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bmgn - Low Countries Historical Review | Volume 132-2 (2017) | pp. 79-96

Visions of Dutch

Towards a Long-Term Global Perspective1

rené koekkoek, anne-isabelle richard, arthur weststeijn 79

What were the major developments in thinking about from the early modern period to the twenty-first century? What moral, political, legal and economic arguments have been put forth to justify, criticize or reform empire? How and under what circumstances did these visions and arguments change or remain the same? This article outlines a research agenda that addresses these questions. It argues for an approach that includes a long-term perspective from the early modern period to the postcolonial situation, which sees ‘Dutch’ history broadly, moving beyond national borders, and instead explicitly informed by influences and actors from across the globe. This implies a transnational and transimperial approach that can highlight these global connections as well as tensions; and finally, an approach that understands intellectual history as going beyond the big names of systemic thinkers, and includes visions of empire as negotiated in (day-to-day) practice.

Visies op het Nederlandse ‘empire’. Naar een globaal en langetermijnperspectief Wat zijn de belangrijkste ontwikkelingen in het denken over het Nederlandse koloniale rijk (‘empire’) van de vroegmoderne tijd tot de 21e eeuw? Welke morele, politieke, juridische en economische argumenten zijn aangewend ter legitimatie, bekritisering of hervorming van empire? Hoe en onder welke omstandigheden zijn deze visies en argumenten veranderd of hetzelfde gebleven? Dit artikel schetst een onderzoeksagenda waarin deze vragen aan de orde worden gesteld. Het pleit voor een langetermijnperspectief van de vroegmoderne tijd tot de postkoloniale orde; voor een aanpak die ‘Nederlandse’ geschiedenis breed interpreteert, voorbij nationale grenzen en gevormd door invloeden en actoren in een mondiale context. Om deze mondiale connecties en spanningsvelden in kaart te brengen

Published by Royal Historical Society | knhg Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License doi: 10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10342 | www.bmgn-lchr.nl | e-issn 2211-2898 | print issn 0165-0505 forum

is een transnationale en transimperiale aanpak nodig. Een dergelijke vorm van intellectuele geschiedenis moet bovendien verder gaan dan de bekende namen en denkers, maar ook visies op empire in ogenschouw nemen die vorm krijgen in de (dagelijkse) praktijk.

Since the start of this millennium, ‘empire’ has become a dominant concept in historical scholarship, resulting in a variety of historiographical approaches that are often labelled New Imperial History.2 A specific outcome of this development is the increasing attention for empire from the perspective of intellectual history, which focuses on the ways in which ’s colonial were constructed and criticised ideologically through contending visions, idioms and conceptions. Like other disciplinary subfields, intellectual history has taken a global turn in recent years, inspiring an ever-growing literature on the development of such visions of empire in (early) modern global history.3 This imperial focus is especially strong in (but not restricted to) Anglophone scholarship, exploring the early modern ‘ideological origins’ of empire, the ‘historical roots’ of imperial thought, and the varieties of imperial ideology in the nineteenth century and .4 Other studies take a more inclusive approach by highlighting the transnational and transimperial links between European empires in the history of political thought, as well as the crucial role of empires in legal history.5 What a number

1 This essay is based on the discussion paper for 4 See e.g. David Armitage, The Ideological Origins the conference Visions of Empire in Dutch History, of the (Cambridge 2000); Duncan organized in Leiden on 29 and 30 September Kelly (ed.), Lineages of Empire. The Historical Roots 2016. We are grateful to all participants in the of British Imperial Thought (Oxford 2009); Duncan conference for sharing their ideas, suggestions Bell, Reordering the World. Essays on Liberalism and and criticism, and to Leiden Global Interactions, Empire (Princeton 2016). the Institute for History, the 5 Anthony Pagden, Lords of All the World. Ideologies Leiden University Fund, and the Research School of Empire in Spain, Britain and , c. 1500-c. Political History for their financial support. 1800 (New Haven and London 1995); Idem, The 2 See, in this journal, Remco Raben, ‘A New Dutch Burdens of Empire. 1539 to the Present (Cambridge Imperial History? Perambulations in a Prospective 2015); Jennifer Pitts, A Turn to Empire. The Rise Field’, bmgn – Low Countries Historical Review 128:1 of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France (2013) 5-30 doi 10.18352/bmgn-lchr.8353. (Princeton 2005); Gabriel Paquette, Enlightenment, 3 The intellectual global turn is discussed from Governance, and Reform in Spain and its Empire various angles in Samuel Moyn and Andrew 1759-1808 (Basingstoke 2008); Sankar Muthu (ed.), Sartori (eds.), Global Intellectual History (New Empire and Political Thought (Cambridge 2014); York 2013). See also David Armitage, ‘The Antony Anghie, , Sovereignty and the International Turn in Intellectual History’, Making of International Law (Cambridge 2004); in: Darrin M. McMahon and Samuel Moyn Lauren Benton, A Search for Sovereignty: Law (eds.), Rethinking Modern European Intellectual and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900 History (New York 2014) 232-252 doi 10.1093/ (Cambridge 2010); Andrew Fitzmaurice, Sovereignty, acprof:oso/9780199769230.003.0012. Property and Empire, 1500-2000 (Cambridge 2014). visions of dutch empire

