This bird's-eye view of Banten Bay depicts the skirmish between Dutch and Banten natives in 1596. During the 16th century, the East Indies spice trade was controlled by the Portuguese. The Dutch were content to purchase their spices from Portugal until the 1590s when trade ceased due to war between Spain and the Netherlands, and Spain's alliance with Portugal. A group of Dutch merchants, armed with the newly published works of Petrus Plancius and Jan Huyghen van Linschoten that included detailed charts of the route to the East Indies, set sail in 1595 with four ships (Mauritius, Amsterdam, Hollandia, and the Duyfken) and 248 officers and men. The voyage was the first Dutch expedition to Indonesia, and reached Banten Bay in June 1596. The Dutch fleet was met with hostility by the Bantenese, due to persuasion by the Portuguese, and a skirmish between the Dutch (led by Cornelis de Houtman) and Bantenese ensued. Although the expedition was not a huge success, the Dutch did return to the Netherlands with spices, and the expedition was deemed instrumental in opening up the trade route to the East Indies to the Dutch. This map was published in Willem Lodewijcksz' D'eerste boeck. Historie van Indien.

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Condition: B+

Minor soiling with left margin extended to accommodate framing.