Dirck van Cloon (also Dirk and Theodoor van Cloon; 1684 – 10 March 1735) was

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Ja ...

Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He died of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

at the age of 50. He was born in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

sometime in 1684. For his education and training he was sent to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He graduated in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at Leiden University on 1 April 1707. He returned to Batavia on the clipper ''Donkervliet'' and spent some time in

Dutch Coromandel Coromandel was a governorate of the Dutch East India Company on the coasts of the Coromandel region from 1610, until the company's liquidation in 1798. Dutch presence in the region began with the capture of Pulicat from the Portuguese in Goa and ...

. He was among other things a district overseer in Sadraspatnam. He got into a fight with the governor of Coromandel, Adriaan de Visser, who accused Van Cloon of delivering bad quality goods. The government in Batavia sent Van Cloon back to the Netherlands, but he persuaded the Directors 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 ...

that de Visser was not to be trusted. Van Cloon was reinstated and he left for the Indies on 4 November 1719 on board the ''van de Huis te Assenburg'' as

supercargo A supercargo (from Spanish ''sobrecargo'') is a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship. The duties of a supercargo are defined by admiralty law and include managing the cargo owner's trade, selling the merchand ...

. In 1720, he became district chief at

Negapatnam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. The town came to prominence during the period of Medieval ...

. In 1723, he became Governor of

. In 1724, he returned to Batavia to advise the Governor-General and in 1730, he became “''Raad-ordinair''” (chief advisor) of the Indies. On 9 October 1731 the Directors of the

named Dirck van Cloon Governor-General of the Indies, to which he succeeded on 28 May 1732, following the disgrace of

Diederik Durven Diederik Durven (13 September 1676 – 26 February 1740) was a Dutch colonial administrator and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1729 to 1732. Durven studied Law at Leiden University where he graduated on 19 July 1702. He became an ...

. By 20 December 1733 van Cloon was asking to resign because of sickness. He died in the post, however, and it was not until after he had died that his successor took over. Van Cloon was involved in a stand-off with the nascent

Swedish East India Company The Swedish East India Company ( sv, Svenska Ostindiska Companiet or ''SOIC'') was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with China and the Far East. The venture was inspired by the success of the Dutch East ...

, but he resolved it amicably. Less happy was an insurrection of unemployed Chinese sugar plantation workers. This was caused by the collapse of the sugar market, due to over-production and government mishandling.

External links

Vocsite.nl
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cloon, Dirck van 1684 births 1735 deaths Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies Governors of Dutch Coromandel Leiden University alumni People from Batavia, Dutch East Indies