Episode 8: The Grand Design

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" (ancient Portuguese proverb) London Dispatch 1828 Ten years before Henry Hudson ever sailed up the river that now bears his name, the six chief Dutch captains occupying the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of South America formed "The Brotherhood of the Unleashed Lion" - a fraternity in which these defiantly stoic men vowed that no danger, threat nor adversity would ever dissuade them from acting in the interests of their beloved, nascent Dutch Republic. The objective of this Brotherhood? To inflict concerted and exacting harm upon their Iberian enemy with extreme prejudice; to covet the assets of Spain and Portugal and thereby harness that wealth to their own purpose. In other words, steal from the richest empire on Earth, and give to the youngest...and poorest. And as the Directors of the newfound Dutch West India Company focus their efforts on this concept, they institute the Company's first major initiative, in 1623, that they called "The Grand Design", the purpose of which was to unleash this very lion, once and for all, in every way possible. And as Governor Pierre Minuit, unrelenting refugee of the Eighty Years War, readies himself to pilot this rag-tag, ad-hoc, so-called "colony" to a place where no man has gone before, he finds himself at a perplexing intersection of profit and ideals. Episode 8 - The Grand Design. This episode marks the start of Season Two. Climb aboard. History is cool :) Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.