In the early modern world, the Dutch and other Europeans undertook long-distance maritime voyages and established outposts and colonies throughout Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It is often concluded that Europeans and not their Asian counterparts made such treks, thereby accelerating globalization, in large part because overseas trade mattered more to the small states of Europe than to the empires and states of Asia. This historian of East Asia was thus surprised to learn from this book that at the end of the eighteenth century, less than 10 percent of Dutch national income was generated from trade with the East and West Indies. What is more, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) “did not have a dominant position in Dutch merchant shipping, let alone in the Dutch economy as a whole” (pp. 60–61).
Enlivened by comparisons with other European maritime empires, especially Portugal and England, in The Dutch Overseas Empire, Pieter C. Emmer and Jos J. L. Gommans offer a comprehensive and engaging overview of the commercial, diplomatic, military, social, and cultural factors that shaped the sprawling Dutch Empire. They position their book as building on the legacy of Charles R. Boxer, the British historian who, more than half a century ago, examined the Dutch Empire as a single entity, with its eastern and western parts connected via the Dutch metropolis.Footnote 1
Emmer and Gommans divide their discussion into three main parts, the first of which, “The Grumbling Hive,” looks at the domestic contexts that prompted the creation of the VOC and the West India Company (WIC), which played a dominant role in Dutch maritime trade and colonization throughout the Atlantic Ocean. This part also surveys the cultural, social, scientific, and artistic impacts on the Dutch Republic brought by its maritime empire. Part two, “The Atlantic World,” is organized into several geographic subsections—the Caribbean, New Holland and New Netherland, and Africa—that detail the trade, colonial enterprises, and constant competition with other European states that marked the Dutch maritime empire in the Atlantic. Part three, “Monsoon Asia,” organizes the Dutch Empire in Asia into the Dutch Tropics (primarily Indonesia and Ceylon), the Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea.
Throughout the book, Emmer and Gommans portray the Dutch imperial enterprise as simultaneously benefiting from and facing challenges because of the dominant roles of the two companies. They also emphasize the contrast between the Dutch Republic—remarkable in Europe for its political freedoms and religious tolerance—and the empire, which was led by men who did not hesitate to use force in pursuit of commercial or colonial goals, and which profited from the enslavement of Africans and Asians. Moreover, readers are presented with rich discussions concerning the actual “Dutchness” of the empire, considering, for example, how other Europeans composed a majority of the VOC's rank and file.
In their examination of the empire in Asia (the sections no doubt of greater interest to JAS readers), Emmer and Gommans show how the Dutch succeeded through partnerships with Asian states and groups. Batavia functioned as the hub of VOC activities in maritime Asia thanks to the “co-colonization” of overseas Chinese and the latter's trading connections throughout East and Southeast Asia. Similarly, the VOC could establish coastal outposts in southern India because the company's presence complemented the commercial networks of a Mughal regime with an economic and political power base centered further north. Nonetheless, the company's success was predicated on a careful balance of intra-Asian trade, which could be disrupted by the unilateral decision of an Asian state, such as Japan's reduction of silver exports in the late seventeenth century, or a century later by the emergence of country traders connected with the rival English East India Company. Most notably in Ceylon and Taiwan, the VOC failed to establish veritable colonies, which would control the economy and political affairs of a region beyond merely a coastal fort or trading outpost.
Asianists seeking to learn more about the Dutch Empire's role in events in their geographical area of interest, either for teaching or research, will value The Dutch Overseas Empire's distinct regional chapters. Despite a paucity of maps, historians of the early modern world will certainly appreciate the volume's comprehensive global approach. However, the encapsulation of discussions into regional areas leads one to occasionally encounter redundant points (such as how the WIC failed to invest in the short-lived Brazil colony) when reading the book as a whole.
Overall, The Dutch Overseas Empire is highly recommended, especially to better understand the “hows” of the Dutch Empire, what made it function for two centuries, and its significance in Dutch, Asian, Atlantic, and world history. Yet, I would have welcomed more focus on the “whys,” especially given the provocative conclusion that overseas trade was of limited value to the Dutch state overall. Readers no doubt would have benefited from expanded discussions concerning the role of interstate warfare, endemic in the small states of Europe (but rare in East Asia), as a factor in propelling the formation of a Dutch imperial enterprise that shaped events in many parts of the early modern world.