koekkoek, richard, weststeijn 81 Nevertheless, Nevertheless, 6 Agents, Networks and Institutions, 1600-2000 Institutions, and Networks Agents, (London 2015). . An intellectual history ofAn empire from a comparative Dutch ii. The Dutch case is also significant for a second characteristic that to case is also significant for a second The Dutch We argue that an intellectual history, writ large, of from empire writ large, Dutch history, that an intellectual We argue the Dutch case is highly significant for at least two reasons. First, unlike First, case is highly significant for at least two reasons. the Dutch were not only imperial agents the Dutch their main European competitors, but also subjects of foreign imperial rule during crucial periods themselves, Napoleonic French the Empire, subjugated by the Habsburg in their history, these periods of foreign imperial Crucially, Third Reich. and the Nazi Empire, the history ofrule coincided with decisive moments in colonial the Dutch empire: the opening moves of overseas expansion at the turn of Dutch the the demise of system imperial the Company-based seventeenth century, and the decolonization ofaround 1800, in the immediate aftermath of War World whilst a certain extent sets it apart from other European imperial histories: perspective could therefore offer specific insights into the possible ideological perspective could therefore offer specific insights into the possible correlations between being subjected to empire at home and attempts to make into the it opens up research Moreover, and maintain an empire overseas. empire. ‘Dutch’ manifold actors included in Whilst there is a venerable tradition of research on the political, socio-Whilst there is a venerable tradition of on the political, research intellectual the economic and cultural aspects of colonial history, Dutch history of empire has thus far been largely neglected. Dutch a long-term and global perspective is necessary to offset this imbalance in the imbalance perspective is necessary to offset this a long-term and global the existing historiography on empire to enrich and international scholarship We argue for an approach in particular. empire in general and the Dutch period to the perspective from the early modern that includes a long-term moving beyond history broadly, ‘Dutch’ sees which postcolonial situation; by influences and actors from across and explicitly informed national borders, that can the globe; approach implies a transnational and transimperial which an approach connections as well as tensions; and finally, highlight these global names of history as going beyond the big that understands intellectual and includes visions of empire as negotiated in (day-to-day)systemic thinkers, practice. of as well a global take they explicitly is that in common have studies these early modern West and East with connecting perspective, as a long-term they However, and twentieth-century with nineteenth developments history. for one of an overall disregard also share powers most significant imperial the empire. the Dutch global history: in (early) modern For a recent overview currentFor a recent of approaches in history, Catia Antunes and see Dutch . Dutch the Jos Gommans (eds.), Exploring Dutch Empire in Context Empire Dutch 6 forum

empire, imperio or Reich clearly signify existing conceptions, there is no direct Dutch equivalent for the term ‘empire’ in historical discourse. Throughout the history of Dutch imperialism from the seventeenth century onwards, different concepts have been used to denote Dutch rule overseas, from mogendheid (‘power’) and gezag (‘authority’) to bezittingen (‘possessions’) and coloniën (‘’), and eventually, overzeese gebiedsdelen (‘overseas territories’).7 This conceptual elusiveness raises the question which vocabularies, ideas and visions of empire were articulated throughout history, how they interrelated, developed and changed over time, and which actors and practices of domination and resistance influenced, and were influenced by, these intellectual developments. These questions are especially pertinent since the Dutch imperial past has long remained beneath the surface of public culture, collective memory, and common discourse. Indeed, the much-derided (but nonetheless noteworthy) plea by former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende for a revival of the ‘voc mentality’ betrays to what extent it has been possible to sidestep any imperial allusion in talking about early modern Dutch colonial history.8 This conceptual loophole is also apparent from the persistent use of the term (‘police actions’) to denote violent episodes of the Indonesian War of , suggesting that imperial wartime atrocities were merely attempts to restore civil order, and that Dutch colonial rule was different from its European counterparts. While these assumptions are being challenged by new generations of historians and other scholars, for example in the recent work of Rémy Limpach, this is filtering through to broader public culture only slowly.9

7 See e.g. François Valentijn, Beschryving van Oud en terms of ‘the world’s first multinational’. On the Nieuw Oost-Indien, bevattende een naauwkeurige en historiography of the voc, see the still useful uitvoerige verhandeling van Nederlands Mogentheid overview of Jur van Goor, ‘De Verenigde Oost- in die gewesten (5 vols., 1724-1726); De Indische Compagnie in de historiografie. Imperialist Koopman, of bydragen ten opbouw van Neerlands en multinational’, in: Gerrit Knaap en Ger Teitler koophandel en zeevaard ii (Amsterdam 1770) 17; (eds.), De Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie tussen Dagverhaal der handelingen van de Nationale oorlog en diplomatie (Leiden 2002) 9-33. Vergadering v ( 1797) no. 491 (27 9 Rémy Limpach, De brandende kampongs van April), 713; J.K.J. de Jonge (ed.), De opkomst van Generaal Spoor (Amsterdam 2016), and for het Nederlandsch gezag over (10 vols., The example the work of Jennifer Foray, Anne-Lot Hague 1869-1888). The conceptual elusiveness Hoek, Bart Luttikhuis, Gert Oostindie, Remco is clear from an overview work such as H.T. Raben, Stef Scagliola, Gloria Wekker and others. Colenbrander, Koloniale geschiedenis (3 vols., The The changing tide is exemplified by the decision Hague 1925-1926). recently taken by the Dutch government to 8 Arguably, this attitude is rooted in the long- provide funding for a large research project on the dominant approach to characterize the voc decolonization of Indonesia, starting in September primarily as a commercial organization, in 2017. koekkoek, richard, weststeijn visions of dutch empire 83 An 13 2016). 12 Important exceptions that explicitly combine combine Important that explicitly exceptions Nederlandse De are Jur van Goor, East with West expansie Nederlandse de van . Geschiedenis koloniën 1600-1975 and Piet Emmer and (The Hague 1997); wereld. de van Jos Gommans, rand de aan Rijk 1600-1800 overzee Nederland van geschiedenis De (Amsterdam 2012). Postcolonial Netherlands. Sixty- Netherlands. Gert Oostindie, Postcolonial Silencing Commemorating, Forgetting, of Years five White (Amsterdam 2011); Gloria Wekker, Race and of Paradoxes Innocence. (Durham nc

