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Hans Putmans (? in
''De Dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan''
I, ''1629-1641'' (The Hague 1986), 2n6
In 1629, he became the fourth
Collection Delft, archive 14, inv. nr. 39
.
Hans Putmans (? in Middelburg Middelburg may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Europe
* Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...
– 1654 in Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
) was the Dutch governor of Formosa
The governor of Formosa ( nl, gouverneur van Formosa; ) was the head of government during the Dutch colonial period in Taiwan, which lasted from 1624 to 1662. Appointed by the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia (modern-day ...
from 1629 to 1636.
Career in Asia
Born inMiddelburg Middelburg may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Europe
* Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...
, Putmans came to Asia in 1621 in the service of the Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
. Over the first three years of his career, he was stationed in Siam, Cambodia, Patani, Sumatra's west coast and Java's north east coast. In 1624, he came to Batavia; four years later he became the president of the college of Aldermen and the overseer of the Chinese citizens.Blussé, van Opstal and Ts'ao Yung-Ho''De Dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan''
I, ''1629-1641'' (The Hague 1986), 2n6
Governor of Formosa
In 1629, he became the fourth governor of Formosa
The governor of Formosa ( nl, gouverneur van Formosa; ) was the head of government during the Dutch colonial period in Taiwan, which lasted from 1624 to 1662. Appointed by the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia (modern-day ...
, present-day Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
. In 1633, he led a military campaign on the Chinese coast against the Chinese admiral Zheng Zhilong. In addition to Dutch vessels, Putmans commanded a great number of Chinese pirate vessels which he hired for the campaign. In July of that year, in a surprise attack near the island of Gulangyu, near Xiamen
Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...
, he managed to destroy the fleet that Zheng Zhilong was building there. On 22 October, however, Putmans' fleet was defeated at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay
The Battle of Liaoluo Bay () took place in 1633 off the coast of Fujian, China; involving the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Chinese Ming dynasty's navies. The battle was fought at the crescent-shaped Liaoluo Bay that forms the southe ...
, where Zheng Zhilong
Zheng Zhilong, Marquis of Tong'an and Nan'an (; April 16, 1604 – November 24, 1661), baptismal name Nicholas Iquan Gaspard, was a Chinese admiral, merchant, military general, pirate, and politician of the late Ming dynasty who later defec ...
destroyed three Dutch East Indiamen with fireships and captured another, putting the remainder of the Dutch fleet to flight.
Defeated in the battle, Putmans turned his attention to agriculture, establishing a policy of attracting settlers from the Chinese mainland to Formosa, in order to cultivate rice and sugar on the fertile plains on the west side of the island. In time, this policy would become very successful.
Return to the Netherlands
In December 1636, Putmans returned to theDutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
and, after an apparent spell in Amsterdam, settled in Delft in 1638, where he would live until his death in 1654.Death certificate iCollection Delft, archive 14, inv. nr. 39
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Putmans, Hans Year of birth unknown 1654 deaths Colonial governors of Dutch Formosa People from Middelburg, Zeeland