358. Spice Wars: The Rise of the Dutch East India Company (Ep 1)

Empire: World History

What’s the real story behind the creation of the Dutch East India Company, and how was espionage involved? What made the VOC the first ‘mega-corporation’ in history? And what was the horrific human cost of establishing a colonial stronghold in the East Indies?


Get the entire Dutch Empire miniseries early and ad-free by joining the Empire Club at empirepoduk.com 


William is joined by Dutch historian Herald van der Linde to explore the staggering rise of the Dutch East India Company - a company so rich it eclipsed the modern valuations of Apple and NVIDIA combined. They discuss how high-stakes espionage, revolutionary cargo ships, and military ruthlessness allowed the Dutch to dominate the 17th-century global economy.


Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/EMPIRE.


For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to ⁠www.goalhanger.com.⁠


Email: empire@goalhanger.com

Instagram: @empirepoduk

Blue Sky: @empirepoduk

X: @empirepoduk

Assistant Producer: Imogen Marriott

Social Producer: Charlie Johnson

Producer: Anouska Lewis

Executive Producer: Dom Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2026-05-10 51 min

Available Results

Generated results are saved to the knowledge database for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Extract Knowledge

Pick what you want extracted first. Model, scope, and chapter options appear after a template is selected.

Generated results for public episodes are saved to the knowledge database so they can be reused and searched later.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.