The East India Company: The Original Corporate Raiders

[allodial]

Note: By the time you reach the end of the post, its important to have in mind that it was the (Roman Catholic) Habsburgs that were outsed during the Dutch Revolution.
It might be helpful to consider that DEIC, DWIC and BEIC may have been each 'states' in fact. Or as Philip J. Stern put it regarding BEIC specifically: "A State in the Disguise of a Merchant" (entered as titled to a segment of a book).

The authority for BEIC in India had to do with a Portugese cession regarding Portugese India. Let it be very clear that alongside BEIC or VOC/DEIC/DEWC there was the Portuguese East India Company (1628–1633). Could it be that the (Calvinist) Dutch and (Anglican) British got their idea for BEIC and VOC from Holy Roman Empire models?

Re:xparte, treatment of "natives"
Was DEIC and DEWC though allegedly of a Protestant nation simply carrying out Roman Catholic Canon law? As in did they incorporated it or adopt it despite all appearances, allegations or notions to the contrary?

Re: Enemy
Perhaps that means "enemy of Christ" though the meaning of the term may have varied wildly.

One of the justifications for enslavement was the concept of "enemies of Christ", who could be enslaved according to a series of Papal bulls. This tended to be very widely interpreted to include, as well as Muslims, Eastern Orthodox Christians in military situations, and Slavs, Africans and Americans who opposed conversion.

So begs the question, from a neutral observer-spectator perspective, what might any of this have to do with the actual identity of the harlot in the Book of Revelations and not just the identify of the harlot but of her children or daughters (ala Book of Revelations)? How do events which play out after the 1700s relate to the rise of or permitting of the proliferation of speculative religion?

Did BEIC and VOC borrow from the Holy Roman Empire model?

Related:

• The Truth About the Catholic Church and Slavery (The problem wasn't that the leadership was silent. It was that almost nobody listened)
• Slavery Incorporated Into (Roman Catholic) Canon Law - Catholic Church and Slavery (touches upon Islam and more)
• Dum Diversas

P.S. Though there may be zero connection, note the similarity....


The flag of the Gujarat Sultanate (of India)


The flag of Washington, D.C. with its three stars (or triple crown?)


The flag of Austria.



George Washington coat of arms.



But then again, there was such a thing as Habsburg India and .. the Austrian East India Company. Was the 'obsession' with India to do with gaining sovereignty or right of control over "Indians". What was India's relation or connection to Egypt or Ethiopia? (a very interesting one no doubt)