12 13 From the onset of From the expansion overseas Dutch . See . See 10 Such an approach is particularly relevant for current relevant is particularly an approach Such 11 . We therefore propose to study the history ofWe therefore propose to study the history the thinking about Dutch We argue that this ‘colonial aphasia’, to borrow Ann Stoler’s term, term, Ann Stoler’s to borrow aphasia’, ‘colonial that this We argue 10.1215/08992363-2010-018 10.18352/erlacs.9982 14:3-4 (2012) 441-461. (2012) 14:3-4 intellectual history of Dutch empire can connect European, American, African American, intellectual history of empire can connect European, Dutch actors from these Asian contexts precisely by studying how imperial and differences locations thought and wrote about the similarities and various as well as by linking cases ofWest, to ideological resistance between East and In doing so, . colonies from the Caribbean to Southeast empire in Dutch an intellectual history of divide between empire can also bridge the Dutch exploring the interconnections metropolitan and different colonial contexts, visions and criticisms of imperial rule across the globe and between ideas, juxtaposing the intellectual activities of with those of colonial agents Dutch an intellectual history Finally, to . anticolonial critics from Java empire from a global and long-term perspective, expressly engaging with the expressly empire from a global and long-term perspective, What on the intellectual history ofrecent international scholarship empire. that bridges the persistent first of global approach is a truly is needed, all, colonial historiography. West in Dutch divide between East and is related to the ways in which the Dutch empire has been defined and and been defined empire has the Dutch in which ways to the is related historically. envisioned around 1600 to the postcolonial era, a variety of a variety and concepts have visions era, to the postcolonial around 1600 tendencies as well as historiographical by historical actors been developed for example non-imperial, colonial rule as essentially Dutch that regard An characteristics. commercial and non-violent by underlining its alleged intellectual history of through can expose the mechanisms empire Dutch these notions ofwhich were constructed, imperial exceptionalism Dutch other European throughout history vis-à-vis reiterated and criticized the same time the development analysing at empires and local populations, ideas and visions of well as of empire in metropolitan, alternative concepts, as overseas contexts. public debates about the postcolonial repercussions and memories of the postcolonial repercussions and memories public debates about empire, and racism. especially regarding Ann Laura Stoler, ‘Colonial Aphasia: Race and Aphasia: Race ‘Colonial Ann Laura Stoler, 23:1 Culture Disabled Histories Public in France’, doi (2011) 121-156 also Paulalso Memory Bijl, ‘Colonial and Forgetting in The Netherlands of and Indonesia’, Journal Genocide Studies van der and Pijl Francio e.g.See Yvon Guadeloupe, ‘Imagining the Nation in the Belonging and NationnessClassroom: in the Latin of Review ’, European 98 Studies, Caribbean and American 87-98(2015) doi 10 11 forum

of Dutch empire can bridge the divide between early modern and modern scholarly approaches, revealing and contextualising the continuities and ruptures in the development of various concepts, ideas and visions of empire from the sixteenth century to the postcolonial era. This intellectual analysis over the longue durée can unearth deep-rooted conceptions and self-perceptions of Dutch imperial exceptionalism and throw into relief the fault lines between various phases in the ideological construction and criticism of such exceptionalism. To reach this global, long-term perspective, the intellectual history of Dutch empire must take a transnational and transimperial approach to compare and connect the Dutch case with the history and historiographies of other colonial empires.14 From the conquest of Ambon to the independence of and the advent of postcolonial debates, visions of Dutch empire took shape within inter-imperial comparison, cooperation and competition; from the Dutch explorer and Frederick de Houtman to the anticolonial activist and writer Anton de Kom and current postcolonial activist Quinsy Gario, the experiences of empire that shaped or were shaped by such visions emerged from transimperial connections and practices across the globe. In order to explore the diversity of the ways in which various actors thought and wrote about specific aspects of Dutch imperialism, an intellectual history of Dutch empire should be based on a wide array of sources, expanding the traditional focus of intellectual history on famous theorists and their scholarly treatises. Such a wider source base would comprise, for example, documents related to colonial bureaucracies, institutions, and courts of law, sources on, and produced by, colonial literary and scientific societies, anonymous reports, autobiographical writing and newspaper articles – as well as images, architecture and museum designs as additional sources of visions of Dutch empire.15 The intellectual history of Dutch empire, therefore, should go well beyond the few canonical figures such as Hugo Grotius or , to connect the manifold voices that imagined, discussed and criticized empire in metropolitan and colonial

