Jan Pieterszoon Coen

Jan Coen was present at the massacre of Voerhoeven and his leaders in 1609, and he returned to Indonesia in 1612 as assistant to the Governor General of the Dutch East India Company, Pieter Both. Coen was an accountant and a shrewd businessman, and by 1614, he was second in rank in the spiceries. He turned the company into a totalitarian monopoly by destroying competition with English and native factories, and he consolidated Dutch control over Indonesia, which would be ruled by the Netherlands until 1949.

Pieter Stuyvesant

Stuyvesant was brought in to New Netherland to improve conditions in New Amsterdam, the city that had sprung up at the tip of Manhattan Island. He brought improvements to the city, but ruled with an iron fist, as well. He restricted the rights of the people, and limited immigration, so that the colony was ultimately encroached upon by nearby British colonies, and...