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After a discussion of the States General and the office of stadholder as the two key institutions of Dutch sovereignty in Dutch foreign relations, this article analyzes to what extent the two institutions were involved in Dutch diplomacy with non-European peoples in the Atlantic World before the founding of the West India Company in 1621. On the Gold Coast and in West-Central Africa, regions controlled by centralized states and shaped by the presence of Iberian colonizers, Dutch traders relied on the support of the States General and the stadholder to establish alliances. On the Wild Coast of South America and in New Netherland, uncontested regions dominated by decentralized Indigenous groups, Dutch merchants did not require the diplomatic support of the States General or the stadholder but instead established alliances based on local Indigenous protocol.

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