperial forces and European navies alike. Then of course cut
that deal to live scott free. She ended up settling

(01:01:46):
in Canton, opened the gambling house and some actually say
a brothel, returning to her earlier roots, but just as
this time, she was the boss and lived to a
ripe old age, dying peacefully in eighteen forty four in
her sixties. It kind of boggles the mind. A pirate
with a retirement plan and a full pension. She has

(01:02:11):
been called history's most successful female pirate, and I would
dare say female probably didn't need to be added. Not
only did she command the biggest pirate fleet ever, she
managed to escape the classic pirates fate of a noose
or a bullet. I think that's your classic sailing into
the sunset here, but with her surrender in eighteen ten,

(01:02:31):
effectively marking the end of the large scale piracy era
in China. Piracy itself didn't vanish it, Let's face it,
it never does. There were later pirate leaders like Chap
Kneeing Sai in the eighteen forties, her arras Chinese and
foreign ships until the Chinese government and British hunted him down,
but none would ever achieve the unity and sheer scale

(01:02:52):
of the Pirate Queen's Confederation. Now recall, the VC as
a company didn't live to see her hey, it had
been dissolved a decade earlier, but Dutch merchants and their
ships were certainly still active in Asian waters under the
Dutch government's flag. The Dutch, like the British and others,
would have been relieved to have the South China Sea

(01:03:14):
made safe in eighteen ten. In fact, certainly after global
attention turned to other big issues like you know, the
opium trade, the rise of British domination, European navies increasing
their presence. The age of steamships and modern navies was
just around the corner, which would have gradually put most
sale era pirates out of business. That said, the legacy

(01:03:38):
of those VOC pirate encounters is enduring. Let's consider a
few takeaways and maybe some lesser known facts as we
start to wrap up. The VOC at times employed pirates
and at other times became pirates themselves. The duality of
trader and pirate was embodied in the company's vary operations.

(01:03:59):
The Clash at Low Bay in sixteen thirty three show
the Asian navies could match European naval technology when led
by good commanders. Jingx Loung's victory over the Dutch fleet
prefigured other non Western triumphs, challenging the myth of uninterrupted
Western superiority at sea. Prior to the Industrial Age, Taiwan's

(01:04:21):
history might have been very different if not for pirates.
The vidoc's Aoulster in sixteen sixty two by Jing's Sun
meant Taiwan became a base upon of the Han Chinese power,
which arguably set the stage for the island's dense Chinese
population thereafter. It's a fine example of kind of how
pirate events can actually shape geopolitics. Then you had the

(01:04:46):
vuoc's relation with local Chinese communities that were complex in Jakarta, Batavia.
The company welcomed Chinese traders for the economy, but largely
distrusted them too. This culminated in a horrific Batavia massacre
of seventeen forty one. Thousands of ethnic Chinese were slaughtered
by panicky Dutch troops and locals during a revolt. Some

(01:05:08):
say fear of Chinese secret society uprisings and maybe rumors
of piracy connections fueled that paranoia. Miss dark reminder of
how overseas Chinese, whether pirates or peaceful traders, were often
seen as a fifth column by colonials. Culturally, the VOCs
presence really ended up bringing some strange encounters about Japanese

(01:05:32):
samurai and VOC pay guarding Formosa, Balinese princes sending letters
to Dutch governors or VOC men learning Malay, Chinese and
the Japanese language to negotiate treaties. It wasn't all fighting.
There was actually exchange of knowledge. For example, Dutch physicians
of Batavia studied tropical diseases and VOC scholars collected information

(01:05:57):
on Asian flora, fauna, and geography. The Dutch actually were
bridging worlds for better or worse. And on the naval
tech side, the Dutch flute ship a cheap, capacious merchant
vessel was one secret of VOC's success. It could essentially
be manned by a small crew, leaving more men free

(01:06:21):
to defend against pirates or to profit by carrying just
more cargo. Additionally, the VOC pioneered use of convoys in
dangerous waters, grouping ships with escorts, a practice that ended
up frustrating pirates. They also set up signal posts and
regular patrols and critical straits to deter any pirate attack
as much as possible. That said, sometimes the VOC just

(01:06:46):
found it easier just to pay off the pirates. There
were instances where local saltans are chieftains who could you
know be pirate sponsors that were given annual gifts or
you know, bribes to keep the peace. Essentially, the VOC
engaged in a bit of its own protection racket diplomacy.