14 For a recent comparative perspective on Kunsten en Wetenschappen 1778-1867 (Leiden European decolonization, see Elizabeth Buettner, 2009); Kees Briët, Het Hooggerechtshof van Europe after Empire: Decolonization, Society, and Nederlands-Indië 1819-1848: portret van een vergeten Culture (Cambridge 2016). rechtscollege (Amsterdam 2015); Susan Legêne, 15 Benjamin Schmidt, Innocence Abroad. The De bagage van Blomhoff en Van Breugel: Over Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570-1670 Nederlandse natievorming en de negentiende-eeuwse (Cambridge 2001); Marieke Bloembergen, cultuur van het imperialisme (Amsterdam 1998); Colonial Spectacles: the Netherlands and the Dutch Eadem, ‘Powerful Ideas. Museums, Empire at the World Exhibitions, 1880-1931 Utopias and Connected Worlds’, in: R. Omar, ( 2006); Hans Groot, Van naar et al. (eds.), Museums and the Idea of Historical Weltevreden. Het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Progress ( 2014) 15-30. koekkoek, richard, weststeijn visions of dutch empire 85 How ‘Dutch’, if at all, ‘Dutch’, How 16 (Leiden 2015). (Leiden White Lies and Black Markets: Evading Evading Markets: Black, Black and White Lies 1650- Suriname, in Colonial Authority Metropolitan 1800 Exploring visions ofExploring a long-term history from in Dutch empire Indeed, we suggest that a fruitful way of we suggest that a fruitful way of conceiving Indeed, an intellectual perspective raises the question what ‘Dutch’ in this context means. After all, After all, in this context means. ‘Dutch’ what raises the question perspective in an empire ‘even stressed, recently Jos Gommans have Antunes and as Catia agents were a minority’. Dutch “Dutch”, that is called contexts, from the onset of the onset from to our 1600 around expansion overseas Dutch contexts, world. postcolonial contemporary The chronological starting-point ofThe chronological an intellectual history of empire over when ideas about the longue durée should be placed in the sixteenth-century, imperial exceptionalism matured in the making of Dutch the Batavian myth, Republic as an essentially anti-imperial presented the nascent Dutch which history of empire is through the concept of ‘visions’. This concept of visions history of‘visions’. empire is through the concept of only blueprints or political comprising not should be understood broadly, and conceptions of critiques empire, images, but also mental maps, designs, rejections or denials or even outright models, alternative of practices, imperial organization, form, visions of need, Which the purpose, of authority. imperial and nature of been formulated empire have an overseas or colonial Dutch and economic arguments legal, political, What moral, throughout history? under what criticize or reform empire? How and been put forth to justify, have or remain the same? In change circumstances did these visions and arguments empire about Dutch what were the major developments in the thinking short, century? from the early modern period to the twenty-first were those peoples across the world that were subjected, enslaved, as well as as enslaved, the world that were subjected, were those peoples across until empire? In addition, profiting from the Dutch collaborating with and but a confederal not a centralised nation-state Republic was 1798 the Dutch mainly empire was ‘Dutch’ and for most ofunion, the the early modern period an undertaking of Finally, provinces of the seaborne and . empire extent is it possible to understand to which and most contentiously, of etcetera? Given that visions or French did not empire or British, as Dutch, and in reaction to developments but in conjuncture develop in isolation, is imperative to and transimperial approach a transnational across the globe, Without claiming to offer understand communalities as well as specificities. is that we our starting point problems, a definite solution to these conceptual but how actors from across empire was, intend to explore not what the Dutch the globe envisaged it. Jos Gommans, Empire: ‘Globalizing The Dutch Case’, in: Antunes and Gommans (eds.), Exploring Karwan also See Fatah- , 267. Empire Dutch the Republican Empire, c. Empire, 1550-1800Republican 16 forum

entity. The foundation of Batavia in 1619 reveals to what extent this myth was subsequently projected upon concrete colonial practice, by which the Republic became an imperial power. A variety of visions of empire emerged in the ensuing establishment of a Dutch ‘republican empire’ on a global scale.17 The hybridity of that empire, which consisted of conquered territories as well as multiple trading posts and a few settler colonies throughout Asia, , and the Americas, was reflected by a myriad of contending conceptions of (the justification of) empire, discussed publicly in lofty humanist treatises and popular pamphlets, as well as in heated debates within the boards of the voc and wic. The richness of those debates still needs to be mined fully. While recent research has effectively highlighted the crucial role of Grotius, other voices and visions of empire remain largely unexplored, for example regarding the religious dimensions of thinking about empire.18 In this context, particular attention could be paid to the manifold ways in which actors and critics of Dutch colonial expansion appropriated or challenged the idioms and intellectual strategies of their main imperial contenders, especially the Habsburg Empire and . The crucial concept in this transnational intellectual contest was that of imperium, which in the early modern world essentially meant effective sovereignty.19 Dutch claims to sovereignty overseas were based on a mixture of commerce and conquest, treaty-making, and diplomacy. The legal justification of these practices, however, remained contested throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century, not least because of the ambiguous status of the main vehicles of expansion, the voc and wic: private joint stock trading companies invested with public marks of sovereignty. Anti-company critics and free agents challenged these institutionalised monopolies and constructed alternative visions of ‘informal empires’.20 At least as important were the multifaceted practices of collaboration, negotiation, assimilation

17 See Schmidt, Innocence Abroad; Alexander Rise of Dutch Power in the East Indies, 1595- Bick, ‘Governing the Free Sea: The Dutch West 1615 (Leiden 2006); Peter Borschberg, Hugo India Company and Commercial Politics, 1618- Grotius, the Portuguese and Free Trade in the East 1645’ (PhD Princeton University, 2012); Arthur Indies (Singapore 2011); Benjamin Straumann, Weststeijn, ‘Republican Empire. Colonialism, Roman Law in the State of Nature. The Classical Commerce, and Corruption in the Dutch Foundations of Hugo Grotius’ Natural Law Golden Age’, Renaissance Studies 26:4 (2012) (Cambridge 2015). 491-509 doi 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2012.00824.x; 19 James Muldoon, Empire and Order. The Concept of Idem, ‘The voc as Company-State: Debating Empire, 800-1800 (Basingstoke 1999). Seventeenth-Century Dutch Colonial 20 Antunes and Gommans, Exploring the Dutch Expansion’, Itinerario 38:1 (2014) 13-34 Empire and Catia Antunes and Amélia Polónia doi 10.1017/S0165115314000035. (eds.), Beyond Empires: Global, Self-Organizing, 18 Martine van Ittersum, Profit and Principle. Cross-Imperial Networks, 1500-1800 (Leiden Hugo Grotius, Natural Rights Theories and the 2016). koekkoek, richard, weststeijn visions of dutch empire 87 . As 21 10.1080/0144039X.2013.873591 ; Arthur Weststeijn, 10.1093/ahr/121.1.17 121 (2016) 121 Review Historical The American doi (New York 2014); Idem, 2014); ‘The Art (New York Japan Claiming: of in Early and Modern Resistance Possession Asia’, 17-38 Grotius.‘Provincializing International Law and Empire in a Seventeenth-Century Mirror’, Malay and Manuel Rech in: Marti Koskenniemi, Walter and Law Jimenez Fonseca (eds.), International (Oxford 21-38. 2017) Explorations Historical Empire. Karwan Fatah-Black and van Matthias Rossum, ‘Beyond Profitability. The Dutch Transatlantic Impact’, & and Its Economic Slavery Trade Slave Studies Post-Slave and Slave of A Journal Abolition. doi 63-83 36 (2015) 22

