The Dutch Colonial Presence in the West Indies in the 17th Century: A Historiographical Overview

The Dutch Colonial Presence in the West Indies in the 17th Century: A Historiographical Overview* Eva Kubátová This overview summarizes the Dutch presence in the America(s) with special attention focused on the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname, (not exclusively, but with major focus) in the 17th century. The central aim of the text is to explore the chosen research topics and scholarly interests throughout the second half of the 20th century and to emphasize the current historiographical and archival tendencies in the Dutch West Indies, revealing the initial colonial events which irreversibly redrew the map of the Spanish dominions in the New World. KEYWORDS: Historiography; Dutch Caribbean; West India Company; Privateering; Suriname INSTEAD OF INTRODUCTION: OOSTINDIE ABOUT THE WEST INDIES In 1987, Gert J. Oostindie, one of the most eminent historians specialising in the Dutch Caribbean, published an article summarizing the situation in historiography at that time. Apart from a list of the most relevant bibliographical sources up to 1985, his article raised a number of doubts and expectations about the future, and raised the point ed question whether the Dutch Atlantic historiography was “catching up”. Oostindie outlined some problematic approaches to the Dutch presence in the America(s), including the general neglect of the topic at the expense of the Dutch East Indies, and a lack of history writing in the Antilles and Suriname caused by absence of history studies at the Paramaribo and Curaçao universities. Another of Oostindie’s concerns was at that time the monopolistic retention of the documents about the former American colonies in the Dutch State Archives.1 However, in the end Oostindie was “feeling confident that the quality of research and publications will improve and a comparative approach [would be] added over the next years”.2 Those are the starting points for this study, which could be thus considered to be a “follow-up” to Oostindie’s premises. To conclude this “Instead of Introduction”, the author of this text would like to mention that the intention of this study is to show the timeline on which different topics are being treated with the period end at the 17th century, when the Dutch West India Company was founded (West-Indische Compagnie, WIC), which colonized the lands of * The present study was supported by GA UK (Grant Agency of Charles University in Prague), Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, Project No. 540813, Spanish-Dutch Rivalry in the Caribbean of the 17th Century, conducted in the years 2013–2014. 1 Gert J. OOSTINDIE, Historiography on the Dutch Caribbean (–1985): Catching Up?, Journal of Caribbean History 21, 1987, No. 1, pp. 1–18, here p. 10. 2 Ibid., pp. 1–3. OPEN ACCESS 158 HISTORIE — OTÁZKY — PROBLÉMY 2/2016 Suriname, the former “Netherlands Antilles”,3 the north-eastern part of Brazil during the years 1630–1654, and the territory of today’s New York, and the colony of New Netherland in the period 1614–1667. Since summarization of all the available bibliography on all the Western possessions in the WIC would demand an entire monography, the sole focus of this text is on the Caribbean zone, including the territory of Suriname. SUMMARIZING THE HISTORIOGRAPHY REVIEWS ON THE DUTCH PRESENCE IN THE CARIBBEAN There are not many works on historiography focusing solely on the Dutch-American colonies. Apart from the text by Oostindie from 1987, there is an important overview of the bibliographical sources by W.P. Coolhaas.4 In his publication, he focuses in detail on practically every published source on the Dutch colonialization, both by the Dutch East-India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, also known as VOC) and by WIC. Ingrid Koulen and Gert Oostindie as editors of “A Research Guide” on the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba published in 1987, went a step farther.5 This slim publication contains information about the historical and political research on the Dutch Antilles, linguistics, and other scholarly topics. Numerous bibliographical takes on the Surinamese history were summarized by Jaap Meijer in an outdated but still useful publication.6 Much later, another important