Abstract
Liberalism and imperialism are generally considered to be the nineteenth-century twin forces, or “partners in crime,” that conquered the non-Western world, divided the globe among Western powers, and thus laid the base for later globalization. In the Netherlands, their relation was more complex and paradoxical. An early imperialism halted all further imperialism, albeit temporarily. The protracted Aceh War, which started in 1873 under the political responsibility of a liberal government, put an end to any further expansion for more than 20 years, the decades of modern imperialism and expansion in the rest of the world. Only after 1894, after the first wave of European imperialism, Dutch expansion got on the move. Which role did Dutch liberalism claim for itself during these decades with regard to imperialism? How did liberal civil society prepare the hearts and minds in the Netherlands to expansion in the East, the Netherlands-Indies, if they did?
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Notes
Janny de Jong, Van batig slot naar ereschuld: De eliscussie over de financiële verhouding tussen Nederland en Indië en de hervorming van de Nederlandse koloniale politiek, 1860–1900 (Ph.D. thesis Groningen University, 1989), 27–31.
G. Voerman, De geschiedschrijving van het politieke liberalisme, Bibliografie van de VVD en haar voorlopers (Groningen: DNPP; The Hague: Teldersstichting, 1992), 33–34.
In spite of its name it was a system without any system due to regional and product-wise specifications. Cornelis Fasseur, The Politics of Colonial Exploitation: Java, the Dutch and the Cultivation System, trans. Bob Elson (Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program Cornell University, 1992).
De Jong, Batig Slot, 11. To the envy of some like Leopold of Belgium and admiration of others, such as British and French authors, Ibid., 69–75. The effects for the Indonesian population were more mixed. See for a survey amongst others Robert van Niel, Java under the Cultivation System. Collected Writings (Leiden: KITLV Press, 1992).
Multatuli, Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of a Dutch Trading Company, trans. with notes Roy Edwards (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987).
Dik van der Meulen, Multatuli: Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker (Nijmegen: Sun, 2002). On the debate amongst others
O. Praamsma, “Honderd jaar Max Havelaar-studie,” Over Multatuli 29 (1992): 61–80.
About these complaints, Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, Ethiek in fragmeten: Vijf studies over koloniaal denken en doen van Nederlanders in de Indonesische Archipel (Utrecht: Hes, 1981), 11–54. The number of Europeans in the Indies, 49,000 in 1870, rose to 60,000 in 1880, 74,000 in 1890, and 91,000 in 1900. Statistisch Zakboekje voor Nederlandsch-Indië 1939 (Batavia: Kolff, 1939), 5;
Ulbe Bosma and Remco Raben, Being “Dutch” in the Indies: A History of Creolisation and Empire, 1500–1920, trans. Wendy Shaffer (Singapore: NUS Press; Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008).
Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, Sumatran Sultanate and Colonial State: Jambi and the Rise of Dutch Imperialism, 1830–1870, trans. Beverley Jackson (Ithaca: Southeast Asia Project Cornell University, 2004), 90–92.
Quote of liberal minister J. Loudon, who 12 years later as Governor-General started the Aceh War. Maarten Kuitenbrouwer, The Netherlands and the Rise of Modern Imperialism: Colonies and Foreign Policy 1870–1902 (New York/Oxford: Berg, 1991), 37.
Paul van ‘t Veer, De Atjeh-oorlog (Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 1969);
Anthony Reid, The Contest for North Sumatra: Atjeh, the Netherlands and Britain 1858–1898 (Singapore: Oxford University Press; Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1969).
Ibid., 215. J, van Goor, “De Lombokexpeditie en het Nederlands nationalisme,” in Imperialisme in de marge: De afronding van Nederlands-Indië, ed, J. van Goor (Utrecht: HES, 1986), 9–18.
For instance N. G. Pierson, economy professor, minister of Finance and prime minister in the 1890s. M. Kuitenbrouwer, “N.G. Pierson en de koloniale politiek, 1860–1909,” Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 94 (1981): 1–29;
J. T. Boschloo, De productiemaatschappij: Liberalisme, economische wetenschap en het vraagstuk der armoede in Nederland 1800–1875 (Hilversum: Verloren, 1989), 194, 250.
Paul van der Velde, A Lifelong Passion: P.J. Veth (1814–1895) and the Dutch East Indies, trans. Beverley Jackson (Leiden: KITLV Press, 2006), 291.
