Chapter Twenty: The Double Dutch Colonies
As previously noted, Surinam was the crown jewel of the Dutch Empire. It was abundantly clear, though, that this was the direct result of brutal slave labor on plantations that were producing cocoa, coffee, cotton, and sugar, all of which were exported to Amsterdam. This wasn’t without consequences as what were called Maroons (escaped slaves who often fled into the jungle) attacked plantations throughout the 18th century. Until 1795, Surinam was governed by the Society of Suriname, which was composed of three equal shareholders. These were the city of Amsterdam itself, the family Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, and the Dutch West India Company. The Society was nationalized in 1795 when this kind of practice was no longer considered acceptable in Dutch society. The French took Surinam in 1799 but it was returned to the Dutch following the end of the Ten Years War. In 1815, the Netherlands approved the union of Surinam with the neighboring colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice into the colony of Dutch Guiana. Slavery in the region remained an issue regardless, with the economy dominated by sugar plantations. Amidst international pressure, King William I of the Netherlands made a royal decree abolishing the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1814, reinforced by the Anglo-Dutch Slave Trade Treaty of 1818. Many plantations in Dutch Guiana went bankrupt and merged with others to increase efficiency.
Ironically, slavery was not confined just to the Americas but existed in the Dutch Cape Colony too. Portuguese Africa (Angola and Mozambique), French Madagascar, and Dutch India were all common locations from which slaves were exported. Slaves in the Dutch Cape Colony, like its other colonies, were given poor food and living conditions and were punished with whipping for escaping or disobeying orders. It was not until after the abolition of the Dutch slave trade and its enforcement in 1818 that things began to slightly improve there The Dutch, beforehand, were more concerned about the declarations of self-rule in Swellendam and at Graaff-Reinet. The British recognition of these Republics in November 1795 made things more complicated. Other European powers followed suit, with only Prussia and Portugal (notable British and Dutch allies) not recognizing their independence. The Dutch knew they could not invade Swellendam and at Graaff-Reinet without starting a war it did not desire. Finally, in 1802, Dutch authorities relented and allowed for self-rule as a separate colony from the Cape as part of entering the Ten Years War on the side of the British in exchange for the Spanish Philippines. Thus, the United Boer Republic, consisting of these two states, was created, with it being formalized by treaty in 1806. To this day, Marthinus Prinsloo and Hermanus Steyn are celebrated as two of its founding fathers.
The most recent addition to the prized Dutch East Indies was Willemsland, with its capital in Davao City. This territory consisted of the island groups of Visayas and Mindanao. Under Spanish rule, these two island groups were colonized in order to get a foot in the door in the spice trade and for gold and silver, use it as a stepping stone to access Asia, and spread its Christian beliefs. What the Dutch wanted was labor and manpower in addition to strategic access to China and Japan and spices. While Protestantism officially replaced Catholicism as the state religion, the Dutch were more tolerant in practice and did not force conversions. While in Wilemsland, the Dutch were no less exploitative than the Spanish in their quest for resources, notably sugar, hemp, and labor for other Dutch colonies. The other new pickup for the Dutch was the northern half of New Holland between 123.5 degrees and 141 degrees East, renamed Nieuw Holland. The Dutch had a long history involving New Holland, dating back to 1606 with its discovery by Willem Janszoon, or the territory that resulted from the Treaty of Tilsit. Before 1808, the content was poised to be officially split between the British in the East and French in the West but the British wanted a buffer in exchange for allowing French presence in New Holland, which caused allowed the Dutch to slide into the north-central part and the Swedes, who already established penalty colonies there, in the South. There was no organized attempt to settle Nieuw Holland until 1824.
The other two Dutch Asian holdings were Dutch India and the Dutch East Indies proper. Dutch presence in India had existed since 1605, with the Dutch East India Company first establishing itself at Dutch Coromandel, looking for textiles in exchange for spices. Gems, indigo, silk, saltpetre, opium, and pepper were also traded, and slaves were exported to the Cape Colony. Dutch Suratte and Dutch Bengal were respectively established in 1616 and 1627. The Dutch took Ceylon from the Portuguese in 1656, and Malabar as well in 1661 in order to create a Dutch monopoly in the spice trade. To prevent them from being overrun by the French in the Ten Years War, the Dutch offered the colonies to the British, although Ceylon, Coromandel, and Bengal were returned under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. The Dutch East Indies, meanwhile, dated back to 1603 with the establishment of the first permanent settlement at Banten. Another was established at Batavia in 1611. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, company rule gradually expanded to encompass more Javan and Sumatran ports as well as large swathes of the Indonesian archipelago. By 1800, the Dutch East India Company had gone bankrupt due to corruption and mismanagement, smuggling, and war. Rule over the Indonesian archipelago (including much of Java, parts of Sumatra, much of Maluku, and other hinterlands) and Malay Peninsula was transferred to the Duch government. Dutch dominance was initially overlooked but would lead to competition with other European powers by the 1820s.