summarizing step regarding the scholarly tendencies in historiography, research and many other scientific branches was taken in 2002 by Michiel Baud, director of CEDLA.7 Baud divided in his article the research on the Dutch American history into three phases — until the 1970s, since the 1970s and after the 1990s. The turning point between the first and second phase is the worldwide decolonization (in the case of the former Dutch territories this happened in 1975 in Suriname) and increasing interest in the “Third-World” Latin America and Caribbean. The third phase is, according to Baud, typified by the renewing of scholarly generations, by former students of the leading authorities of the previous phases. 3 Thus Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, half of Sint Maarten, Saba and Sint Eustatius. The name “Netherlands Antilles” is still being used to describe the geopolitical union of the six islands, but since 2010 it is incorrect as this island union was dissolved. A general name for this union is “Dutch Caribbean”. 4 Willem Philippus COOLHAAS, A Critical Survey of Studies on Dutch Colonial History, Den Haag 1980. 5 Ingrid KOULEN — Gert J. OOSTINDIE et al., The Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. A Research Guide, Dordrecht 1987. 6 Jaap MEIJER, Sleutel tot Sranan: wegwijzer in de Surinaamse geschiedenis, Amsterdam 1957. 7 Michiel BAUD, Latin American and Caribbean Studies in the Netherlands, Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 72, 2002, pp. 139–160. CEDLA (Centrum voor Studie en Documentatie van Latijns-Amerika, Center for Latin American Research and Documentation) is one of the leading Dutch institutions in the field, founded in 1964 as part of the University of Amsterdam. OPEN ACCESS Eva KuBÁTOvÁ 159 DUTCH HUNGER FOR OVERSEAS TERRITORIES As more European states ventured into the Americas, the Dutch also wanted to take advantage of the wealth with which the new continent abounded. Thus despite (or perhaps because of) the ongoing Eighty Years War against the Spanish Empire in Europe,8 first Dutch vessels set sail for America.9 Apart from coveting overseas territories, the Dutch had a special need for salt to preserve herrings. Originally, they were importing it from the Spanish territories but the Eighty Years War brought about an economic a commercial embargo imposed by the Spaniards. As a result, the Dutch were forced to prospect for salt farther inside the Spanish overseas possessions. The salt flats at Punta de Araya (in present-day Venezuela) solved this problem. However, after the expiration of the Twelve-Year Truce in 1621, they found the Spanish flats fortified. By this moment, the foundation of the WIC10 as a war “machine” against the Spanish Empire and the official Dutch arrival in the America(s) were just a question of time. 8 An interesting revision offer Ana CRESPO SOLANA — Manuel HERRERO SÁNCHEZ (edd.), España y las 17 provincias de los Países Bajos. Una revisión historiográfica (XVI–XVIII), Córdoba 2002. About the Twelve Years’ Truce is a highly recommendable publication by Simon GROENVELD, Het Twaalfjarig Bestand, 1609–1621. De jongelingsjaren van de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden, Den Haag 2009. A literary analysis of the textual sources from the period of this long-lasting Spanish-Dutch conflict is offered by Yolanda RODRÍGUEZ PÉREZ, The Dutch Revolt through Spanish Eyes. Self and Other in Historical and Literary Texts of Golden Age Spain (c. 1548–1673), Oxford — Bern 2008. And finally, a “classic” lecture on the Spanish-Dutch relations in Europe was marked by Geoffrey PARKER, Spain and the Netherlands, 1559–1659, London 1979. 9 The Dutch discovering voyages during the period 1550–1650 are described by Vibeke D. ROEPER — G.J. Diederick WILDEMAN, Ontdekkingsreizen van Nederlanders (1590–1650), Utrecht — Antwerpen 1993. A very good introduction to the first Dutch overseas attempts is summarized by these authors: Leonard BLUSSÉ — Jaap DE MOOR, Nederlanders overzee. De eerste vijftig jaar 1600–1650, Franeker 1983. Blussé and De Moor focus on the introduction of the Dutch traditions, society and culture, follow this with a description of the VOC through the history of first robberies and colonial attempts in the New World, describing the WIC and its initial successes as the one of Piet Heijn (see the chapter “Privateering”). Leonard Blussé returned to this topic again at his later work (again in Dutch) describing the politico-cultural relations between the Netherlands, Asia, Africa and America: Leonard BLUSSÉ, Het verre gezicht. Politieke en culturele relaties tussen Nederland en Azië, Afrika en Amerika, Franeker 2011. 