Danish East India Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Danish and other European settlements in India.
Danish and other European settlements in India.

The Danish East India Company (Danish, Dansk Ostindisk Kompagni) was a Danish chartered company.

It was founded in 1616, following a privilege of Danish King Christian IV. It was focused on trade with India and had its base in Trankebar, in the fort Dansborg, the seat of its governor (see indirect rule) of Danish India, who was styled Opperhoved. During its heyday, the Danish - and Swedish East India Company imported more tea than the British East India Company - and smuggled 90% of it into Britain, where it could be sold at a huge profit.

After a short blossoming, it lost importance quickly and was dissolved in 1729. In 1732, it was refounded as Asiatische Compagnie ("Asiatic Company"), yet in 1772 it lost its monopoly, and in 1779 Danish India became a crown colony.

During the Napoleonic Wars, in 1801 and again in 1807, the British navy attacked Copenhagen in the Battle of Copenhagen (1807). As a consequence of the last attack, Denmark (one of few West European countries not occupied by Bonaparte) lost its entire fleet and the island of Helgoland (part of the duchy of Holstein-Gottorp; ceded to Germany in 1890). British control of the seas spelled the end of the Danish East India Company.

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.