The appearance of the Dutch in Southeast Asia was predominantly a two-stage colonization process. The initial phase of this period of expansion took place in 1602 with the establishment of the Dutch East India Company. The VOC (Dutch East India Trading Company) had been established by the General of State of the Netherlands to exercise, behind a monopolistic control granted for 21 years, the privileges of colonial expansion that represented the Dutch in South-East Asia. While at first it may have seemed that the VOC needed to expand the size of the overseas Dutch's territory to compete with the other European superpowers, in reality they were predominantly more interested in maximizing their profits through their numerous monopolies in the trading system. The most popular products to be traded in the trading system taken from Asia and brought to Europe were spices such as pepper, which were extremely valuable to Europeans and most abundant in Asia. From 1602 until the demise of the VOC in 1796, millions of Europeans had been relocated to Asia and nearly 5,000 ships operated under private VOC control in Asian waters bringing nearly 3 million tons of Asian products back to Europe. All other European countries combined would not have achieved the feats that the Dutch East India Company had accomplished during its 194-year tenure as a trading empire. Like any empire, the VOC had begun to decline during the last 50 years until its final closure in 1796. Although there are many reasons for the decline of the VOC, 3 main reasons are what truly destroyed this mega-empire. society. The first was that during the mid-1600s there had been a dramatic decrease in trade with China and Japan. Even if this wasn't debris... means of paper... an economical way to afford a war after being a major participant in World War II. Although the Dutch were able to win major battles in the nearly 5-year war, the guerrilla strategy adopted by the Indonesians had become too harmful to the Dutch and eventually led to Indonesia's assent to independence in 1949. Works Cited2. De, Zum. "The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, 1780-1784." The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, 1780-1784. KMLA, November 1, 2001. Web. December 02, 2013.3. Brunberg, Jon. "Indonesian Independence: The Polynational War Memorial". Indonesian independence: the multinational war memorial. GNU FDL, April 2004. Web. 02 December 2013.4. Brine, Amanda. "The Dutch East India Company". About.com Geography. About.com, May-June 2013. Web. 01 December 2013.5. "The Sands of Time." A Brief History of Southeast Asia. Destination Asia, October 2003. Web. 02 December. 2013.