re: Who Had the Greatest Colonial Power in History?

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Were the Dutch a colonial power? I never hear much about their colonies and how big of a presence they were. Obviously not much compared to the Brits and Spaniards.

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There was that one little city that was once known as New Amsterdam.

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Were the Dutch a colonial power? I never hear much about their colonies and how big of a presence they were. Obviously not much compared to the Brits and Spaniards.

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Many of the British colonies started out as dutch ones. The Dutch controlled (at one or different points) New York, Suriname, South Africa, Sri Lanka, much of the Eastern Caribbean, and Indonesia. The English became a colonial power in large part due to wars with The Dutch Republic. They also controlled trading posts in modern Taiwan, Brazil, West Africa, Kuwait, Thailand, Chile, etc.

The dutch were one of the big boys right along side the Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French.