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As an Indonesian, I can say Johnny's story about VOC (East India Company) is more compelling than what I obtained back in school. Another fact, our history is too embarassed to acknowledge that VOC is the company. We are told that Dutch colonized us for 350 year. In fact the colonialization was begun in 1912 😂

Fun fact: The Dutch had exclusive rights to trade with Japan because other countries tried to introduce christianity into Japan. They helped the uprise of christianity and tried to overthrow government by aiding the rebellion. The Dutch helped the Japanese in this fight which earned them the right to trade exclusively.

As a Dutch person I find it very fitting that our country so quickly tossed out religious reasoning and substituted it with practical thinking. So quintessentially Dutch. Im proud that we are still know for this way of doing things, but ashamed that we once used it for such immoral and short-sighted gains.

It is known that the easiest way to get Johnny to stumble into your house is to randomly fill a room with maps.

I am a first year International Relations student. We have just covered European imperialism, colonialism and companies as a 19th century phenomenon. This video provides excellent context to it and Im glad you've uploaded this video now.

It's crazy how trading companies would cause a civil war on a land that wasnt claimed yet.

Love this guy! He’s made me more curious about lots of things in history, never my favourite subject at school but quickly becoming a hobby to research more. Thanks Johnny. ❤

Would really appreaciate if more context was added to the cited letters: who wrote them and when - I find it very important to know - as a letter from the 1800's isn't necessarily applicable to the 1600's. Also would be nice to look these sources up myself and see what else they contain. Thanks for the video! Well done highlighting the importance of private venture in also shaping this period of human history - and it also contrasts nicely with how our current day is also seemingly at the mercy of big corporations, like Nestle, Apple, Google, and so on.

One of the main reasons the Dutch were so successful is due to the windmill. Specifically the wood cutting windmills and therefore the ability to build massive amounts of ships at scale.

As a dutch person, it should be mentioned that 'our' ambitions to capitalise the world was initialy strongly motivated by a need to gain money to fund our war against Spain (1568-1648). The VOC, as you mentioned as the blueprint for capitalism, was founded in 1602 and made all the difference in the war. Fun fact, the reason we were ahead of Britain was because England was in a civil war in those days. When this civil war ended, 'we', the dutch, found it quite hard to compete against a nation with triple/quadruple the size in population. Eventually, in the end (see 1780s), we lost.

I had no idea on the level of influence of private companies in those days. Always appreciate a well informed video that can teach me new things. Keep up the good work, after this and your Qatar video I'm definitely subscribing

loving this series, makes me wish we’d had good history teachers in high school (coaches taught history at North Surry, I had Triplett, my cousin has Coast Atkins- who showed football films during class

By the way, in Indonesia there is an unique and interesting term to call Dutch people who came to Indonesia during the colonial era, that is "Orang Kompeni/Kumpeni" (people from company). This term most likely derives from the word "compagnie" (company), referring to VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie). This term is very popular especially among the elderly and sometimes synonymously with the word "penjajah" (colonizers).

As a Plymouthian, I don't know much about our local history. Before this video, all I knew was the Battle of Freedom Fields in the English Civil War. But I never knew we supplied these 'private companies' so much. This was so informative, thank you for making this!

As a South African, I've never heard this take on the VOC (Dutch East India Company). We were taught (in 4th Grade) about Jan Van Riebek, who was tasked with establishing a "refreshment station," but then decided to overstay his welcome. We weren't given the context of what the VOC was and how and why it came about.

Hey Yoo Nice video man !!! As a History Enthusiast I quite enjoyed the Series .... Great Work .... Keep em coming !

Fun Fact: The Bengal region was a major Portuguese, Dutch, French and British sphere of influence. The first book in Bengali was published in Lisbon during the late 1600s.

this felt leagues above the first part!!! Really glad you took all the feedback to make something really valuable and interesting, always love some good material analysis to shed better light on history when it's often taught with vague excerpts on something 'too old to analyze'

As a Historian, I must say that this video is very accurate to what I learned at the Uni. I just wanted to highlight that although European powers expanded so rappidly, the Imperial China was still the greatest power in the world, at least until the 18th century. Idk if it was mentioned in the previous video, but just a few decades before Portugal started its maritime expasions, the Chinese were pursuing the very same goal, which was to "discover", spread their faith, and make comerce to other parts of the world. The Chinese boats were bigger and aparently superior to the caravels, and they had already reached the horn of Africa, but then the Emperor ordered that the fleet should be destroyed, because in his views (which makes sense considering the role of China in the world at that time), should be the other nations and civilizations that had to come to China, and not the opposite, since China was the center of the world.

