TRADERS WHARF

Sup Hub, it's been a while since I've posted a map but welcome to my newest creation; Traders Wharf. It's my submission for the Husky Raid contest which got some forge juices flowing again after a long time. The map is based on a Dutch harbor town in the early 17th century, when the spice trade was the start of the VOC, (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) or Dutch East-India Company, the biggest company that ever existed. They shaped the world and the financial market with trading, colonisation and exploration (Australia and New Zealand for instance) because they had a monopoly position on the spice trade to Africa and Asia (which later expanded in many other goods) and even had their own army for protection. Examples of regions they shipped off to are India, Madagascar, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and for a time they were the only merchants who could trade with Japan. They had more than a hundred posts outside the Netherlands, like Cape Town and Batavia (modern day Jakarta), and thousands of ships were used over a period of 200 years. The whole Dutch fleet of trading and warships contained more than 20.000 ships at it's peak.

The company was worth more than 7 trillion dollars (after inflation), so it's pretty hard to imagine how big it really was. They also sold pieces of the company in Amsterdam so this is how the first stock market was born. The VOC remained until 1799 when it was dismantled due to many reasons but mainly the wars against the English and French but also crew shortages, underestimating the competition, other bad policies and even corruption.

The company originated in the 'Dutch Golden Age', a period in Dutch history where, during an 80 year war against the Spanish empire, The Netherlands thrived in trading, science, astronomy, art, architecture, socially and culturally but also in politics and militairy, especially on the seas, where they became a world power together with the warfleet and the WIC (West India Company). Which was another Dutch fleet who sailed to the west instead of the east, examples are Brazil, the Carribean and North-America. The WIC even captured the Spanish silverfleet near Cuba in 1628. At that time lots of artists, philosophers, scientists etc. from all over Europe went to Amsterdam because thinking differently or more open minded wasn't getting you killed or jailed so that's also an important reason it flourished. Things we still hold dear today like personal liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and shared values all originated 400 years ago. A lot of the profits of the VOC were used for land reclamation. Swamps, lakes and even parts of the sea were drained and made into new land which could be cultivated.

But not to get too romantic about all of this, let's not forget it was the era of war, plundering, racism, colonies, pirating and even slavery which both the WIC and VOC were guilty of, even though the Netherlands was the most humane and tolerant nation in Europe. That's why some historical figures are becoming somewhat controversial because of crimes against humanity or other misconduct.

Sooo back to the map, I got the idea for this theme because it's been 350 years ago this year since Rembrandt died and I saw a show about Dutch painters on tv lol. So I've tried to recreate the Dutch 17th century architecture, the warehouses with the typical 'hourglass' storm screens on the windows, some other buildings, a windmill, docks and of course a large ship in the distance. I hope it captures that historic feeling a little bit. You're fighting from one warehouse to the other over two bridges on template 4 and the building with the hulls on it is based on a ride in a Dutch theme park, not actual historic architecture. I realize the map is pretty silly and I'm a little rusty with forge but what the hell, go check it out and let me know what you guys think.

I'll put some links here for the people who want to know more about this stuff.

Cheers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Golden_Age