23

Which visions ofWhich and domination resulted liberty 23 Because of the dominant role of early- the trading companies in the modern Dutch empire, visions of empire, were intrinsically linked to sovereignty modern Dutch not least in the context of reasoning, commercial and economic trade the slave The significance of imperialism in the trade for Dutch the slave and slavery. been re-evaluatedAsia has recently Atlantic as well as in from an economic about the intellectual justification remains unknown but much perspective, and criticism of slavery. and resistance by and rulers in Asia, Africa and the and the Africa Asia, in and rulers peoples indigenous by and resistance to and commercial) political (legal, strategies used various who Americas, sovereignty. claims to colonial undermine Dutch confront and challenge, recent research has shown, comparative and transimperial perspectives can perspectives comparative and transimperial shown, has recent research of visions Dutch to contextualise particularly helpful therefore be a Company- partners to the competitors, especially in relation empire, centred overseas , Estado da Índia most notably the Portuguese and superiors ofAsia, the voc in as Javanese and local rulers and states such Company, the English East India . shogunate Tokugawa and the For a long-term intellectual history of empire that studies conceptual Dutch For set of a particularly relevant issues continuities and discontinuities, from the tension between private traders and the monopolistic companies, traders and the monopolistic companies, from the tension between private ofand how did these visions relate to the institutionalisation and the slavery Company officials arguments were used by free agents, Which trade? slave owners ofand slave relationships nationalities to create or challenge various ofThese are crucial questions to be and domination worldwide? dependency by an intellectual history oftackled empire. Dutch (Paris 2011); Philipe siècle) J. Stern, The xvii e- xvi Native Claims: Indigenous Indigenous Claims: Saliha Belmessous (ed.), Native 1500-1920 Empire, (Oxford against 2011),Law Uniformity Empire: and Eadem (ed.), Assimilation 1541-1954 Colonies, (Oxford British and in French Treaty: and by Eadem2013); (ed.), Empire 1600-1900 Expansion, European Negotiating (Oxford 2015). àSee, for Bertrand, example, Romain L’Histoire Orient-Occident d’uneparts rencontre Récits égales. ( Company-State. Corporate Sovereignty & The Early & The Early Sovereignty Corporate Company-State. in India Empire British the of Foundations Modern and The Company (Oxford 2011); Clulow, Adam with Tokugawa Encounter The Shogun. Dutch the Transforming and Resisting Empire, c. Empire, 1750-1850 and Resisting Transforming 22 21 forum

to explore are the ways in which the innovations in the constitutional, economic, institutional, and legal design of the Dutch empire intersected with, and were informed by, Enlightenment cultures of knowledge and ideas in the period between roughly 1750 and 1850.24 Yet the growing body of research on various aspects of the (Dutch) Enlightenment and late eighteenth-century political culture and thought has not been sufficiently brought into dialogue with the Dutch imperial world.25 As the colonial system of trading companies came to an end and colonial governance was transferred to the state, what moral and political principles were invoked to justify or criticize colonial rule and exploitation in this period?26 How were policies regarding non-western peoples recast in light of Enlightenment theories of historical progress and civilization? What was the impact of eighteenth-century liberal economic thought concerning trade and labour on the political-economic design of the empire?27 In addition, how were Enlightenment ideas and concepts applied, appropriated, enriched, tested, amended or refuted once they transferred beyond their European and Dutch origins?28 And finally, how did colonial subjects and local populations respond and adapt to, as well as resist these innovations in imperial political thought, practises, and culture? Politically, the turn of the century was marked by great uncertainties, high ideals, revolution, disillusionment, and the subjection to, and subsequent annexation into ’s continental empire. Given these margins of policy making in the age of revolutions, what repercussions did revolutionary debates about constitutional law, the rights of man, and natural and civil equality have on visions of empire? The question of the abolition of slavery also loomed large on the horizon. Although no anti-slavery movement emerged in the , the colonies and the question of slavery and