Brilliant stuff love your content especially this series based on European imperialism and all the maps I’m definitely a map nerd too 👍

This man can post a video on any topic in the world, and I would still watch the whole thing. A great role model in my life. I admire his work ethic and he still manages to travel and spend time with family.

I think an important part of joint stock companies that was glossed over maybe was the sheer risk of these early trading and exploration voyages. Splitting ships into separate shares as opposed to a single owner sigificantly spread risk for investors and incentivized more trading missions.

This is really amazing work. I would love to see a deep dive series on the French British Spanish and Dutch.

Don't forget about the Hudson's Bay Company. It's one of those same companies you're talking about and it's still around today. Still very much a live and kicking.

As a former geography student I really like old maps, as well. But I have to say: They way you put them into a historic and social context is awesome! Old maps are not just "old and beautiful maps", they say something about the mindset of the time. Thank you for making that accessible for everyone.

Everything in this video looks fine, but there is one thing: the dutch east india company (voc) wasnt the first company to privatize voyages to the indies. There were actually a lot of different companies in the netherlands competing with each other but after a while the dutch government fused them all in to one company because they didnt want that the companies were competing with each other but with the other countries, what really emphasizes the government involvement in this.

Dude, I can't like your video enough. Great production. Props to you and team. Well done

Great job Johnny. Thank you for navigating this sometimes sticky subject and just telling it to us as straight as possible. 👏

As a Dutchie, this series is quite fascinating. I wrote an essay on the Black Legend when I studied history. I'm curious if thats going to be highlighted in the third part, as it is about politics.

I remember the map of the world in my classroom in the 1950s. Canada still flew the red ensign as our flag, and sang God Save the Queen at every public event. We were (and are) part of the British Commonwealth. My Teacher pointed to the map, and told us, “All the pink bits are British”. That was my first understanding of why the maps were coloured the way they were. There was a LOT of pink on that map as I recall.🖤🇨🇦

Great video, ive always had an interest in history and maps, i appreciate the work put in. Keep up the good work.

You and Mr. Ballen are the most amazing dudes on youtube. Terrific journalism and amazing storytelling.

Loving the economic history content, Johnny! A fascinating academic field with plenty of insights that, imo, are underrated.

You forget that the Aztec and Inca nobility became part of the Spanish nobikity. The King of Spain was called the Inca. Cortes married to a daughter of Moctezuma, and their dayghter was called Isabel Cortes Moctezums. Oñate, founder of El Paso was marrued to a grand daughter of Moctezuma. Pizarro arrived with just 180 soldiers, and the Inca Empire had one million soldiers.

As a Dutch person, I learned a lot about the VOC and trades between Europe and other continents. Not a part of our history to be proud of, ethically seen. I would have loved your video's when I was a student, just as an overview. Using normal language to explain the reactions of al sorts of parties after certain events in this trade industry.

This whole channel is quality stuff. Well done.

You’ve been pushing out so much great content lately and I’m here for it

As an Afrịkan it's always interesting hearing history from the European point of view Chinua Achebe, an Igbo author stated Until the tale of the hunt is told by the lion, it will always glorify the hunter. It would be interesting to look at the names of some of the places in the old maps of Afrika😊

Idealism and Greed, the perfect recipe.

Where is part 3? I am not able to find it. Plz provide me the link.

G’day Johnny! I’m a big fan of your work. I’m a map lover too. Would you consider packaging up some of your maps into a product that can be purchased and used as screen savers? Some are very beautiful, I’d be sweet to display them on my TV. When not watching your videos of course haha. No stress if not I’m sure you’re busy enough. Keep up the good work. Your video on the dingo fence was great too btw!

Johnny Harris is the best in the business at making informative and accuratly historical videos. I love your content. Keep up the hard work and amazing videos!

