Changes

Jakarta, on the island of Java, is the capital of the modern state of Indonesia. In the early modern period, the city was known as Batavia,<ref>The name Batavia derives from the Batavi, a people who in the first centuries CE inhabited the lands that today comprise the Netherlands.</ref> and was the center of the Dutch East Indies, and the headquarters of the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC) operations in the region.

Jakarta, on the island of Java, is the capital of the modern state of Indonesia. In the early modern period, the city was known as Batavia,<ref>The name Batavia derives from the Batavi, a people who in the first centuries CE inhabited the lands that today comprise the Netherlands.</ref> and was the center of the Dutch East Indies, and the headquarters of the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC) operations in the region.

Batavia was one of a number of cities in Southeast Asia which was home to a sizable [[Nihonmachi|Japanese community]] in the early 17th century. Unlike most of the other Southeast Asian Japantowns, however, which were populated largely by merchants and adventurers, Batavia's Japanese population were largely mercenaries and craftsmen hired explicitly by the VOC to help build the city and/or to work for the Company otherwise. The first Japanese to settle there were 68 carpenters, smiths, and the like brought over by the Dutch in [[1613]]. When the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] imposed [[maritime restrictions]] in [[1639]], many people of mixed Dutch/Japanese parentage were forced to leave Japan, and to settle in Batavia.

Batavia was one of a number of cities in Southeast Asia which was home to a sizable [[Nihonmachi|Japanese community]] in the early 17th century. Unlike most of the other Southeast Asian Japantowns, however, which were populated largely by merchants and adventurers, Batavia's Japanese population were largely mercenaries and craftsmen hired explicitly by the VOC to help build the city and/or to work for the Company otherwise. The first Japanese to settle there were 68 carpenters, smiths, and the like brought over by the Dutch in [[1613]]. When the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] imposed [[maritime restrictions]] in [[1639]], many people of mixed Dutch/Japanese parentage were forced to leave Japan, and to settle in Batavia.