Indonesia: 'A Javanese ship at Bantam', from Cornelis de Houtman's Voyage to the East Indies, 1595-1597

Cornelis de Houtman (2 April 1565 – 1 September 1599) was a Dutch explorer who discovered a new sea route from Europe to Indonesia and managed to begin the Dutch spice trade. At the time, the Portuguese Empire held a monopoly on the spice trade, and the voyage was a symbolic victory for the Dutch, even though the voyage itself was a disaster.

The voyage may be regarded as the start of the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia. Within five years, sixty-five more Dutch ships had sailed east to trade. Soon, the Dutch would fully take over the spice trade in and around the Indian Ocean.

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