12:04 wow, this is the level of physical map collection that I aspire now. As a suggestion, I will suggest to decipher Doklam issue at Chumbi dagger (Indo - Sino - Tibet) where inconsistencies in British interpretation of peaks like Gipmochi and passes like Batang La is being used by CPC to ingress further and deepen the dagger towards Zompheri ridge; the last line of defence before the Siliguri corridor. It is an active conflict zone with multiple skirmishes like Nathu La, Cho La battles and the recent Doklam ones

Good video! Didn't ever think of how incorporation got started, so that part was extremely interesting to me.

Really great video, Johnny. I can see you have put so much thought and effort into these enriching and entertaining videos. Thank you for making this wonderful series, I can’t wait for the final part! 😊

hey man, I am completely addicted to your documentaries! you doing such good journalism!

I dont know how I am just now finding you, but your content is simply amazing!! I have an obsession with History, great work! Keep it up! 😊

It was not just the corporation but in fact the invention of double entry accounting that made the corporation possible. Invented by the Medici bankers during the renaissance, double entry accounting allowed investors to know what percentage of a company one owned and of course how much of the profits were due each owner.

I hope the next chapter dives more on how private empires really drove the independence movement in the Americas, this series has been incredible

I wish we had videos like these when I was in high school. Would’ve made our history lessons much more interesting - but at the same time much more depressing 😅

So glad that this video has been much more correct than the first one. HUGE congrats on the research. Going to see the third one now!

Dude, I dont where you live but I'd love to spend a day(week, month year) nerding out with you over all those maps you have. The amount the you could teach me is beyond measure.

Your content has always been par excellent. Lately, it's been 🔥! Extremely well researched, impactful, and relevant.

As a Malaysian, we were colonised by the Portuguese then Dutch then English then occupied by the Japanese then back to English again. What I like is your explanation on the reasons and the company perspective in the early 16th century. Thats something not talked about much. We fell to the Portuguese in 1511 and it would take us another 446 years before wee were independent. Imagine that time frame…

Holy crap. Subscribed to this channel because this is simply... Fantastic content! Thank you!

Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for this insightful video!

I add another comment as an Indonesian. This is a fresh perspective about how imperialism work and affect globally. We as Indonesian blinded in school education that Dutch (in overall, not only Dutch Indies Company or VOC) is the biggest problem in the nation (and even the world) without thinking of European imperialism as a bigger scene. Thank you Johnny!

Hi man I really enjoy your videos good work

In the case of Spain in the Philippines, the companies were the religious orders.

Love your videos! Editing is spot on! Look forward to the next one.

I feel deeply that the yellow status bar during the sponsorship should move the other way. It should start full yellow and then slowly move to the left. Almost as if the sponsor portion of the video has a yellow bar glued to it and as the film moves through the viewing window, it moves from right to left.

Johnny Harris- I have been following you from the days at VOX and i must say that your storytelling and facts are so good and amazing it gives a very good insight on things. Really great job

David Mitchell has a brilliant novel in part about the voc called The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zodt

Really great video, Johnny! A lot of details compressed into 15 minutes of knowledge + your own style on it. Perfect 😀

I can't even watch Johnny's videos for entertainment anymore because my brain goes into full on analysis mode, poring over every frame and just wondering how they did that. Another incredible video!

As an aside, who produces your music? It’s excellent.

2:48 such a nice map , where did you get it?

this video gives much more accurate information, and doesn’t misinform as much as the first video did. thank you Mr. Harris for improving yourself and your videos, for not misleading your audiences with embellishments and vagary.

Hey Johnny! I watched your first video on this topic and was really disappointed with how far you pushed storytelling/entertainment over the facts. But I saw that you responded to The Present Pasts criticism to heart and even included him in the creation of this video. I think that’s commendable and not something most content creators would do! Really excited that you will be citing sources and focusing more on facts without loosing your unique visuals and storytelling techniques!

I enjoyed every second. Please keep it coming.Thank you for another great video brother

This series is incredible. Amazing job!

Johnny, your content is always informative and well presented.

This is great journalism right here ! Really informative and with lots of visual and audio cues. It helps a lot ! Otherwise i would get bored like in school. Thank you Mr. Harris ! 👍

where do you get your maps from? fellow map nerd

Anyone know the name of the electronic background music at 7:47?