10 The first official history of the Dutch West India Company was published in 1644: Johannes DE LAET, Historie ofte Jaerllijck Verhael van de Verrichtingen der Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie. Zedert haer Begin, tot het eyende van‘t jaer sesthien hondert ses-en-dertich, Leiden 1644. As his publication served as the main source for all the upcoming works on the WIC, in 1931–1934 it was reedited and published under the same title by Samuel Pierre l’Honoré Naber (Den Haag, 1931–1934). Further works on the WIC were written by W.R. MENKMAN, De Geschiedenis van de West-Indische Compagnie, Amsterdam 1947, who described both the WIC and the VOC. Another point of view is given in a publication from 1928 analysing OPEN ACCESS 160 HISTORIE — OTÁZKY — PROBLÉMY 2/2016 THE DUTCH PRESENCE IN THE NEW WORLD (WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON THE 17TH CENTURY) The Dutch presence in the Americas, together with the French and English presence, was a paradigm shift in respect of the Spanish mare clausum.11 While much has been written about the Spanish, French and English colonization of the New World, the Dutch colonization remained for a long time neglected. Besides the topics raised by Oostindie, we face another complication when speaking explicitly about the 17th century Dutch presence. In general, the historiography of the 17th century in the New World used to be regarded as a “historical vacuum”, which tends to be perceived as a state where actually “nothing happens”.12 The Dutch colonization style was considerably different from the Spanish or Portuguese one. The Dutch, generally speaking, showed no interest in the introduction of their language, culture or religion in their colonies, and more likely they proclaimed the traditional liberty of faith as a consequence of the Erasmian school of thought in the Netherlands.13 The Dutch objective in the New World was commerce, the buildings of the WIC and VOC in the Netherlands: Jacob Cornelis OVERVOORDE — Petrus DE ROO DE LA FAILLE, De gebouwen van de Oost-Indische Compagnie en van de West-Indische Compagnie in Nederland, Utrecht 1928. The most recent contribution to the WIC’s historiography was published by Hendrik Jacob (Henk) DEN HEIJER, De geschiedenis van de WIC, Zutphen 1994, who also participated in a great geographical effort on a historical basis: Bea BROMMER — Hendrik Jacob (Henk) DEN HEIJER, Grote Atlas van de West-Indische Compagnie = Comprehensive Atlas of the Dutch West India Company. I — De Oude WIC 1621–1674 = The Old WIC 1621–1674, Voorburg 2011, which offers a visual perception of the different colonization periods. 11 This term was coined by Hugo de Groot, a Dutch philosopher, as natural opposition to the mare liberum. De Groot’s intention was to proclaim the innate right to all the seas. See Ralph VAN DEMAN MAGOFFIN (transl.) — James BROWN SCOTT (ed.), Hugo Grotius: Mare liberum, New York 1916, accessible online: http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/552 [retrieved 31.8.2016]. Jonathan Israel offers a very valuable book dedicated to the SpanishDutch struggle in the 17th century: Jonathan I. ISRAEL, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World 1606–1661, Oxford 1982. 12 This was stated by Cornelis Goslinga in the very first publication about the Dutch presence in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast between the 17th century and the 1970s and no such analysis was published in Dutch. See Cornelis GOSLINGA, The Dutch in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast 1580–1680, Assen 1971. He gives other reasons for the less developed historiography concerning those topics (e.g. language barrier) in his later publication A Short History of the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname, Den Haag 1979. Also, Oostindie made numerous attempts to break this historiographical silence with a series of essays about the Dutch historical memory: Gert J. OOSTINDIE (ed.), Dutch Colonialism, Migration and Cultural Heritage, Leiden 2008. 