Trade or War?

"Trade or War?" describes the attempts of the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century to establish regular trade relations with China. As basis for their operations a small island off the coast of Taiwan was chosen, where a fortress was built, called Zeelandia. Gradually the DEIC began to colonize the whole island of Taiwan, which was still an independent territory at that time. The book describes many dramatic events, such as the naval battles that were fought with pirates and Chinese navy, the attempts of Reformed pastors to explain the principles of Christianity to a community of head hunters, and the siege of Zeelandia by an army of Ming loyalists. By the end of the century the Chinese had taken control of the island, while the native Taiwanese had been driven from their land.

After the publication of the Dutch edition in 2011, Piet Emmer wrote on Januari 9, 2012, the following in a review in the Dutch national newspaper 'de Volkskrant':

"The Dutch expansionism in the seventeenth century was impressive.... Incidentally, things sometimes went wrong. The most expensive failure was undoubtedly the decolonization of part of Brazil between 1630 and 1654... A second failure was the temporary conquest of Taiwan (then Formosa) in the patent area of the DEIC. Aad (Adrian) van Amstel, originally a physicist and living in China, has written an excellent, highly readable book about it."
Piet Emmer in De Volkskrant