Hans Putmans
Hans Putmans | |
---|---|
4th Governor of Formosa | |
In office 1629–1636 | |
Preceded by | Pieter Nuyts |
Succeeded by | Johan van der Burg |
Personal details | |
Born | Middelburg |
Died | 1654 Delft |
Hans Putmans (? in
Career in Asia
Born in Middelburg, Putmans came to Asia in 1621 in the service of the Dutch East India Company. Over the first three years of his career, he was stationed in Siam, Cambodia, Patani, Sumatra's west coast and Java's north east coast. In 1624, he came to Batavia; four years later he became the president of the college of Aldermen and the overseer of the Chinese citizens.[1]
Governor of Formosa
In 1629, he became the fourth
Defeated in the battle, Putmans turned his attention to agriculture, establishing a policy of attracting settlers from the Chinese mainland to Formosa, in order to cultivate rice and sugar on the fertile plains on the west side of the island. In time, this policy would become very successful.[3]
Return to the Netherlands
In December 1636, Putmans returned to the Dutch Republic and, after an apparent spell in Amsterdam, settled in Delft in 1638,[4] where he would live until his death in 1654.[5]
References
- ^ Blussé, van Opstal and Ts'ao Yung-Ho, De Dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan, I, 1629-1641 (The Hague 1986), 2n6
- ^ Tonio Andrade, Lost Colony: the untold story of China’s first great victory over the West (Princeton 2011), ch. 3 and 4.
- ^ Tonio Andrade, How Taiwan became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century, ch. 6.
- ^ His marriage with Elizabeth van Zanten on 9 October 1638, as recorded in the Delft municipal archive, describes him as 'coming from Amsterdam'. Collection Delft, archive 14, inv. nr. 125 Archived 2015-10-05 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Death certificate in Collection Delft, archive 14, inv. nr. 39 Archived 2017-09-16 at the Wayback Machine.