13 This fact uses to be emphasized by the modern historians, based on observations of witnesses of the Dutch colonization in the 17th century. See Jonathan I. ISRAEL, Conflicts of Empires. Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy 1585–1713, London 1997, p. 241. OPEN ACCESS Eva KuBÁTOvÁ 161 not cultural or religious conquest as in the case of the Spaniards.14 The Dutch colonies are lacking in elaborate colonial structures, having been built generally on naval, commercial and administrative bases.15 Finally, the island colonies in the Caribbean, compared with other islands in the region which were dominions of other European states, were never transformed into plantation colonies with a large slave population. One of the first attempts to summarize the Dutch colonial history was made by H.T. Colenbrander in 1925,16 with a great introduction to the comparisons of colonial styles of the European states. Nevertheless, Colenbrander’s study was followed by a long period of silence, ended by a seminal work on the Dutch Caribbean by Cornelis Goslinga in the 1970s.17 The 1980s and the 1990s saw a constantly growing scholarly interest, doubtless inspired by the independence of Suriname proclaimed in 1975. This significant date was a cut-off point for a colonial overview by Boogaart & den Drooglever in 1982.18 More studies were published around the same years on the Dutch colonies.19 After this series of publications, almost two decades had to 14 As claimed by Svatava RAKOVÁ, Víra, rasa a etnicita v koloniální Americe [Faith, Race and Ethnicity in the Colonial America], Praha 2005, p. 53: the Dutch came to the New World to engage in commerce, not to convert themselves into farmers. By this point, the Dutch colonization used to be considered to be an “expansion without empire”, see Pieter Cornelis (Piet) EMMER — Willem Wubbo (Wim) KLOOSTER, The Dutch Atlantic, 1600–1800. Expansion without Empire, Itinerario 23, 1999, No. 2, pp. 48–69, here p. 48–49. An interesting contribution to the Spanish-Dutch relations was published Carlos FELICE CARDOT, Curazao hispánico (antagonismo flamenco-español), Caracas 1973. 15 C. GOSLINGA, The Dutch in the Caribbean, p. 58. 16 Herman Theodoor COLENBRANDER, Koloniale geschiedenis. Eerste deel algemeene koloniale geschiedenis met kaarten, Den Haag 1925. In the same year, another two volumes were published, one up to the year 1816 and another one since 1816. 17 C. GOSLINGA, The Dutch in the Caribbean. His epic work continued with The Dutch in the Caribbean and in the Guineas 1680–1791 published by the same publishing house in 1985, and The Dutch in the Caribbean and in Suriname 1791/5–1942, published in 1990. A few years later, in 1979, Goslinga took all his volumes and excerpted a study which gives a complete overview of the history of the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname: IDEM, A Short History. 18 Ernst VAN DEN BOOGAART — Pieter Joost DROOGLEVER et al., Overzee. Nederlandse koloniale geschiedenis 1590–1975, Haarlem 1982. When talking about the 17th century, it should be noted that the authors dedicated a chapter to the Dutch expansion in the Atlantic between the years 1590 and 1674. 19 Leonardus Gerardus Anne SCHELLEKENS, Nederlanders in Azië, Afrika en Latijns-Amerika (1600–1900), Nijmegen 1980. Antonie Johannes Maria KUNST, Recht, commercie en kolonialisme in West-Indië vanaf de zestiende tot in de negentiende eeuw, Zutphen 1981. This Dutch historiographical-economical overview of the Dutch West Indies provides a detailed overview since the Discovery of America by the Spaniards, from the first attempts to enter their waters, the foundation of the first and second WIC, finishing with the initiation of the decolonization process. The book provides an overview of information from the end of the 15th to the end of the 19th centuries. Apart from this great overview, OPEN ACCESS 162 HISTORIE — OTÁZKY — PROBLÉMY 2/2016 pass before new topics and research conclusions about the Dutch overseas American economy appeared.20 Meanwhile, another publication on the historiography of the Dutch presence in Netherlands Antilles and Aruba21 and a general overview of the Dutch colonization22 were published. De Nederlandse koloniën by Jurrien van Goor from 1994 deserves special attention as