East India House, German Institute, University of Amsterdam.
East India House, German Institute, University of Amsterdam. July 2017
[from FB post: July 30, 2017]
Here is the headquarters of the VOC. It is now a part of the University of Amsterdam. The best way to erase evil history is just to pretend it never happened....
Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie
The Dutch East India Company. Part of my quest in the Netherlands was finding traces of it (rather easy, they had offices in almost every major city) and its HQ (much harder, I mean, very hard in fact). Above are the photos of the German Institute of the University of Amsterdam, the last headquarters of the Dutch East India Company. Considering it is the company that made the modern Netherlands what it is, the site of its last head office is extremely understated.
In a world where we hand wring over the power of multinational corporations consider this:
It is sometimes considered to have been the first multinational corporation in the world, and it was the first company to issue stock. It was a powerful company, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, strike its own coins, and establish colonies.
(Wikipedia)
Today we worry about the power of multinationals? They are rank amateurs compared to the power of the VOC!
Let there be no mistake, one of my favorite countries to travel in Europe is the Netherlands. It makes squeaky clean Germany look like a dump. The modern Netherlands has preserved medieval cities, modern architecture (mostly due to wartime devastation), and a transportation system that most other countries could only dream of. People are healthy and happy there. Why should they not be? The wealth of the country is built on what was largely to become Indonesia. In fact, the Dutch have a saying, "God made the earth, but the Dutch made Holland" (referring to their dikes and land reclamation). I would also add that that the Dutch made Indonesia. After the VOC went bankrupt 200 years after its initial charter, the Dutch state took over the VOC's area of control and expanded it to become the Dutch East Indies. Later, only with UN (and American) pressure, did the Dutch agree to give up their very lucrative colony.
Of course, cities like Rotterdam were bombed to dust in World War II, but other parts of the Netherlands were actually unscathed by the war and the country's economic bounce-back was fast and furious. These days they are the envy of the EU and, because they are home to the International Court of Justice, the Dutch are heralded as being great champions of human rights. At least the country is a testament to being able to turn over a new leaf, especially after everyone is rich and taken care of for life. The Dutch are to Europe what the Emiratis and Qataris are to the Gulf. How easy is it to be beneficent after a country and its people are all well off?
Once again, look at the numbers:
Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in the Asia trade. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods. By contrast, the rest of Europe combined sent only 882,412 people from 1500 to 1795, and the fleet of the English (later British) East India Company, the VOC's nearest competitor, was a distant second to its total traffic with 2,690 ships and a mere one-fifth the tonnage of goods carried by the VOC. The VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century.
....
It remained an important trading concern and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years.
(Wikipedia)
The VOC also practiced genocide:
The VOC charter allowed it to act as a quasi-sovereign state, and engaged in brutal conquests. One example is the Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands, between 1609 and 1621, after the islands resisted the nutmeg monopoly. The Dutch launched punitive expeditions that resulted in the near destruction of Bandanese society. They invaded the main Bandanese island of Lontor in 1621. 2,800 Bandanese were killed, mostly from famine, and 1,700 were enslaved during the attack. The total population of the islands is estimated at 15,000 people before the conquest. Although the exact number remains uncertain, it is estimated that around 14,000 people were killed, enslaved or fled elsewhere, with only 1,000 Bandanese surviving in the islands, and were spread throughout the nutmeg groves as forced labourers. The treatment of slaves was severe—the native Bandanese population dropped to 1,000 by 1681. 200 slaves were imported annually to sustain the slave population at a total of 4,000.
(Wikipedia)
I am so happy the Dutch have reformed so much they can house the Hague and dole out justice to others after their "unfortunate empire building stage"
The VOC practiced slavery: (speaking of Southern Africa's Cape Colony)
From 1658 to the end of the company's rule, many more slaves were brought regularly to the Cape in various ways, chiefly by Company-sponsored slaving voyages and slaves brought to the Cape by its return fleets. From these sources and by natural growth, the slave population increased from zero in 1652 to about 1,000 by 1700. During the 18th century, the slave population increased dramatically to 16,839 by 1795. After the slave trade was initiated, all of the slaves imported into the Cape until the British stopped the trade in 1807 were from East Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, and South and Southeast Asia. Large numbers were brought from Ceylon and the Indonesian archipelago. Prisoners from other countries in the VOC's empire were also enslaved. The slave population, which exceeded that of the European settlers until the first quarter of the nineteenth century, was overwhelmingly male and was thus dependent on constant imports of new slaves to maintain and to augment its size.
(Wikipedia)
The BRITISH put a stop to the slave trade, not internal pressure from the Dutch population over this morally heinous activity.
I DO point a very serious and heavy finger at the Dutch these days. Admittedly, they do a great deal of development work, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to their GDP. How easy is it to help others with small sums once one is set up on their own? I know this myself from living a rich lifestyle in developing countries. Would I still live and work in such places if I had to bring myself down to the local level - no. Would the Dutch sacrifice anything of their ill-gotten comfortable lifestyle to redress the centuries of exploitation they wreaked on their former colonies? Also - no.
Clearly I have strong feelings on the topic after living in Jakarta for five years. One cannot stay in Indonesia long term without learning just a bit about the VOC. Unfortunately, it is one of those things where the more you learn, the less you wish you had asked.
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