Jan Pieterszoon Coen was a officer of the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

 (VOC) in the early seventeenth century, holding two terms as its Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies

Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies

The Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies represented the Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies between 1610 and Dutch recognition of the independence of Indonesia in 1949.The first Governors-General were appointed by the Dutch East India Company...

.

He was long considered a national hero in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, for providing the impulse that set the VOC

VOC

VOC may refer to:* VOC, a United States Navy abbreviation for "Observation Composite Squadron"* Vitium Organicum Cordis, Latin for heart defect* Vancouver Organizing Committee, the organizer of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics...

 on the path to dominance in the Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

. A quote of his from 1618 is well known, "Despair not, spare your enemies not, for God is with us". Since the latter half of the 20th century he has been looked at in a more critical light, as some people view his often violent means to have been excessive.

Coen was known in his time on account of strict governance and harsh criticism of people who did not share his views, at times directed even at the 17 Lords of the VOC (for which he was reprimanded).