Dutch West India Company, a company chartered by the Netherlands States-General (assembly) in 1621 to trade with Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America and Africa, and to settle Dutch colonies. Although it was given similar ruling powers and a trade monopoly, it was less successful than the East India Company. It lost its only settlement in North America, New Netherland (New York, New Jersey, and Delaware), to England in 1664. However, the company's colony in the Caribbean Sea (the Netherlands Antilles) remains under Dutch control. The West India Company lasted until 1794.