biography
| name: |
Diemen, Antonio van
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| |
popular name of Anthony van Diemen
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pronunciation:
[van deemen]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1593–1645)
|
| biography:
| Dutch colonial administrator, born in Culemborg, SC Netherlands. Following bankruptcy as an Amsterdam businessman, he went to the Netherlands East Indies in 1618 under the assumed name of Thonis Meeuwisz of Utrecht, to bypass the United East India Company (VOC) rules against employing bankrupts. There he attracted the attention of Jan Pietersz Coen, who employed him in increasingly important posts, until eventually he became governor-general (1636–45). His tenure marked the greatest period of expansion of the VOC, taking in Malacca, part of Ceylon, and Formosa. He instituted a Company law which, until 1848, was the foundation of jurisdiction in the Netherlands East Indies, and sent out exploration expeditions, including Abel Tasman's circumnavigation of Australia. Van Diemen's Land, later Tasmania, was named after him. He died in Batavia. |
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