There was a time when the tiny Netherlands was a global superpower. This was entirely due to its superior fleet, enabling it to trade with distant shores, outdo foreign competitors, and achieve steep profits. The ships were owned by the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC for short), the very first multinational in history, which quickly grew into the world’s largest trading corporation.

Amsterdam was the most important of the six cities that par- ticipated in the VOC, but Middelburg in Zeeland was a strong second. Thousands of Zeelanders worked in the company’s offices and shipyards. Its warehouses were overflowing with the precious spices, tea, silk and china with which the VOC was making a killing.

The 17th century was unmistakably a great financial boon for this city. Middelburg not only took part in the Dutch East India Company, but also in the West India Company. As a result, Zeelanders ended up in the Dutch colony of Suriname, where they established sugar plantations and became an important link in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The blood money they earned in trading human beings was reinvested in subsequent expeditions, and in constructing the monumental buildings that still define Middelburg’s cityscape.

Since then, Walcheren has been regarded as a fringe area, somewhat forgotten and neglected. But the pride of lions on Zeeland’s coat of arms still suggests its unwavering fighting spirit. It was home to leonine heroes, champions of the seas, defenders against the Spanish Navy that tried, in vain, to subjugate the Zeelanders during the 80-year Dutch War of Independence. The motto under the coat of arms spells out Zee- land’s unbreakable soul: luctor et emergo−I struggle and emerge.