24 René Koekkoek, The Citizenship Experiment. 26 Jur van Goor, Prelude to Colonialism: The Dutch in Contesting the Limits of Civic Equality and Asia (Hilversum 2004). Participation in the Age of Revolutions (PhD 27 Koen Stapelbroek, ‘The Dutch Debate on University, 2016); Angelie Sens, ‘Mensaap, Commercial Neutrality (1713-1830)’, in: idem heiden, slaaf.’ Nederlandse visies op de wereld rond (ed.), Trade and War: The Neutrality of Commerce 1800 (The Hague 2001); Gert Jan Schutte, De in the Inter-State System (Helsinki 2011) 114-142; Nederlandse Patriotten en de koloniën. Een onderzoek Angelie Sens, ‘Les Indes orientales néerlandaises naar hun denkbeelden en optreden, 1770-1800 vers 1763-1830. Une pépinière idéale pour ( 1974). une société ‘en chantier’’, Annales Historiques 25 The Dutch empire is, for example, completely de la Révolution Française 375 (2014) 161-186 absent from the best overview of the doi 10.4000/ahrf.13135. eighteenth-century Dutch Enlightenment, 28 Sebastian Conrad, ‘Enlightenment in Global Joost Kloek and Wijnand Mijnhardt, 1800. History: A Historiographical Critique’, American Blueprints for a National Community (Basingstoke Historical Review 117 (2012) 999-1027 doi 10.1093/ 2005). ahr/117.4.999. koekkoek, richard, weststeijn visions of dutch empire 89 And what legacies did such visions And what legacies did such 30 Gert Oostindie, ‘Intellectual Wastelands? Indies up Scholarship in and for the Dutch West Boomgaard and (ed.), Empire ca.to 1800’, in: P. Scholarship Colonial Dutch Making. in the Science 1760-1830 Perspective, Global in Comparative 253-280. 2013) (Basingstoke , Nederlandsche In derzelver Afrika. en Amerika in Azia, bezittingen Rijk, dit wijsgeerig, voor aangelegenheid en toestand beschouwd geographisch en staatshuishoudkundig (2 vols., Amsterdam 1818). 31 32 What cultures ofWhat both in the knowledge, How did views on slavery affect, if visions affect, all, at slavery on views did How 31 29 To what extent this work can be considered as one what extent this work can be considered as To 32 ; Koekkoek, The appointment in 1808 ofThe appointment in East Daendels as the new Dutch Hendrik Finally, the new imperial order was only scantily buttressed by the new imperial order was Finally, slave trade were recurrent topics in literature, journals, pamphlets, and the and the pamphlets, journals, in literature, topics were recurrent trade slave Batavian Assembly. National metropole and in interaction with local colonial networks, existed outside existed colonial networks, metropole and in interaction with local high military officer and future governor- Dutch government circles? In 1818, published his den Bosch, Johannes van general of East-Indies, the Dutch […] wijsgeerig, Afrika. Amerika en Azia, bezittingen in two-volume Nederlandsche Asia, possessions in (Dutch beschouwd staatshuishoudkundig en geographisch and political-economical, Africa […] in philosophical, and America, geographical perspective). of foundations of the intellectual of a highly successful new policy colonial After his appointment as governor- exploitation is yet to be determined. introduced the Bosch den Van general of East Indies in 1828, the Dutch System ofCultivation treasury for that would benefit the Dutch the major nineteenth-century architect den Bosch, Van fact that The decades. West in the East and both wrote about and held posts of colonial policy, Dutch Indies’ governor-general heralded a new era of Local governor-general colonial state-building. Indies’ state increasingly confronted with an imperial ruling elites were Javanese political How did Javanese its political supremacy. that sought to establish the government harshly subjected or incorporated in elites who were either What did anti-imperial this new imperial order? structure respond to Javanese-Islamic as ’s ofrepertoires and visions such resistance, for subjection and political arguments and Dutch on the one hand, mysticism, like? look hand, on the other supremacy, of trade, labour, and agriculture in the context of and agriculture what And colonial empire? of labour, trade, Revolution American as the such colonial revolutions Atlantic role did major purpose, debates about the in Dutch Revolution play and the Haitian of and maintenance justification their empire? the production of knowledge. bequeath to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? bequeath to the nineteenth and twentieth Reinhart: Nederlandse literatuur A.N.See literatuur Paasman, Reinhart: Nederlandse (Leiden Verlichting de van tijde ten slavernij en 1984); G.J. en verplichting Schutte, ‘Zedelijke staatkunde.gezonde en doen Denken rondom de in Nederlandslavernij eeuw’, eind en 18e koloniën 41-42 (1979) 18e eeuw werkgroep Documentatieblad 101-115; Sens, ‘Mensaap, heiden, slaaf’ . Experiment The Citizenship Prince Prophecy. of The Power Carey, Peter in Java, Order an Old of End the and Dipanagara 1785-1855 (2nd ed., 2008). Leiden 29 30 forum koekkoek, richard, weststeijn visions of dutch empire 91 - 7-8 (2000) en buitenlandse politiek 1870-1902 politiek (Amsterdam buitenlandse en Raben,and Dieren Remco ‘Postkoloniaal 1985); Nederland’, Internationale Spectator ; Wekker, after Empire Europe Buettner, 359-364; . White Innocence ; Historically, ideas of an ethical, perhaps even non-imperial, ideas of perhaps even non-imperial, an ethical, Historically, 33 The discussion about Dutch participation in the modern imperialism, participation in the modern imperialism, Dutch The discussion about 10.1080/03086538808582768 approach to empire have gone hand in hand with decidedly imperial gone hand to empire have approach was War imperial violence during the Boer Indignation at British practices. What were the . of ‘pacification’ for example flanked by support for the processes of perhaps above all forgetting and simultaneous remembering, a self-image of power ethical self-representation through which a benevolent, The period from the mid-nineteenth onward saw the Dutch empire expand the Dutch saw mid-nineteenth onward The period from the daily lives of influencing the and consolidate, more and more people across Did period of and then collapse in the the globe, global decolonization. the idea of collapse too? Or should we first ask whether empire expand and debates and if all in Dutch an idea that had any traction at empire was not, why? over the last forms revisited in various has been and hence exceptionalism, postcolonial society revitalising debates over Dutch thirty years with recent these questions. Indies, reinforces the need for connecting the East and West in a long-term long-term West in a East and the for connecting the need reinforces Indies, of history intellectual of visions empire.