@Johnny Harris - As always very compelling video. I recently read a book that I would like to recommend: "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" by Acemogulu & Robinson. The chapter on the Dutch East India Company is of course horrifying and parallels much of what you discuss here. But one very interesting bit was that of kingdoms within Africa becoming heavily involved in the slave trade themselves. I of course would agree that the slave trade was deplorable, but learning that much of the slave trade came from within and then evolved to become cheap/free labor once European/American powers abolished slavery kind of blew my mind all together. It has given me insight into how we wound up with the world we live in today.

"In Communism there is an equal distribution of misery. And in Capitalism there is an inequal distribution of blessings" - Winston Churchill

Thank you for explaining our indigenous first nations genocide and European illegal occupation of our continent with such accuracy, this video is one of many that I will watch, please keep up the good work on working to properly educate the general population on true history.

The first company was not the Dutch East India Company. The first one was an English Company called "The Marchants Adventurers of England for the Discovery of Lands, Territories, Iles, Dominions and Seigniories Unknowen, and Not before that Late Adventure or Enterprise by Sea or Navigation Commonly Frequented" ( Muscovy Company) incorporated in 1555.

I always found it somewhat touching that Queen Isabella of Spain, who was the reason Columbus ever came to America...though she had the audacity to declare Native Americans her subjects.... then went to her deathbed refusing to allow them to be slaves or even to be abused, since she considered them her citizens. Says this in "A Plea for Isabella", Lucas Barron: "Isabella insisted that the Indians be counted as her “vassals” and potential Christians, not as the Portuguese had classed the Africans. When the first shipment of enslaved Taínos arrived in Spain, she upbraided Columbus for defying her command to treat them well and ordered the captives freed and returned home. Few of them made it. As reports came back to her of Columbus’s continued abuses of both natives and colonists, Isabella had him arrested, brought back to Spain in chains for investigation, and definitively stripped of his governorship." But it doesn't stop there: "On her deathbed, Isabella dictated a codicil to her will, enjoining her heirs “that they not consent or allow that the Indians […] receive any injury in their persons or effects, but I command that they be well and justly treated. And if they have received any injury, that you should remedy it.” Sadly Californians still toppled her statue in 2020 from their state legislature, since it also had Columbus. "A Beaux-Arts showpiece by the American master Larkin Goldsmith Mead entitled Columbus’ Last Appeal to Queen Isabella. It depict(ed) three figures, Columbus, Queen Isabella and an attentive young page, at a moment of singular consequence for world history (when she approved the first voyage to America)." Eh well. Maybe its a fitting confused ending for a statue of a woman who demanded confused mercy for millions.

Hi Jhonny!!! I follow you since a lot of time. Your videos are awesome!!! Thankyou!!! I would ask and proposse a topic... Independence of hispanoamerica and the lost of the spanish empire... It would be fantastic to see one of your videos with this topic... Thanks again for your great work!!!

Fascinating stuff. Great work!

I think we need a remake of the part 1

As a half Haitian (who his ancestors were brought to this island Hispaniola to be slaves) and half Spanish guy ( who probably some ancestors had to do with slavery) it destroys me the thought of how humans can treat other humans so poorly (even thought still 80 million of us humans live in slavery) it’s a shame that we aren’t doing anything to help them even though we can

Another really good video. I hope this will lead to a creation of a video about pirate age since its quite vague to a lot of people what the real story about pirates is because of several movies and anime, who are the famous ones who leads them and their territories and what influence they had that affect to this day if there is any.

dear johnny, may i just ask what watch u’re wearing…?

Hi, sorry to bother, but google docs link does not work for me. Any idea? THX :)

Johnny's storytelling skills are so compelling that people probably don't care when he glosses over gaint factual inaccuracies to generalize his ideas, for example (when it comes to India and the east india company, it wasn't a bunch of unclaimed land whose people were just some hunter gatherers and didn't know a word about agriculture, it already had bigger and much modern kingdoms than most European countries at the time and unsurprisingly the EIC had to admit it. Yet how india still ended up getting colonized(how many kings joined hands with EIC or lost to them) is where we must get into the details. I don't think an accurate display of history can happen w/o going into these details, millions of such truths.

Always a freaking treat when you upload! Keep it up Johnny!!!

