Anthony van Diemen: Patron of discovery and exploration, 1636-45 Part II

Abstract

High on the list of Governor-General van Diemen's priorities was the pursuit of a policy of geographical discovery and exploration. In part, of course, this commitment to discovery resulted from Van Diemen's imperial ambitions. As the Dutch East India Company's chief executive officer in the East, it was his overriding concern to build, extend and strengthen the Dutch maritime empire with a view to increasing the Company's profitability (see Part I). Obviously, the discovery of new lands, especially if these lands could be made to yield gold or silver, or new trading opportunities, would greatly have furthered that aim. Nonetheless, it would be churlish to suggest that imperial ambition alone led Van Diemen to sponsor a series of voyages of discovery and that motives of an intellectual nature played no role at all. Human motivation is complex and is rarely one-dimensional. And certainly, in the case of Van Diemen, it is quite clear that his commitment to discovery resulted, at least in part, from intellectual curiosity.