Answer: Because the British and Spaniards pushed them out of South America and partly North America.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Dutch colonial empire was one of the largest in the world. The Dutch fleet was one of the most developed. Yet the British and Spaniards were militarily superior, so the Dutch were pushed out of America over time. In such circumstances, the Netherlands turned to the colonization of the Far East, of which the area of today's Indonesia was the most important Dutch colony.