(01:07:07):
In the end, in my opinion, the Dutch East India
Company story is inseparable from the story of piracy in
that realm. From the splashbuckling zing zha Along who went
from pirate to admiral to the unbelievable pirate queen who
outlived the VOC itself. Pirates constantly forced the VOC to adapt.

(01:07:32):
Sometimes the company fault them tooth and nail. Sometimes it
signed them up to payroll. Sometimes it just fell victim
to them. The interplay between an early capitalist corporation and
the free agents of the sea is almost poetic. We
have the structured, buadic, profit counting world of the VOC
versus the fluid, lawless, risk embracing world of the Pirate.

(01:07:57):
And yet weren't they oddly some In some ways, Both
were motivated largely by profit. Both had to be led
by charismatic, decisive individuals. Both navigated the tricky politics of
local powers, cut deals when needed, and to use violence
when necessary. The VOC boardroom in Amsterdam and the Pirate

(01:08:19):
Queen's deck on a flagship junk might have been worlds apart,
but each was at the center of a vast web
of power and money. That's perhaps why their stories intertwined
so often, and it leaves us with a nuance of view.
The high Seas of the sixteen hundreds and eighteen hundred,
where a grand theater were corporate greed, imperial ambition, and

(01:08:42):
piratical enterprise danced around one another, sometimes tragically, sometimes in partnership.
The South Chi China Sea, in particular, was not just
a backdrop for pirate legends like the Pirate Queen. It
was also like blood of global trade routes for al
fits like the VOC control that seaway, and you controlled

(01:09:05):
fortune itself, which is why so many tried. From the
mandarins in Beijing, to the merchants in Batavia, to the
pirates of the coast. And as we conclude, let's picture
one last scene. It's eighteen ten in the Pearl River Delta,
a line of pirate ships sailed to surrender, banners lowered

(01:09:28):
on shore. Chinese officials register these former outlaws, giving them
symbolic haircuts, perhaps marking them loyal subjects. Among them ching
Po Sao, adopted son later her husband, now in a

(01:09:49):
new Chinese naval uniform, and a woman the Pirate Queen unvowed,
walking away free with her wealth. On the horizon, a
Dutch merchant ship passes by Lantau Island. The captain relieved
that he won't need to pay protection money for this trip.
A British frigate anchors off Macau or captain, eager for

(01:10:09):
news that the pirate threat is quelled. The age of
sale is starting to give way to steam and industrial empires.
The VOC is gone, but its Dutch successor state will
soon face new rivals. The British, of course, have their
eyes on Java during the Napoleonic Wars around this time,
but in fact temporarily sees it. In eighteen eleven, a

(01:10:33):
chapter of history is closing. Romantic brutal era, wooden ships
and iron men and women in the case of the
pirate Queen is making its last turn. The Dutch East
India Company left behind a mixed legacy, immense cultural exchange,
breathtaking economic innovation, but also exploitation and Violenceirates were spotlighted

(01:11:01):
for they too leave a mixed legacy, heroes to some,
criminals to others, Yet their stories capture our imagination. I mean,
who can really resist a tale where a prostitute becomes
a pirate queen commanding thousands, or where merchant companies becomes
a military conqueror. These are the contradictions of real history,

(01:11:25):
sometimes stranger than fiction and far more captivating. So I
hope you enjoyed this voyage through time. We tried to
navigate through some boardrooms and some galleyes, from Amsterdam's canals
to the reefs of Promosa, encountering Mandarins and marauders along
the way. If there's a takeaway, perhaps it's that the

(01:11:51):
pursuit of wealth in the high seas sometimes would make
unlikely bedfellows and bitter enemies of people separated by cultural
and language barriers. And whether flying the flag of a nation,
a company, or the skull and crossbones, those who took
to the sea accepted risk and rewards that land lovers
could scarcely imagine. As one voc official once said, no risk,

(01:12:17):
no profit, and that is a creto that pirates certainly shared.
So that's it for today's episode of Increase.

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
You enjoyed.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
You are sharing the podcast. It does help me reach
more history buffs and adventurous souls. I am j E
double after cosmic bard ning you tube the anmals of History.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
Ending offers one that time.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
Thanks Curious