biography
| name: |
Coen, Jan Pieterszoon
|
pronunciation:
[koon]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1587–1629)
|
| biography:
| Governor-general of the Netherlands East Indies, born in Hoorn, W Netherlands. He entered the service of the VOC (United East Indian Company), advancing to book-keeper-general and president of the Bantam and Jacatra offices in 1613. Governor-general of the Netherlands East Indies in 1617, he built a fort at Jacatra, first called ‘Nieuw Hoorn’, and after it had been destroyed by the English and local opposition, he rebuilt it. It was renamed ‘Batavia’ by the Heren XVII (the board of the VOC), and became the capital of the Netherlands East Indies. He reorganized the VOC management in the Far East, and on his return to The Netherlands made proposals encouraging free trade and colonization, but maintaining the VOC's monopoly of trade with The Netherlands. His ideas were not accepted, but he was again made governor-general in 1624, taking up his post in 1627. He died, probably of cholera, during the second siege of Batavia by an army from Mataram. |
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