9th July 2010

The Dutch: Businessmen first, human second.

Since the start of the program we have been looking into different aspects of the Dutch society, getting acquainted with their culture, and identity. We have also had a look into the education, political, and other civil institutions. Today, we looked into the Dutch history primarily focusing on the 17^th century. During this period, the Dutch were at the height of their power with a booming economy, and flourishing trade. As explained by Dr. Frank at the National Institute of Slavic Past, “in the 17^th Century Dutch merchants dominated trade in Africa, Philippines, India, and Caribbean”. He went on further saying that, “the West India. Co in 1620 dominated the Caribbean. It was the architect of profitable wars setup by the government as a private co. to continue war in the Caribbean by piracy and conquest.” Using this policy of pillaging boats the Dutch were also able to break down Spanish communication, and trade. This completely amazed me, as I would have never imagined that one could gain control of the seas just by piracy. However, the Dutch “pirates” did have the government’s complete backing as well. Nonetheless, the creative Dutch policy did work then, and they went on to establish colonies in islands like Aruba, Antilles, etc in the Caribbean to ones in Africa and eastwards uptil Indonesia. Upon learning that the Dutch controlled the Atlantic slave trade, I started to question the validity of the moral and just Dutchmen I have been learning about since coming to the Netherlands. In the tropical museum I found a quote apt to the topic by Bredero in 1615: ‘inhuman usage! Heathen villainy! That people are traded into slavery! There are people in this town that engage in this trade’. Furthermore, after watching a movie at the institute on the Dutch colonial treatment of natives in Africa, I came to the conclusion that the Dutch are businessmen first, and humans later. I do realize such a thesis is very strong, but if one looks at the price others have had to pay for the greed of the Dutch merchants, it is apt to say something like this. The movie, ‘Max Havelaar’ that followed Dr. Frank’s presentation proved the aforementioned point decisively.

From the movie, we learnt a lot about the Dutch treatment of African natives. It is no rumor that natives were terribly exploited in every way possible. Women were forced into sleeping with the Dutch officials, and natives were made to work without suitable payment. In fact, not only was their sweat, and blood taken from them, but also their livestock, house, etc. While, it would be wrong to say that every Dutch official was corrupt, but the movie showed how greed can be such a blinding force. Mr. Max Havelaar understood this fact, and tried to solve it by economizing his life-style for the betterment of the natives. However, there was little that he could do in the end to help the natives as his superiors, and colleagues let him down. In fact, the planned murder of the former assistant general “displayed a picture of corruption which overshadows the worst of what the Oriental peoples are accused of in this respect” (Dewulf, 2010). The desire to make money made the Dutch commit horrible sins, which they could have never thought of committing in the Netherlands. While some played an active part, others played a passive role, and some like Max thought of changing things. This comes as no surprise to me as the Dutch are very individualistic, and each of them did what they had to or wanted to. I might sound like a broken record when I say this, but I was truly shocked by the Dutch loss of morality. Not only that, when Dr. Frank mentioned that during Santa-Claus festivities people paint their faces black even today, I was shocked. I thought the racism, and oppression based on color was a thing of the colonial age. However, to see it in practice even today was rather surprising. Not only that, I learnt that there is a show on TV every December that has racist comments to and fro from the whites to the blacks. While it is one thing to be tolerant and liberal, I feel its totally another thing to be ignorant. And after hearing this, I feel that the Dutch are ignorant of others. Lastly, Dr. Frank’s comment that “kingdom of the Netherlands has never apologized formally to its colonial treatment of slaves, and its participation in the slave trade in the Atlantic” further strengthened my view on this topic.

As customary, we went to another museum in the evening called the Tropical Museum. I found this museum very interesting, and educative. It did a remarkable job in displaying most of the world’s different societies under one roof. Also, it gave a lot insight into the different colonies occupied by the Dutch, their commercial exploitation, and their historical objects such as coins, armory, etc. All in all, it was a great experience. Not forgetting, our celeberation of Teresa’s 21^st birthday in a nearby park after that was the perfect end to the day.

Works Cited

Dewulf, J. (2010). In the jungle of amsterdam. In J. Dewulf, The Amsterdam-Brussels Connection: History art and identity in the heart of europe (p. 219). UC Berkeley.