- Willem Usselincx
Willem Usselincx (Antwerp,
Low Countries 1567-1647?) was a merchant and diplomat.He stayed for a long time in Spain, Portugal and on the
Azores . There he saw the wealth that was engendred by the colonies. Some time after the seize ofAntwerp by the Spanish (1585) he migrated, as many of his fellow citizens to the northern Netherlands, in the first place toMiddelburg later toAmsterdam .He was persuaded that the Netherlands should conquer colonies from Spain.
In 1621 he was one of the founding fathers of the
Dutch West India Company , he had been planning for since 1600. His intentions were not in the first place commercial. In the New World he wished to create a new and better society. He expected that thousands of Dutch people would migrate to America. He did not want to exploit the country, but wanted to let arise a new Netherland. However he was insufficiently supported by theStates-General of the Netherlands .He, like his friend
Peter Minuit had also been disappointed by the Dutch West Indian Company and he drew Minuit’s attention to the Swedish efforts to found a colony. Usselincx left Holland but he did not succeed to realise his plans, despite the initial support of kingGustavus Adolphus of Sweden andAxel Oxenstierna .He died ca. 1647, after he was entirely ruined due to bad financial investments.
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