Willem Usselincx (1567 – 1647) was a

Flemish Dutch Flemish ( ) is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to the region known as Flanders in northern Belgium; it is spoke ...

merchant, investor and diplomat who was instrumental in drawing both Dutch and Swedish attention to the importance of the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

. Usselincx was the founding father of the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

Background

Usselincx was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

(in present-day

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

, Belgium), during a time of major upheaval and change. His lifespan covered the period of the

Eighty Years' War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish Empire, Spanish government. The Origins of the Eighty Years' War, causes of the w ...

(1568–1648), which was a

Dutch Revolt The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, exc ...

against Spain that resulted in the secession of seven provinces that came to form the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. At the time of his birth, Antwerp was the most prominent harbor of Western Europe. Over the first half of the 16th century, during its Golden Age, Antwerp grew to become the second-largest European city north of the Alps. The religious revolution of the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

erupted in Antwerp with violent riots in August 1566, and the Eighty Years' War followed shortly after. The

Spanish Crown The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish ...

succeeded in recapturing parts of the southern provinces of

and Brabant. In 1579, the city of Antwerp joined the

Union of Utrecht The Union of Utrecht () was an alliance based on an agreement concluded on 23 January 1579 between a number of Habsburg Netherlands, Dutch provinces and cities, to reach a joint commitment against the king, Philip II of Spain. By joining forces ...

and became the capital of the

. In 1585, Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, eventually captured Antwerp after a long siege. As part of Antwerp's terms of surrender, its

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

citizens were given four years to settle their affairs before quitting the city. Some returned to Roman Catholicism, but many left the city; of the pre-siege population of 100,000 people, only 40,000 remained. Most settlers went to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (the unoccupied part of the Union of Utrecht) in the north, laying the commercial foundation for the subsequent "

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands which roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the '' Rampjaar'' occurred. During this period, Dutch trade, scientific development ...

". Antwerp's banking was controlled for a generation by

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

became the new trading centre of the region—the population of Amsterdam went from 30,000 in 1570 to 60,000 in 1600, and the Amsterdam Canal District was constructed to accommodate the traders and bankers from Antwerp. The

Southern Netherlands The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1556–1714) and later by the ...

became known as the

Spanish Netherlands The Spanish Netherlands (; ; ; ) (historically in Spanish: , the name "Flanders" was used as a '' pars pro toto'') was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of t ...

Dutch West India Company

Usselincx had spent some time in Spain, Portugal and on the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

. There he saw the wealth that was produced by the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. Some time after the seizure of

by the Spanish in 1585, Usselincx moved to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, first to Middelburg and later to

. He was convinced that the Netherlands would win independence and should capture colonies from Spain and Portugal. His treatise ''Naerder Bedenckingen, Over de zee-vaerdt, Coophandel ende Neeringhe, als mede de versekeringhe vanden Staet'' was first printed in 1608. This work presented Usselincx's arguments for a West India trading company and made frequent reference to the Spanish power and source of wealth in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. In 1621, Usselincx was one of the founding fathers of the

, an enterprise he had planned for many years. His intentions were not entirely commercial. He hoped to create a new and better society. He expected that thousands of

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

would migrate to America. He did not wish so much to exploit the country, but rather to let arise a

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

. In this secondary goal, he was insufficiently supported by the

States-General of the Netherlands The States General of the Netherlands ( ) is the supreme bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate () and the House of Representatives (). Both chambers meet at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The States General originated i ...

Swedish South Company

Usselincx drew the attention of

Peter Minuit Peter Minuit (French language, French: ''Pierre Minuit'', Dutch language, Dutch: ''Peter Minnewit''; 1580 – August 5, 1638) was a Walloons, Walloon merchant and politician who was the 3rd Director of New Netherland, Director of the Dutch Nort ...

to Swedish efforts to found the colony which would later become

New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...

(Swedish: ''Nya Sverige''). Like his friend Usselincx,

had also been disappointed by the

and was replaced as governor of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

. As early as 1626, Usselinx had described the advantages to Sweden of contributing in an overseas venture. He referred to the wealth acquired by Spain and The Netherlands in similar enterprises and extolled Sweden's resources for success in the marketplace. Usselinx received royal privileges from king

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus (9 December ld Style and New Style dates, N.S 19 December15946 November ld Style and New Style dates, N.S 16 November1632), also known in English as Gustav II Adolf or Gustav II Adolph, was King of Sweden from 1611 t ...

for a trading company. The king commissioned Usselinx to raise the capital for the Swedish South Company through stock subscriptions in Sweden and its territories. Usselincx relocated from The Netherlands to Sweden but the process of the founding of the new company was difficult and time-consuming, despite the support of

Axel Oxenstierna Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna (; 1583–1654) was a Swedish statesman and Count of Södermöre. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1609 and served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death. He was a confidant of ...

, Swedish Lord High Chancellor. Its charter included Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders led by directors of the New Sweden Company. In 1637, Minuit made arrangements with Samuel Blommaert and the Swedish government to create

, the first Swedish colony in the New World. But by that time, Usselincx was largely financially ruined due to bad investments and unable to profit from his vision. Between 1638 and 1655, the company sponsored 11 expeditions to Delaware in 14 separate voyages (two did not survive). In 1649 the Swedish South Company lost its monopoly on tobacco, granted by the king of Sweden in 1641. In 1655 New Sweden was annexed by New Netherland, this brought an end to the activities of the Swedish South Company, it was dissolved in 1680. The

Swedish East India Company The Swedish East India Company (; SOIC) was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with India, China and the Far East. The venture was inspired by the success of the Dutch East India Company and the British Ea ...

(Swedish: ''Svenska Ostindiska Companiet'' or SOIC) would not be founded until 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with the far east.''The History of the Colony of New Sweden''
(Carl K. S. Sprinchorn's "Kolonien Nya Sveriges Historia", English translation by Gregory B. Keen in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vols. vii. and viii. 1878)

References

Other sources

* Fiske, John ''The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1902). https://archive.org/details/dutchandquaker01fiskrich/mode/2up *Jameson, J. Franklin ''Willem Usselinx: Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies'' (G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1887). https://archive.org/details/willemusselinxf00jamegoog/mode/2up *Mickley, Joseph J. ''Some Account of William Usselinx and Peter Minuit: Two individuals who were instrumental in establishing the first permanent colony in Delaware'' (The Historical Society of Delaware. 1881) * Johnson, Amandus ''The Swedes on the Delaware, 1638-1664'' (Philadelphia, PA: The Swedish Colonial Society. 1915)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Usselincx, Willem 1567 births 1640s deaths New Netherland Dutch West India Company people Businesspeople from Antwerp 17th-century Dutch people Dutch company founders Businesspeople from the Spanish Netherlands 17th-century merchants