Pieter van den Broecke
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Pieter van den Broecke (25 February 1585,
Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
– 1 December 1640,
Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
) was a Dutch cloth merchant 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 ...
(VOC), and one of the first Dutchmen to taste
coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...
. He also went to
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
three times. He was one of the first Europeans to describe societies in West and Central Africa and in detail trade strategies along the African coast.


Life

His parents, Pieter van den Broecke Sr and Maiken de Morimont, lived in Antwerp. However, after the
Fall of Antwerp The Fall of Antwerp on 17 August 1585 took place during the Eighty Years' War, after a siege lasting over a year from July 1584 until August 1585. The city of Antwerp was the focal point of the Protestant-dominated Dutch Revolt, but was force ...
to the Spanish, which happened at the year of his birth, Antwerp's Protestant population was given the choice of converting to the Roman Catholic Church or departing the city, though Protestants were given four years to settle their affairs before leaving. Van den Broecke's Calvinist parents were among the many who chose to depart, arriving first at
Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...
in the new
Dutch 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 ...
. The family lived in
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
for a while and left around 1597 for
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. At the time the VOC began to develop, the younger Pieter joined it as a tradesman and climbed the career ladder. He became chief-tradesman and
admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
. In 1611 he brought in a cargo of of
ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
to Amsterdam from a captured Portuguese ship. In 1614 he visited the port of
Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...
in
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
. He was the first Dutch merchant to make a journey to the
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
. He went on to the port of
al-Shihr Al-Shihr ( ar, ٱلشِّحْر, al-Shiḥr), also known as ash-Shir or simply Shihr, is a coastal town in Hadhramaut, eastern Yemen. Al-Shihr is a walled town located on a sandy beach. There is an anchorage but no docks; boats are used. The main ...
in
Hadramawt Hadhramaut ( ar, حَضْرَمَوْتُ \ حَضْرَمُوتُ, Ḥaḍramawt / Ḥaḍramūt; Hadramautic: 𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩, ''Ḥḍrmt'') is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Saud ...
and left several Dutch merchants at the port to engage in trade and learn the Arabic language. He returned to the Arabian Peninsula in 1616 and visited the port of Mocha, where he attempted, unsuccessfully to establish a permanent Dutch trading establishment. It was there that he drank "something hot and black, a coffee". He was made the VOC's manager in
Dutch Suratte Suratte or Soeratte was a directorate of the Dutch East India Company between 1616 and 1795, with its main factory in the city of Surat. Surat was an important trading city of the Mughal Empire on the river Tapti, and the Portuguese had been tradin ...
in 1620. He described the Ethiopian slave soldier
Malik Ambar Malik Ambar (1548 – 13 May 1626) was a Siddi military leader and prime minister who became a kingmaker and de facto ruler of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate in the Deccan region of India. Born in the Adal Sultunate, in present-day Ethiopia, Mali ...
. From 1616 the establishment there blossomed, with new minor establishments being set up in the
hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...
, though in 1617 the , under his command, was wrecked on the Surat coast. He operated in
Maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia or Oceanic Sout ...
beside
Jan Pieterszoon Coen Jan Pieterszoon Coen (, 8 January 1587 – 21 September 1629) was an officer of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the early 17th century, holding two terms as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. He was the founder of Batavia, ...
and was present at the
battle of Jakarta Jakarta is Indonesia's capital and largest city. Located on an estuary of the Ciliwung River, on the northwestern part of Java, the area has long sustained human settlement. Historical evidence from Jakarta dates back to the 4th century CE, whe ...
in 1619. Pieter van den Broecke took over from Coen as head of the
Banda Islands The Banda Islands ( id, Kepulauan Banda) are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and constitute an administrative district (''kecamatan'') within the Central M ...
. The islands were held to be important to trade due to their superior
clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring or fragrance in consumer products, ...
s and
nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...
, and so the Dutch were at that time enforcing a trade monopoly on the unwilling local population through drastic measures. So many inhabitants were killed on Banda that the island had to be deliberately repopulated. On his retirement he was honoured with a gold chain, which he wears in the portrait by his friend
Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...
(now hanging in
Kenwood House Kenwood House (also known as the Iveagh Bequest) is a former stately home in Hampstead, London, on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath. The house was originally constructed in the 17th century and served as a residence for the Earls of Mans ...
). His son was a ''perkenier'' (plantation owner) on the Banda Islands. Descendants of the Van den Broecke family continue to live on Banda.


Notes

De Geschiedenis van de VOC by Femme Gaastra, Walburg Press, 2002


Works and sources

* Pieter van den Broecke: ''Korte historiael ende Journaelsche aenteyckeninghe, van al’t geen merck-waerdigh voorgevallen is, in de langhdurige Reysen, soo nae Cabo Verde, Angola tc.als insonderheyd van Oost-Indien'', Hans Passchiers van Wesbusch, Haerlem (Haarlem) 1634 * Pieter van den Broecke, Klaas Ratelband: ''Reizen naar West-Afrika van Pieter van den Broecke, 1605–1614'', Nijhoff, ’s-Gravenhage 1950. * Pieter van den Broecke, Willem Philippus Coolhaas: ''Pieter van den Broecke in Azië'', Nijhoff, ’s-Gravenhage 1962–1963. * Pieter van den Broecke: ''Station Azoren'', Boer, Bussum 1970 * Pieter van den Broecke, J. D. La Fleur: ''Pieter van den Broecke's journal of voyages to Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola (1605–1612)'', Hakluyt Society, London 2000.


External links


Pieter van den Broecke in Masulipatnam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broecke, Pieter van den 1585 births 1640 deaths 17th-century Dutch explorers Directors of Dutch Suratte Dutch travel writers Sailors on ships of the Dutch East India Company Businesspeople from Antwerp Frans Hals 17th-century Dutch businesspeople