it clearly reflects the social and educational need for such publications, as during the first years after its publication it was reprinted four times and a reviewed version was published in 1997. PRIVATEERING Privateering, or kaapvaart, was a specific style of “piracy”, in which a garrison possessed a “letter of marque” (or kaperbrief in Dutch), which allowed it to seize enemy vessels (in most cases Spanish ones). The founding of the WIC after the expiration of the Twelve Year Truce during the Eighty Years War in 1621 was a starting point for the privateering practice, as it formed an inseparable part of the existence of the WIC, whose raison d’être was the war against the Spanish Empire,23 and the company was supposed to harm it with any possible means.24 the major contribution I consider to be the economic links, viewed both from Europe and from America. 20 Klooster presented a convincing study on the importance of the trade movement and contraband in the Atlantic and Caribbean based on comparative and interwoven methodology: Willem Wubbo (Wim) KLOOSTER, Illicit Riches. Dutch Trade in the Caribbean, 1648–1795, Leiden 1998. Another two economic studies are by Pieter Cornelis (Piet) EMMER, The Dutch in the Atlantic Economy, 1580–1880. Trade, Slavery and Emancipation, Hampshire — Vermont 1998 (Variorum Collected Studies Series); and a study in Dutch: Pieter Cornelis (Piet) EMMER — Jos GOMMANS, Rijk aan de rand van de wereld. De geschiedenis van Nederland overzee 1600–1800, Amsterdam 2012. The economic aspects of the colonization were studied more recently by Ana Crespo Solana, together with comparative contributions on the Dutch Atlantic presence: Ana CRESPO SOLANA, Mercaderes atlánticos. Redes del comercio flamenco y holandés entre Europa y el Caribe, Córdoba 2009. IDEM, ¿Alegoría de la Nueva Holanda? Imágenes y prácticas de la economía de plantación en Surinam, Anuario de Estudios Americanos 67, 2010, No. 1, pp. 239–261; IDEM, Holanda en el Caribe desde la perspectiva comparada. Aportación al debate sobre los modelos de expansión en los siglos XVII y XVIII, Catharum. Revista de Ciencias y Humanidades del Instituto de Estudios Hispánicos de Canarias 9, 2008, pp. 39–48. 21 Hendrina Bernarda VAN ALLER, Van kolonie tot koninkrijksdeel. De staatkundige geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba van 1634 tot 1994, Groningen 1994 (Dissertatie-serie vakgroep Staatsrecht). Based on Aller’s research in the Netherlands National Archive and Central Historical Archive in Curaçao, she summarizes the Spanish conquest and in general the transatlantic voyages, following this with the Spanish presence in the present-day Dutch postcolonial areas. 22 Jurrien VAN GOOR, De Nederlandse koloniën. Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse expansie. 1600–1975, Den Haag 1994 and 1997. 23 C. GOSLINGA, A Short History, p. 21. 24 H.B. VAN ALLER, Van kolonie, p. 51. OPEN ACCESS Eva KuBÁTOvÁ 163 With regard to Dutch privateering, there was a colourful personality, Piet Heyn, whose capture of the Spanish Silver Fleet in 1628 was one of the biggest (if not the biggest) successes of the WIC. Adored by the Dutchmen and detested by the Spaniards, Heyn serves as a source of inspiration for numerous historiographical works.25 Another privateering document was discovered in 2008 in the Archive of Utrecht, — the ship journal of the captain of the Nassau Fleet’s (Nassausche vloot) Willem van Brederode, who sailed under the flag of the VOC to Spanish western coastal territories of America in 1623, aiming and failing to capture the Spanish Silver Fleet.26 The topic of Dutch piracy is also broached in one of the most recent publications concerning an international pirate investigation in the Greater Caribbean written by Antonio García de León in 2004. 