I would like to make some complementary remarks regarding the Spanish Empire and the US: - Regarding the Spanish Empire, it had some differences in comparison with the other Empires. Firstly, there was no private companies ruling the colonies and this Empire didn´t just remain in the coasts (such as Portuguese and Dutch one), but it went inland as well. And the reason was because they were interested in "save souls" and "educate people" as much as possible. Beware this was XVI century mentality. The last will of Isabella I of Castile in 1504 said "it was my intention to try to get, induce and attract the people who populate them to the Catholic faith, and to send to the Islands and Mainland prelates and religious people and priests and other learned persons... in order to instruct the inhabitants of those lands in the Catholic faith, and to teach them good customs. As well, I beg the King my lord very lovingly, and I charge and order the Princess, my daughter, and the Prince, her husband, that they do it thus and that they carry it out, and that this is its main purpose and that they should put much diligence into it, and not consent to nor allow the Indians, neighbours and inhabitants of the Indias and Mainland, won and to be won, to receive any injury to their persons or possessions, rather to the contrary, that they should be well and fairly treated, and if they have received any injury that it should be remedied and provided for so that in nothing does it go beyond what was ordered and established in the apostolic letters of the said concession." Unfortunately, "encomenderos" (people who had to educate the "Indians") took advantage of their power and exploit them. This bad treatment to the Indians was denounced by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, and firstly he achieved that Emperor Charles I of Spain (grandson of Isabella I of Castile) signed the "New Laws" in 1542 where "encomenderos" were suppressed and secondly in the Valladolid debate in 1550, considered the first humans right debate in the world, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas defended that Indians were equal in rights as the rest of Spanish people. No other Empire in the world considered these topics in XVI century and this different consideration made that Spanish and Indians mixed whereas in other Empires such as British or even the US, white, Indians and blacks remained unmixed. - Regarding the US when it became independent from Britain, it kept doing the exact same thing. US took land from Indians (indeed there are a lot of American films with good white guys shooting bad Indians in the West), enclosing them in Indian reservations until today. US also took land from independent Mexico (almost half of the country), the entire Kingdom of Hawaii, and from Spain Puerto Rico and Guam, remaining nowadays as "unincorporated colonies", a fancy name for US colonies which don´t have a say in the Parliament. Other "unincorporated territories" are American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands. Then, are you sure that Empires were only European? Or maybe US is a non-European Empire currently in operation? Indeed, quite recently US also tried to educate some Muslim countries with Western democracy while getting oil from them, isn´t it familiar?

Such an interesting and enlightening video, thanks!

15:11 right... I was never a fan of history and only knew the one of my country that made by its people. I started to have interest in it when _accidentally_ watch UKposts videos about history of other countries, either made by their own people or by people from other country. And now this. It's really mind-blowing to see each perspectives, each story, each history.

Also, big simplification - it's Western Europe that's doing all of that. In the east, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth we were establishing things like Nobles' Democracy, freedom of religion etc. until we got crashed with traditional imperialism by Sweden, Russia, Austria and Prussia.

As a musician I can say with certainty that the background music to this episode definitely helped move the storytelling along. I guess I learned some history, or something too.

Where is the 3rd video?

love the great work which you have been doing

Shows how society really takes off when people have the freedom to form their own organizations and invest in their growth, with advancements in science, medicine, technology, etc, but at the same time, it shows how letting that go unattended and unregulated can result in people coming up with some horrific solutions. As always, we should strive for a middle ground.

no link to part 1?! T_T

The reason the Dutch VOC was one of the first and most succesful 'multinational' corporations: 1. it was founded to fund the Dutch Eighty Years' War in the first place (getting rich was just a welcome add-on) 2. in contrast with the other private companies in the rest of Europe, the Dutch had a single, United (Verenigde) East India (Oost-Indische) Company (hence: VOC). English companies were competing against each other *and* the foreign companies while the Dutch VOC had no competitors. And if they found any English in 'their region' they would take swift action, sometimes even waging a short but brutal war while at home both the Dutch Republic and the United Kingdom could still be at peace. In a Canadian or New Zealand documentary (so sorry, it's no longer on YT), the narrator/presenter stated that the British Empire could never have become so succesful if it wasn't for the Dutch VOC that showed it how it was done. Also, invading England and putting the Dutch Stadtholder on the British throne also helped a lot (Glorious Invasion I mean Revolution of 1688).