Nederland en de de en Nederland Maarten Kuitenbrouwer, Koloniën imperialisme. het moderne van opkomst H.L. ‘The a Dwarf, Wesseling, Giant That or Was Historythe Strange Dutch Imperialism’, of The History 163 Commonwealth and Imperial of Journal doi 58-70 (1988) 1850-2017: from Colonial to Postcolonial Empire? 1850-2017: Postcolonial to Colonial from  (1818). Van Van (1818). Afrika en Amerika in Azia, bezittingen Johannes 1 of van volume den to Bosch, Nederlandsche Frontispiece Hercules, as follows: the and representation image explains heroicden virtue, Bosch force of the sup has destroyed and crushes the its empire attributes power of French of that on lie scattered the ground. eternal column posedly As the of Dutch the he virgin. flag restores the justified carrying She victor, rushes the scene to the staff Mercury, of and the harbour Batavia by of represented in the background. possessions, with her her hand other overseas to she points the early modernThe combines representation image empire, Dutch of commercial as a represented commonly Mercury, with a typical by virgin the Dutch seconded colonial early nineteenth-century nationalist Tellingly, imagery. is vindicated victory as the righteous bezittingen’) empire French (‘heerschappij’).empire over (‘overzeesche en toestand In derzelver Afrika. en Amerika in Azia, bezittingen Nederlandsche Bosch, den van Johannes Source: (2 vols., Amsterdam and The beschouwd geographisch en staatshuishoudkundig Rijk, dit wijsgeerig, voor ­aangelegenheid Hague 1818). 33 forum koekkoek, richard, weststeijn visions of dutch empire 93

38 This 35 This raises questions such This raises questions such 39 105:3 (1992) 341- 105:3 (1992) Tijdschrift Geschiedenis voor de France en coloniale 546; R. Girardet, L’idée 1871 à 1962 Ch.-R. (Paris, Ageron, 1979); France 297-298; (Paris 1978) parti ou colonial? coloniale TheA.S. Back? Thompson, Strikes The Empire Mid- the from Britain on Imperialism of Impact (Harlow 2005); Century Catherine Hall,Nineteenth in the and Metropole Subjects: Civilising 1830-1867 Imagination, 2002); English (Cambridge Empire: of Tensions Ann Stoler, Cooper, Frederick (London World in a Bourgeois Cultures Colonial 1997). Manela,Erez Self- Moment. The Wilsonian of Origins International the and Determination (Oxford 2007). Nationalism Anticolonial in fragmenten. Ethiek Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, van doen en denken koloniaal over Vijf studies 1877-1942 archipel, Indonesische in de Nederlanders (Utrecht 183. 1981) 38 39 The question whether increased contact translated whether increased contact translated The question 36 Connecting to a wave of paternalistic ‘emancipatory’ movements ‘emancipatory’ of Connecting to a wave paternalistic 37 34 As before, East and West were intimately connected, but from 1870 but from intimately connected, West were East and As before, 36:1 (1995) 9-22, 18. 36:1 (1995) (Amsterdam 2015). onward, economic and infrastructural changes led to a tying together of to a tying together led infrastructural changes economic and onward, in the world economy. its further integration as well as the empire, connective process coincided with the rise ofconnective process coincided nationalism in the metropole of formation in the Indies and a sense and led to colonial state (creolised) community. Indische in various European empires, criticism of the exploitative policies in the East European empires, in various continued of which 1901, ‘Ethical Policy’ the so-calledIndies culminated in i. War World moment after Wilsonian reinforced by the well into the 1940s, survived, and how was this image confirmed and contested, by the Dutch, the Dutch, by contested, and confirmed this image was and how survived, Dutch to the subjected all by those and above powers (imperial) by other empire? into a greater colonial awareness in the metropole has produced a lively in the metropole has produced a lively awareness into a greater colonial literature. as how does a ‘creole empire’ relate to metropolitan or geopolitical visions empire’ ‘creole as how does a cultural values ‘Eastern’ ofof did the acknowledgement And how empire? civilising and a Dutch hierarchies relate to European civilizational and racial In the colonial context, nationalist movements were gathering strength and movements were gathering strength and nationalist In the colonial context, questioning the very concept of empire. a Dutch . Zeitalter des Imperialismus und der der und Imperialismus des . Zeitalter

See, for example, M. Bossenbroek, op Holland Nederlandse in de Zuid-Afrika en zijn breedst. Indië 1900 omstreeks (Amsterdam 1996); cultuur J.Th.M. Bank (et al.), ‘Buitenste binnen: De buiten-Europese cultuur’, wereld in de Europese Thomas Lindblad, and Economic Rule 'Colonial Development. the of Recent Review A furHistoriography on Indonesia', Jahrbuch Wirtschaftsgeschichte Raben, ‘Dutch’Ulbe and Bosma in Remco Being Empire, and A History Creolisation Indies. of the 1500-1920 (Singapore 2008). (Göttingen 1982); Jennifer Foray, Jennifer 1982); Foray, (Göttingen Weltkriege Netherlands Nazi-Occupied in the Empire of Visions Memory. Paul 2014); Bijl,(Cambridge Emerging Cultural in Dutch Atrocity Colonial of Photographs Remembrance Geschichte des welpolitischen welpolitischen des Geschichte Heinz Gollwitzer, ii Denkens  celebrating independence, 1975. November Collection Nationaal The Archief, Bert Hague. Photo: Verhoeff/Anefo. 36 37 35 34 forum

mission?40 The put these questions into sharper relief and leads to the question what economic insecurity meant for the concept of empire.41 World War ii saw alternative forms of empire, imagined in the Indies for some time, and being discussed in the metropole as well.42 Nonetheless, the war of decolonization was fought to retain as much of the old empire as possible and while economically empire continued after its political demise, real alternatives came too late. Meanwhile, the Netherlands joined nato and a nascent European community. Was Jacques Marseille right that these new empires, by invitation, smoothened the Dutch transition from colonial empire to a bipolar world?43 In the era of Dependency theory and progressive politics, a ‘benevolent’ Dutch empire, focused on development aid, gave its, reluctantly accepted, independence, but also saw large numbers immigrating to the metropole, leaving the Antilles as the last vestiges of Dutch imperialism. How do we account for an empire that would prefer to dissolve itself; how does development aid and the eu’s Common Agricultural Policy relate to empire in the context of earlier paternalistic and economic realist tropes?44 A long- term analysis that studies the continuities and discontinuities in visions of Dutch empire from its inception to the present is necessary to answer these questions.

