{"id":1682,"canonical_url":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/events/1602ce-mar-20--1682","name":"1602 CE, March 20","year":1602,"era":"CE","month":3,"day":20,"url":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/events/1602ce-mar-20--1682","iso-date":"1602-03-20","precision":"year-month-day","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dutch East India Company (VOC) was established on March 20, 1602 to facilitate colonial trade.by controlling the spice trade, reduce competition, and fund military actions against colonial rivals like Portugal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","additional_details":"\u003cp\u003eIt effectively became the world's first true multinational \"company-state\" and the first company to issue publicly traded shares. It could trade, maintain armies. build forts, wage war and mint money; allowing it to commanding incredible large amount of wealth. Due primarily to financial mismanagement and corruption, the VOC was declared bankrupt .in 1798–1799.and nationalized.\u003c/p\u003e","photo":"","created_at":"2025-03-20T06:24:00-07:00","updated_at":"2026-04-16T20:43:47-07:00","breadcrumbs":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"March History","item":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/march"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"March 20","item":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/march-20"}]},"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Thing","@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/events/1602ce-mar-20--1682#eventK365","name":"1602 CE, March 20","headline":"The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was established on March 20, 1602 to facilitate colonial trade - 1602 CE","description":"The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was established on March 20, 1602 to facilitate colonial trade.by controlling the spice trade, reduce competition, and...","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/events/1602ce-mar-20--1682","additionalType":"HistoricalEvent","inLanguage":"en","datePublished":"2025-03-20T06:24:00-07:00","dateModified":"2026-04-16T20:43:47-07:00","publisher":{"@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/#organizationK365"},"temporalCoverage":"1602-03-20","isPartOf":[{"@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/#websiteK365"},{"@type":"CollectionPage","@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/march","name":"What Happened in March History"},{"@type":"CollectionPage","@id":"https://www.kudos365.com/today-in-history/march-20#pageK365","name":"What Happened on March 20"}]}}