What is emancipation? If ‘liberation from oppression’ were to be the only description, emancipati... more What is emancipation? If ‘liberation from oppression’ were to be the only description, emancipation seems to be unattainable for regular human beings. In that sense emancipation can only come about ‘yonder’, in paradise. In the real world emancipation can best be described as a process by which the level of oppression is being reduced. That is exactly what happened to women who left India in order to migrate overseas. By so doing they gained many more opportunities than they would have had at home to rid themselves of marital, societal and economical oppression. Of course, some indentured women left India without the urge to change their position. However, through the sections of Rosemarijn Hoefte’s article, it is shown that many Indian women had taken the right step in seeking an indenture overseas. Employment overseas meant emancipation from sheer starvation. It must be reiterated, however, that the transplantation to the Caribbean plantation world was not a journey to a paradise ...
“IN matters of commerce the trouble with the Dutch is giving too little and asking too much,” a B... more “IN matters of commerce the trouble with the Dutch is giving too little and asking too much,” a British foreign secretary once is supposed to have remarked. Whatever the value of such political poetry, the contents of this rhyme apply very neatly to the Dutch expansion in the Atlantic. By giving little and asking much, the Dutch were forced to exploit the Atlantic in combination with many other nations. First, the Dutch turned to the Spanish and the Portuguese Atlantic empires and siphoned off part of their trade and produce. Later they turned to the British and the French and did the same. This role of intermediary gave the Dutch an important position in shaping the conditions in the Atlantic that went far beyond the economic importance of their own relatively modestly sized possessions. The impact of the Dutch can be fully appreciated only after contrasting the nature of the Portuguese and Spanish expansion in the Atlantic with that of the countries of northwestern Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The differences between the first and second Atlantic systems are discussed in part I of this chapter. The role of the Dutch in the creation of the second Atlantic system during the second and third quarters of the seventeenth century is outlined in part II. Part III provides a survey of the Dutch involvement in the slave trade and the use of slave labor in the Dutch colonial economy.
This thesis examines in comparative perspective the Dutch and the Portuguese Atlantic empires in ... more This thesis examines in comparative perspective the Dutch and the Portuguese Atlantic empires in the 17th century, using West Africa as a case study. The book is divided into two parts. In Part I, we study how the conditions in the home countries influenced the building of the empires. Here we examine the goals of the Dutch and the Portuguese States and of the mercantile elites and their strategies for the building of their empires. In order to do so, we analyse the transfer of institutions, the labour migration and the formation of colonial societies. Part II deals mainly with the economic strategies of the Dutch and the Portuguese in their Atlantic Empires. Here, we examine the way these two European sea powers and their private entrepreneurs organized the trade on both an international and local level, as well as the way in which they structured their commercial and business networks, our final goal being a discussion of their struggle for the control of the supply and the consum...
What is emancipation? If ‘liberation from oppression’ were to be the only description, emancipati... more What is emancipation? If ‘liberation from oppression’ were to be the only description, emancipation seems to be unattainable for regular human beings. In that sense emancipation can only come about ‘yonder’, in paradise. In the real world emancipation can best be described as a process by which the level of oppression is being reduced. That is exactly what happened to women who left India in order to migrate overseas. By so doing they gained many more opportunities than they would have had at home to rid themselves of marital, societal and economical oppression. Of course, some indentured women left India without the urge to change their position. However, through the sections of Rosemarijn Hoefte’s article, it is shown that many Indian women had taken the right step in seeking an indenture overseas. Employment overseas meant emancipation from sheer starvation. It must be reiterated, however, that the transplantation to the Caribbean plantation world was not a journey to a paradise ...
“IN matters of commerce the trouble with the Dutch is giving too little and asking too much,” a B... more “IN matters of commerce the trouble with the Dutch is giving too little and asking too much,” a British foreign secretary once is supposed to have remarked. Whatever the value of such political poetry, the contents of this rhyme apply very neatly to the Dutch expansion in the Atlantic. By giving little and asking much, the Dutch were forced to exploit the Atlantic in combination with many other nations. First, the Dutch turned to the Spanish and the Portuguese Atlantic empires and siphoned off part of their trade and produce. Later they turned to the British and the French and did the same. This role of intermediary gave the Dutch an important position in shaping the conditions in the Atlantic that went far beyond the economic importance of their own relatively modestly sized possessions. The impact of the Dutch can be fully appreciated only after contrasting the nature of the Portuguese and Spanish expansion in the Atlantic with that of the countries of northwestern Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The differences between the first and second Atlantic systems are discussed in part I of this chapter. The role of the Dutch in the creation of the second Atlantic system during the second and third quarters of the seventeenth century is outlined in part II. Part III provides a survey of the Dutch involvement in the slave trade and the use of slave labor in the Dutch colonial economy.
This thesis examines in comparative perspective the Dutch and the Portuguese Atlantic empires in ... more This thesis examines in comparative perspective the Dutch and the Portuguese Atlantic empires in the 17th century, using West Africa as a case study. The book is divided into two parts. In Part I, we study how the conditions in the home countries influenced the building of the empires. Here we examine the goals of the Dutch and the Portuguese States and of the mercantile elites and their strategies for the building of their empires. In order to do so, we analyse the transfer of institutions, the labour migration and the formation of colonial societies. Part II deals mainly with the economic strategies of the Dutch and the Portuguese in their Atlantic Empires. Here, we examine the way these two European sea powers and their private entrepreneurs organized the trade on both an international and local level, as well as the way in which they structured their commercial and business networks, our final goal being a discussion of their struggle for the control of the supply and the consum...
Uploads
Papers by Pieter Emmer