Following successful expeditions to the East Indies [Indonesia], the Dutch set up a factory and a fortress in Bantam, which was later moved to the new capital in Jakarta.

The Dutch East India Company, or VOC, was set up in 1602 to exploit the East Indies and, in particular, the Moluccas or Spice Islands, which were the world's major provider of nutmeg, mace, cloves and pepper. Until that point, the spice trade had been dominated by the Portuguese.

Between 1602 and 1796, the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and netted more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods.