Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie (United East Indies Company) or the VOC which was established on March 20, 1602 is a Dutch company that has a monopoly for trade activities in Asia. It’s called the East Indies because there is a VWC of the West Indies trade unions. The company is regarded as the first company to issue shares.
Although VOC is a trading company, but has the privilege because it is supported by the government and given some special facilities. For example, the VOC may have an army and may negotiate with other countries or can be said is the state in the country.
VOC consisted of 6 Part (kamers) in Amsterdam, Middelburg (for Zeeland), Enkhuizen, Delft, Hoorn and Rotterdam. Delegations from these parts/kamers come together as the Heeren XVII (Gentlemen XVII). Kamers delegation contributed to the seventeen in accordance with the proportion of capital that they pay; the number of delegates Amsterdam kamers is eight.In Indonesia the Company has the popular name Kompeni or Kumpeni. The term is derived from the word Compagnie in the company's full name in Dutch. But the Nusantara people more familiar Kompeni is the Dutch army for suppressing and extortion to the people as the same as the Dutch army
Background
The arrival of the Europeans through the sea route pioneered by Vasco da Gama, who sailed in the year 1497-1498 from Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope, is located at the southern tip of Africa. This causes them no longer need to compete with the merchants of the Middle East to East Asia, which has been pursued through a dangerous land route. At first, the main purpose of European nations to the East and Southeast Asia, including to Indonesia is for trade, as well as the Dutch. This trade mission followed by a political settlement (colonization) conducted by the Dutch with the kingdoms in Java, Sumatra and Maluku. While in Suriname and Curaçao, the Dutch goal from the beginning is pure colonization (settlement). With the background of this trade was the beginning of the era of colonization to the nation of Indonesia (Dutch Indies).
In the 16th century spice trade was dominated by the Portuguese with the port of Lisbon as the main port. Before the revolution in the Dutch city of Antwerp has an important role as a distributor in Northern Europe, but after the year 1591 Portuguese establish cooperation with firms from Germany, Spain and Italy by using the port of Hamburg as a major port as a place to distribute goods from Asia, so move trade route with no past the Dutch. But the trade was conducted by the Portuguese is inefficient and unable to continue supplying the rising demand, especially pepper. Non-current supply causes the price of pepper was expensive at the moment. In addition, Unification of Portugal and the Kingdom of Spain (Portugal was in a state of war with the Dutch at that time) in the year 1580, causing concern for the Dutch. The situation prompted the Dutch entered the spice trade Intercontinental. In January, Huyghen van Linschoten and Cornelis de Houtman's voyage to find the secret path Portuguese, which brought the first sailing Cornelis de Houtman to Banten, the main port in Java in 1595-1597. 
In the year 1596 four-ship expedition led by Cornelis de Houtman sailed to Indonesia, and Indonesia is the first contact with the Dutch. This expedition reached the port of Banten, the main pepper port of West Java, where they clashed with the Portuguese and the local population. Houtman sailed eastward through the northern coast of Java and had been attacked by local residents "Sedayu" which resulted in 12 Dutch sailors were killed. In addition, they are also at odds with the local population in Madura, causing the killing of a local leader. After losing half of the crew in the next year they decided to return to the Netherlands but the spices which they had brought enough to generate profits.
British merchants are starting to establish trading companies in Asia on December 31, 1600 called The Britisch East India Company and headquartered in Calcutta. Then the Dutch established their trading companies in Asia in 1602 and France did not want to miss and founded French East India Company in 1604.On March 20, 1602, Dutch traders established Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie - VOC (East India Trade Association). In those days, there was competition between European countries, namely Portuguese, Spanish English, French and Dutch, to fight the trade in order to control East Asia. To face the problem, by "Staaten Generaal" in the Netherlands, the VOC is authorized to have his own army. In addition, the Company also has an agreement for goven the state and declared war against a country. This authority resulted in trade associations such as the VOC can act as a nation.
VOC established his headquarters in Batavia (now Jakarta), Java. Other colonial postal also established elsewhere in the East Indies (Indonesia), as in the spice islands (Moluccas), which include the Banda Islands where VOC run monopoly on nutmeg and mace. The method used VOC to maintain the monopoly, including acts of violence against the local population, as well as extortion and mass murder.
In the year 1603 VOC obtained permission to set up representative offices in Jakarta, and in 1610 Pieter Both was appointed first Governor-General of the East India Company (1610-1614), but he chose "Jayakarta" as the basis for the VOC administration. Meanwhile, Frederick de Houtman was governor of the VOC in Ambon (1605 - 1611) and after it became Governor for Maluku (1621 to 1623).
Previleges
Privileges listed in the "Oktrooi" (Charter / Charta) on March 20, 1602 include:Monopoly rights to trade and sailing in the region east of Cape of Good Hope and west of the Strait of Magellan and the control of trade for its own sake;
Rights of sovereignty (soevereiniteit) that can act like a state:
1. have the army,
2. Declare war and make peace,
3. Seize and occupy foreign areas outside the Netherlands,
4. Govern these areas,
5. Set / remove the coin itself,
6. To levy taxes.
Privileges listed in the "Oktrooi" (Charter / Charta) on March 20, 1602 include:Monopoly rights to trade and sailing in the region east of Cape of Good Hope and west of the Strait of Magellan and the control of trade for its own sake;
Rights of sovereignty (soevereiniteit) that can act like a state:
1. have the army,
2. Declare war and make peace,
3. Seize and occupy foreign areas outside the Netherlands,
4. Govern these areas,
5. Set / remove the coin itself,
6. To levy taxes.
Timeline
In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck set up the post on the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa, now South Africa) to provide for the VOC ships on their way to East Asia. This heading later became the colony when more Dutch and other Europeans began to live in this place. Pos VOC also established in Persia (now Iran), Bengal (now Bangladesh) and part of India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Malacca (now Malaysia), Siam (now Thailand), mainland China (Canton), Formosa (now Taiwan) , and southern India. In 1662, Koxinga expelled the Dutch from Taiwan.
In 1669, the VOC was the richest private company in history, with more than 150 commercial boats, 40 warships, 50,000 employees, a private army with 10,000 troops, with the percentage of dividend payment 40%.
The company is almost always at odds with the British; VOC and British relations deteriorated during the massacre in the city of Ambon in the year 1623. In the 18th century, VOC ownership was based in the East Indies. After the fourth war between the United Provinces and England (1780-1784), the VOC have financial difficulties, and on March 17, 1798, the company was dissolved, after the Netherlands was invaded by the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte of France. East Indies handed over to the Kingdom of the Netherlands by the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
The company is almost always at odds with the British; VOC and British relations deteriorated during the massacre in the city of Ambon in the year 1623. In the 18th century, VOC ownership was based in the East Indies. After the fourth war between the United Provinces and England (1780-1784), the VOC have financial difficulties, and on March 17, 1798, the company was dissolved, after the Netherlands was invaded by the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte of France. East Indies handed over to the Kingdom of the Netherlands by the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
