The VOC was founded by a group of Dutch merchants and was one of the first and most succesful multinationals. It represented the history of Western expansion and was an agent of the modern world system and globalisation. But its 1602 charter (Octroy) gave the Company also public authority, the right to make war and peace, and to acquire and govern countries and nations. The historiography of the Company, therefore, can not been restricted to travel, commerce and money, but has to give attention too to state formation and the making of a new society. Seventeenth- and eighteenth cities such as Batavia, Colombo, Malacca and Cape Town demonstrated its vitality, and both modern Indonesia and South Africa are part of its legacy. The formation of the VOC world, of course, had to do with maritime expansion, commercial conflicts and wars, monopolies and colonialism. But that's not the whole story. The creation of the VOC State had also much to do with the encounter of cultures and religions, the meeting of East and West, the moulding of new societies. The VOC State stretched from Cape Town to Nagasaki, its subjects and inhabitants came from many parts of Europe, Africa and Asia, and in many parts of it various ethnic and cultural groups lived next to each other in crowded areas or pluriform cities. How did the VOC State accommodate all these groups and cultures and by which policy did it keep peace and order? It is time for a close scrutiny of the policies that guided the formation of the VOC State and gave Nederlandsch India its identity: at the same time Calvinist and multi-cultural. End The VOC was founded by a group of Dutch merchants and was one of the first and most succesful multinationals. It represented the history of Western expansion and was an agent of the modern world system and globalisation. But its 1602 charter (Octroy) gave the Company also public authority, the right to make war and peace, and to acquire and govern countries and nations. The historiography of the Company, therefore, can not been restricted to travel, commerce and money, but has to give attention too to state formation and the making of a new society. Seventeenth- and eighteenth cities such as Batavia, Colombo, Malacca and Cape Town demonstrated its vitality, and both modern Indonesia and South Africa are part of its legacy. Die VOC is tot stand gebring deur 'n groep Nederlandse handelaars. Dit was een van die eerste en mees geslaagde multinasionale korporasies. Dit het in baie opsigte die geskiedenis van Westerse uitbreiding versinnebeeld en het as agent van die moderne wereldsisteem en globalisering na vore getree. Die handves (Octroy) van 1602 het die maatskappy ook die reg gegee om oorlog te verklaar en vrede te sluit, om grondgebied en bevolkings byeen te bring en die bewind te voer. Die historiografie van die maatskappy kan dus nie net bloot in die konteks van reis, handel, en geld gesien word nie. Daar moet ook aandag aan die vorming van 'n nuwe samelewing oorweging geskenk word. Die stede van die sewentiende en agtiende eeu, soos Batavia, Colombo, Malacca en Kaapstad het hierdie lewenskragtigheid vertoon. Beide die iii.moderne Indonesie en Suid-Afrika is produkte van die erfenis. Daar is ook sprake van godsdiens wat as onderdeel van die kultuur uitgedra is. Hoe die VOC die uiteenlopende aspekte van diverse groeperings van mense geakkomodeer het, word in die studie, wat in Nederlands geskryf is, in oorweging geneem. End