R1217th

While the Dutch East India Company focused on imperializing Africa and the East for trade and wealth purposes, the Dutch West India Company entered the Americas. Intruding on the Spanish claims in America, the Dutch West India Company trod on the toes of other nations in the process of seeking wealth through trade. However, by 1650 they had successfully gained control over much of the African and American trade, further adding to Dutch wealth. The foreign expansion of the Dutch had driven out the Portuguese from Ceylon in the East and the Spanish from America in the West, dominating most major foreign trade routes.  McKay, John P. __A History of Western Society__. 7th ed. New York City: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.