27 SURINAME STUDIES Suriname has been studied more than other Dutch colonial dominions28 and the scholarly interest was sparked primarily after the Surinamese independence from the Kingdom of Netherlands in 1975. In addition to Cornelis Goslinga mentioned in the overview of the Dutch colonial presence in the Caribbean, in the Suriname Studies the most eminent scholar is Richard Price. He focuses in various studies on the 18th century Saramaka wars in Suriname, for the abolition of slavery, appreciated for Price’s approach to the “ethnographic historiography”.29 Another major work authored by this well-known historian is a reviewed account of John Gabriel Stedman of his voyage to Suriname at the end of the 18th century.30 25 Samuel Pierre L’HONORÉ NABER — Irene A. WRIGHT, Piet Heyn en de Zilvervloot, Utrecht 1928. In 1946, another work on Heyn’s major success with the Spanish Silver Fleet was published: Michael Georg DE BOER, Piet Heyn en de zilveren vloot, Amsterdam 1946. In 1959, another book came to be published, this time as a detailed story of Heyn’s life in 1624–1625 on the West African coast: Klaas RATELBAND, De Westafrikaanse reis van Piet Heyn 1624–1625, ’s-Gravenhage 1959. 26 Brederode’s ship journal was discovered, reviewed and commented by Anne DOEDENS — Henk LOOIJESTEIJN, Op jacht naar Spaans Zilver. Het scheepsjournaal van Willem van Brederode, kapitein der mariniers in de Nassause vloot (1623–1626), Hilversum 2008. 27 The Greater Caribbean is a geo-historical unit rather than a strictly defined geographical area of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. See Antonio GARCÍA DE LEÓN, Contra viento y marea. Los piratas en el Golfo de México, México, D.F. 2004, p. 15. 28 Some of the works are featured in encyclopaedias: Conrad Friederich Albert BRUIJNING — Jan VOORHOEVE — W. GORDIJN, Encyclopedie van Suriname, Amsterdam 1977. 29 Richard PRICE, Alabi´s World, Baltimore — London 1990. Price also explored the topic of Saramaka (or Saramacca) in other works: IDEM, Ethnographic History, Caribbean Pasts, College Park 1990, http://www.lasc.umd.edu/Publications/WorkingPapers/1992LectureSeries/ dta9.PDF [retrieved 31.8.2016]; and in an earlier study on the Saramacca wars: IDEM, To Slay the Hydra. Dutch Colonial Perspectives on the Saramaka Wars, Ann Arbor 1983. 30 Stedmans’ account was published in German: Jos FONTAINE (ed.), Reize naar Surinamen door den capitain John Gabriël Stedman, Zutphen 1987; and in English a year later: Richard OPEN ACCESS 164 HISTORIE — OTÁZKY — PROBLÉMY 2/2016 The most recent contributions to the Surinamese Studies include Henk Waltmans’ politico-economic study from 2002,31 and, above all, Hans Buddingh. His De geschiedenis van Suriname relates the complete history of Suriname, including the postcolonial situation marked in the 1980s by the military rule of current president Desi Bouterse.32 “GUILT-FOCUSED” PUBLICATIONS A special chapter in this bibliographical review is the “guilty conscience of the former colonists”, which appeared in the last few decades.33 Marc Ferro claimed appositely that after the decolonization, the European historical memory gave its ultimate demonstration of pride, — talking about its misdeeds, evaluating them and doing so absolutely uncompromisingly.34 A compilation of essays from the literary-cultural revue De Gids includes essays on the (post)colonial topics of Suriname, Netherlands Antilles and the Dutch West PRICE — Sally PRICE (ed.), John Gabriel Stedman: Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Suriname, Baltimore — London 1988. The 18th and 19th centuries of Surinamese plantation colony were topic also for Alexander VAN STIPRIAAN, Surinaams contrast. Roofbouw en overleven in een Caraïbische plantagekolonie 1750–1863, Leiden 1993. 31 Henk WALTMANS, Suriname 1650–2000: een politieke studie, Oosterhout 2002. 32 Hans BUDDINGH, De geschiedenis van Suriname, Amsterdam 2012. Buddingh’s publication appeared for the first time in 1995 and by 1999 and 2000 it was brought up to date. Talking about the historiography of the 17th century, Buddingh offers a penetrating insight into the social, international and economic aspects of the Dutch colonization. Apart from Buddingh’s publication, another publication summarizes the Surinamese history: Eveline BAKKER, Geschiedenis van Suriname: van stam tot staat, Zutphen 1993. 33 Or, more exactly, since the beginning of the 21st century, when the World Conference Against Racism was held in 2001. Dutch Minister Van Boxtel made public statements which are considered as an admission of guilt about the horrors of slavery and colonization in the Dutch Caribbean. See Armand J. ZUNDER, Herstelbetalingen. De “Wiedergutmachung” voor de schade die Suriname en haar bevolking hebben geleden onder het Nederlands kolonialisme, Den Haag 2010, pp. 429–431. 34 Marc FERRO, Dějiny kolonizací. Od dobývání po nezávislost 13.