At the beginning of the 17th century the Dutch and English jostled for power in the city, and in late 1618 the Jayakartans, backed by the British, besieged the VereenigdeOost-IndischeCompagnie (VOC) fortress. The Dutch managed to fend off the attackers until May 1619 when, under the command of Jan PieterszoonCoen, reinforcements stormed the town and reduced it to ashes. A stronger shoreline fortress was built and the town was renamed ‘Batavia’ after a tribe that once occupied parts of the Netherlands in Roman times. It soon became the capital of the Dutch East Indies.