born 1593, Culemborg, Neth.
died April 19, 1645, Batavia, Dutch East Indies
Dutch colonial administrator who consolidated the Dutch empire in the Far East.
He joined the Dutch East India Company and served in Batavia from 1618. As governor-general of the Dutch East Indian settlements (1636–45), he enabled the Dutch to gain a monopoly of the spice trade in the Moluccas, conquer cinnamon-producing areas in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), seize the key Portuguese stronghold of Malacca, and capture all of Formosa (Taiwan). By 1645 he had established the United Provinces of The Netherlands as the paramount commercial and political power in the East Indies. Van Diemen also initiated the exploring expeditions of Abel Janszoon Tasman and Frans Visscher (1642, 1644).