–20. století [History of Colonizations. From Conquest to Independence 13th–20th Centuries], Praha 2007, p. 5. This study, comparing the worldwide colonization undertakingss, is based on a French original, Histoire des colonisations: des conquêtes aux indépendances (XIIIe–XXe siècle), Paris 1994. In Spanish it was published in 2000 as La colonización. Una historia global, México, D.F. 2000; and in English as Colonization: A Global History, London 1997. Despite the great number of translations (including a Czech one), this study is quite problematic regarding its ambitious comparisons between all the colonizations during a lengthy period (since the 13th to the 20thcentury), as it tends to present the historical events in too concise a way with some errors and inaccuracies. Nevertheless, Ferro’s study offers an “essayistic” point of view, including the “vision of the defeated” and analogies with literature or film. However, when mentioning the Dutch colonization, Ferro dedicates only a few dozens of pages to this topic. OPEN ACCESS Eva KuBÁTOvÁ 165 Indies.35 Three of them are focused on Suriname, and specifically on the phenomenon of the Dutch colonial slave trade standing in stark contrast to the Surinamese motto in its coat of arms: Justitia, Pietas, Fides (Justice — Piety — Fidelity), and the fourth deals with the difficulty of the creation of a postcolonial cultural identity. A great insight into the Dutch “black legend” is given in Benjamin Schmidt’s Innocence Abroad.36 Schmidt suggests a parallel between the principles of the Eighty Years War’s struggle for Dutch independence from the Spanish Empire, and the Spanish colonization’s Black Legend, which serves as a sound ideological basis for the Dutch forays into the Spanish mare clausum. Using Dutch representations of America, Schmidt concludes with the Dutch change from “innocence” to “tyranny” in the colonial ideology of the Dutch Golden Age. After Schmidt, another drop into the sea of “guilt-focused” publications was added by Ewald Vanvugt in 2002,37 summarizing the Dutch colonialism of the VOC and the WIC, giving the publication an expressive title: Black Book of the Netherlands Overseas. Also, in 2002, an essay based on a speech given by Bert Paasman at the Amsterdam University was published on the moral presence based on the colonial past.38 Paasman’s line of reasoning suggests that although the colonial era might be over, its consequences are not — through economy, demography, geography, ecology and culture, the world has irreversibly changed. A balanced study on colonialism and its consequences was published by Gert Oostindie in 2005.39 In his Paradise Overseas, Oostindie presents a summary of Dutch Caribbean history and its enduring legacy, within a comparative and interdisciplinary framework. Oostindie’s main contribution consists in outlining different trajectories between the ex-colonial possessions at the moment of decolonization, accompanied by a deep insight into the Dutch post-independence assistance for the former colonies, also mentioning the current intolerance towards the Caribbean migrants in the Netherlands. He has these points in common with the foregoing Paasman’s discourse. Finally, there is a sort of an “opposite” guilt-focused book by a Surinamese economist and former politician Armand J. Zunder, who published a rather provocative study based on empirical data from the Surinamese archives demanding from the Netherlands a “compensation” for the Surinamese nation for the centuries of colonialism and slavery.40 35 Remieg AERTS — Theodor DUQUESNOY et al., Een ereschuld. Essays uit De Gids over ons koloniaal verleden, Amsterdam 1993. 36 Benjamin SCHMIDT, Innocence Abroad. The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570–1670, New York 2001. 37 Ewald VANVUGT, Zwartboek van Nederland overzee. Wat iedere Nederlander moet weten, Soesterberg 2002. 38 Bert PAASMAN, Wandelen onder de palmen: De morele actualiteit van het koloniale verleden, Amsterdam 2002. 39 Gert J. OOSTINDIE, Paradise Overseas: The Dutch Caribbean: Colonialism and Its Transatlantic Legacies, Oxford 2005. 40 A.J. ZUNDER, Herstelbetalingen. It should be noted that the word “Wiedergutmachung” in the publication’s title, referring specifically to the post-WWII Germany’s reparations for the survivors of the Holocaust. OPEN ACCESS