Conclusion

In the postcolonial Netherlands, arguments about the myth of white innocence face passionate pleas for Black Pete. While the Dutch empire in its various incarnations was often creolised and dependent upon other European powers, entrepreneurs, and labour from across the globe, Dutch colonial memory today appears more ‘Dutch’ than its empire ever was. We therefore

40 Bloembergen, Colonial Spectacles; Anne- 43 Jacques Marseille, Empire colonial et capitalisme Isabelle Richard, Colonialism and the European français. Histoire d’un divorce (Paris 1984); Geir movements in France and the Netherlands, 1925- Lundestad, The and Western 1936 (PhD University of Cambridge, 2010). Europe Since 1945: From “Empire” by Invitation to 41 Ibidem; Thomas Lindblad, ‘Colonial Rule and Transatlantic Drift (Oxford 2003). Economic Development. A Review of the Recent 44 Proposition 1 in Maarten Kuitenbrouwer, Historiography on Indonesia’, Jahrbuch fur De ontdekking van de Derde Wereld. Beeldvorming en Wirtschaftsgeschichte 36:1 (1995) 9-22, 18. beleid in Nederland, 1950-1990 (The Hague 1994); 42 Foray, Visions of Empire. Locher-Scholten, Ethiek in fragmenten. koekkoek, richard, weststeijn visions of dutch empire 95 Veni grant grant Veni

Shaping Foreign Relations: The Netherlands 1815-2000 The Netherlands (London, Relations: forthcoming Foreign Shaping contend that it is time to investigate visions of ‘Dutch empire’ in the long the long in empire’ ‘Dutch of visions investigate is time to that it contend global perspective: and transimperial exploring from a transnational, term thereof) (or lack the interplay of between a multitude conceptualisations visions, and governmental including entrepreneurial and arguments, ofas well as visions science and asking how resistance and opposition; ideas of and battered culture buttressed empire; interrogating Dutch middle or moral power the claims to great, and examining ‘exceptionalism’ This implies examining status ofwith its large empire. this small country of fundamentally dependent (post)empire, a multicultural ‘Dutchness’ the or local entrepreneurs non-Dutch be they the great powers, on others, shaped visions ofpopulations who all and world history. empire in Dutch in pursuing it appears are the first steps in which This essay and the forum agenda further. this research in 2017); ‘Thein 2017); solidarity. limits of Europeanism, anti-colonialism at and socialism Europe, of the Asia of Peoples and Africathe Congress at Puteaux, European 1948’, and 519-537; ‘Competition 21:4 (2014) d’histoire Européenne History/Revue of Review complementarity: civil society networks and the question the decentralising of History 233-256. 7:2 (2012) Nations’, of Journal of Global League Anne-Isabelle (1980) is assistant at the Institute professor for History, Richard and in nineteenth twentieth-century andLeiden University, specializes world and historyEuropean from a transnational perspective. Her interests current research ‘Eurafrica’ of African conceptions a nwoconcern she for received which publications include: ‘The Recent (2017-2021). curious case Dutch of Europeanism’, vanin: Ruud Dijk, van Rimko der Maar Samuël Kruizinga, Kuitenbrouwer, Vincent (eds.), Email: [email protected]. Email: [email protected]. (1985) is lecturer (1985) in Modern History European Koekkoek at the CapacityRené GroupStudies, European University Amsterdam. of lie in interests His research the field intellectual of history and the history political of thought. In particular, on the intellectualhe focuses and history revolutions, sovereignty, citizenship, of publicationshistorical injustice. include: ‘The Recent Hebrew Republic in Dutch (eds.), and A. Ancient Velema Weststeijn in: W.R.E. Thought,Political c. 1650-1675’, (Leiden, forthcoming The in 2017); Imagination Republican Modern Early in the Models in the Participation and Equality Civic of Limits the Contesting Experiment. Citizenship (PhD Utrecht University, 2016; book manuscript under with review Revolutions of Age UniversityCambridge Pantheism Spinoza’s of and ‘Carl Schmitt the Challenge Press); History 333-357. (2014) 11 Intellectual Modern Wars’, between the World forum

Arthur Weststeijn (1980) is Director of Historical Studies at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome. He specializes in Dutch and Italian intellectual and cultural history, with a specific focus on (early) modern republicanism, imperialism and the classical tradition. Recent publications include: Arthur Weststeijn and Frederick Whitling, Termini. Cornerstone of Modern Rome (Rome 2017); ‘Provincializing Grotius. International Law and Empire in a Seventeenth-Century Malay Mirror’, in: Marti Koskenniemi, Walter Rech, and Manuel Jiménez Fonseca (eds.), International Law and Empire: Historical Explorations (Oxford 2017) 21-38; ‘España en el espejo holandés: republicanismo radical después de la Paz de Westfalia’, in: Manuel Herrero Sánchez (ed.), Repúblicas y republicanismo en la Edad Moderna (Madrid and Mexico 2017) 249-272. Email: [email protected].