1600 (MDC) was a century leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1600th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 600th year of the 2nd millennium, the 100th and last year of the 16th century, and the 1st year of the 1600s decade. As of the start of 1600, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
The United East India Company was a chartered company established on 20 March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock company in the world, granting it a 21-year monopoly to carry out trade activities in Asia. Shares in the company could be bought by any resident of the United Provinces and then subsequently bought and sold in open-air secondary markets. It is sometimes considered to have been the first multinational corporation. It was a powerful company, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, strike its own coins, and establish colonies.
William Adams, better known in Japanese as Miura Anjin, was an English navigator who, in 1600, was the first Englishman to reach Japan in a ship called de Liefde under the leadership of Jacob Quaeckernaeck, the only surviving ship of a five-ship expedition launched by a Rotterdam East India company(which would later be amalgamated into the United East India Company, the VOC). Of the few survivors of the only ship that reached Japan, Adams and his second mate Jan Joosten were not allowed to leave the country while Jacob Quaeckernaeck and Melchior van Santvoort were permitted to go back to the Dutch Republic to invite them to trade.
Baltazar de Cordes, the brother of Simon de Cordes, was a Dutch corsair who fought against the Spanish during the early 17th century.
Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn, known in Japanese as Yayōsu (耶楊子), was a native of Delft and one of the first Dutchmen in Japan, and the second mate on the Dutch ship De Liefde, which was stranded in Japan in 1600. Some of his shipmates were Jacob Quaeckernaeck, Melchior van Santvoort, and William Adams.
Jacob Jansz. Quaeckernaeck was a native of Rotterdam and one of the first Dutchmen in Japan, and he was a navigator and later the captain of the Dutch ship De Liefde, which was stranded in Japan in 1600. Some of his shipmates were Melchior van Santvoort, Jan Joosten and William Adams.
Melchior van Santvoort was one of the first Dutchmen in Japan, was a purser on the Dutch ship De Liefde, which was stranded in Japan in 1600. Some of his shipmates were Jacob Quaeckernaeck, Jan Joosten, and William Adams. Van Santvoort remained in Japan, where he spent 39 years as a merchant in Nagasaki.
Sebald or Sebalt de Weert was a Flemish captain and vice-admiral of the Dutch East India Company. He is most widely remembered for accurately plotting the Falkland Islands in 1600.
Dirck Gerritszoon Pomp, alias Dirck China, was a Dutch sailor of the 16th–17th century, and the first known Dutchman to visit China and Japan. Pomp was born in Enkhuizen in the Burgundian Netherlands. As a youth, he was sent in 1555 to Lisbon to live with relatives who were traders, to learn Portuguese and train as merchant. In 1568 at the age of 22, Pomp established himself as a merchant on the isle of Goa off the coast of India. From there, he visited China and Japan aboard Portuguese trading ships.
Jacques Specx was a Dutch merchant, who founded the trade on Japan and Korea in 1609. Jacques Specx received the support of William Adams to obtain extensive trading rights from Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shōgun emeritus, on 24 August 1609, which allowed him to establish a trading factory in Hirado on 20 September 1609. He was the interim governor in Batavia between 1629 and 1632. There his daughter Saartje Specx was involved in a scandal. Back home in Holland Specx became an art-collector.
Jacob (Jacques) Mahu was a Dutch merchant and explorer.
Paulus van Caerden was a Dutch admiral in service of the Dutch East India Company. He was governor of the Maluku Islands for one month.
The Noordsche Compagnie was a Dutch cartel in the whaling trade, founded by several cities in the Netherlands in 1614 and operating until 1642. Soon after its founding, it became entangled in territorial conflicts with England, Denmark, France, and other groups within the Netherlands.
The Second Dutch Expedition to East Indies was an expedition that took place from 1598 to 1600, one of the Dutch forays into the East Indies spice trade that led to the establishment of the Dutch East India Company. It was led by Jacob Cornelius van Neck.
Liefde was a Dutch sailing ship that ran aground and sank during a storm in the North Sea off the Shetland Islands, Great Britain, while she was on her fourth homeward voyage from the East under the command of Captain Meikens Barend.
Simon de Cordes was a Dutch merchant and explorer who after the death of Admiral Jacques Mahu, became leader of an expedition with the goal to achieve the Indies, which was replaced for Chile, Peru and other kingdoms. The fleet's original mission was to sail along the west coast of South America, where they would sell their cargo for silver, gold or pearls and to head for Japan only if the first mission failed. In that case, they were supposed to obtain silver in Japan and to buy spices in the Moluccas, before heading back to Europe around Cape of Good Hope. Their goal was to sail through the Strait of Magellan to get to their destiny, which scared many sailors because of the harsh weather conditions. The first major expedition around South America was organized by a voorcompagnie, the Magelhaen Company. It organized two fleets of five and four ships with 750 sailors and soldiers to "devaluate the Spanish". It resulted in utter disaster, 80% of the men died during the journey and the investors made no profit. No full account of the voyage is in existence, but details can be gathered from an unofficial journal kept by Potgieter, a surgeon, letters from William Adams (pilot) and from the facts gleaned by Oliver Van Noort's squadron.
Balthazar de Moucheron was a Dutch trader, ship owner and one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company, but never participated as he went bankrupt in the same year. He is known for his early trading with India (Calcutta) and Indonesia, America, the west coast of Africa, the Baltic Sea and the White Sea (Archangelsk).
The Veerse Compagnie was a pre-company from the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands that was founded by Balthazar de Moucheron, a ship owner from Antwerp in the Southern Netherlands. After the fall of Antwerp he moved his business to Zeeland. The fleet of the Veerse Compagnie was made up of two ships; 'Leeuw' (Lion) and 'Leeuwin' (Lioness) and was headed by Cornelis Houtman. Its fleet left from Veere on 28 March 1598 and returned to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in 1600.
There have been several ships named Hope:
Dirck Gerritsz Laboratory is a Dutch Antarctic research facility on Adelaide Island near Rothera Research Station. It is operated by the Netherlands Polar Programme of the Dutch Research Council and British Antarctic Survey and was opened on 27 January 2013.
Dutch Republic