P. J. Veth, Java. Geografisch, ethnologisch, historisch (3 volumes; Haarlem: Bohn, 1874–1884); Idem, Insulinde: het land van den orang-oetan en den paradijsvogel (2 volumes: Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 1870–1871). For a Javanese opinion, Van de Velde, Lifelong Passion, 261.
Quoted in Van der Velde, Lifelong Passion, 192; P. J. Veth, Atchin en zijne betrekkingen tot Nederland: Topografisch-historishe beschrijving (Leiden: Kolf, 1873); Idem, Het eiland Sumatra (Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 1873).
Ibid., pp. 199–223, 225; P. J. Veth (ed.), Midden-Sumatra: Reizen en onderzoekingen der Sumatra-Expditie, uitgerust door het Aardrijkskundig Genootschap 1877–1879 (4 volumes; Leiden: Brill. 1881–1892).
Van der Velde, Lifelong Passion, 250; Marieke Bloembergen, Colonial Spectacles: The Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies at the World Exhibitions, 1880–1931, trans. Beverly Jackson (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2006), 58–60, 69. The exhibition was held from 1 May to 1 November 1883. That the voluminous catalogue appeared only at the near-end of the exhibition was a nasty detail in the organization.
P. A. van der Lith, “Koloniale Literatuur,” De Gids 47 (1883): IV, 150. The outcome of an international journal Revue Internationale Coloniale with articles on ethnography, administration and trade lasted only four years. Ibid., 103.
Remieg Aerts, De letterheren: liberale cultuur in de negentiende eeuw. Het tijdschrift De Gids (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1997), 425–426.
G. P. Booms, “Atjeh: Brutus’ Open brief over de Atjeh-kwestie,” De Gids 39 (1875): I, 381;
Generaal De Stuers, “Nog iets over Atjeh,” De Gids 39 (1975): II, 118–128; I. D. Fransen van de Putte, “Mijn advies aan den Minister van Koloniën nader toegelicht,” De Gids 40 (1876): IV, 507–518;
W. A. van Rees, “De Atjeh-zaak,” De Gids 41 (1877): I, 325–343:
P. G. Booms, “De afwachtende en de agressieve politiek in Atjeh,” De Gids 43 (1879): I: 327–362. Interestingly, Fransen van de Putte now.
P. E Laging Tobias, “Onze tegenwoordige politiek in Atjeh en hare gevolgen,” De Gids 50 (1886): II, 306.
Ulbe Bosma, Indiëgangers: Verhalen van Nederlanders die naar Indië trokken (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2010), 142–145.
P. A. van der Lith, “Bibliographisch Album,” De Gids 37 (1873): I, 374.
E. B. Kielstra, “De uitbreiding van het Nederlands gezag op Sumatra,” De Gids 52(1887): IV 256, 297; Idem, “Het eiland Madoera,” De Gids 54 (1890): IV, 517; Idem, “Ondergang van het Palembangsche Rijk,” De Gids 56 (1892): II, 76: Idem, “Het eiland Bali,” De Gids 57 (1893): IV, 491.
L. W. C. van den Berg, “De Atjehers,” De Gids 58 (1894): IV, 195–238.
C. Th. van Deventer, “Een Eereschuld,” De Gids 63 (1899): III, 205–257. De Jong, Batig Slot, 271–277.
Kuitenbrouwer, Tussen oriëntalisme en wetenschap: Het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde in historisch verband (Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 2001), 51, 109.
Ibid., 70; C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka: Aus dem heutigen Leben, 2 volumes (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1889).
For Dutch nationalism and identification with the Boers see Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, A War of Words: Dutch Pro-Boer Propaganda and the South African War (1899–1902) (Ph.D. dissertation, Amsterdam University, 2010).
This is a slightly adapted version of the definition in Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, Ethiek in fagmenten: Vijf studies over koloniaal denken en doen van Nederlanders in de Indonesische Archipel (Utrecht: Hes, 1981), 201.
Thomas Lindblad, “Economic Aspects of Dutch Expansion in Indonesia, 1870–1914,” Modern Asian Studies 23 (1989): 1–23; Locher-Scholten, Sumatran Sultanate, 248–266.
In Dutch politics of the late nineteenth century, the “social issue” was even more important than the colonies. Auke van der Woud, Koninkrijk vol sloppen: achterbuurten en vuil in de negentiende eeuw (Amsterdam: Bakker, 2010).
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© 2012 Matthew P. Fitzpatrick
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Locher-Scholten, E. (2012). Imperialism after the Great Wave: The Dutch Case in the Netherlands East Indies, 1860–1914. In: Fitzpatrick, M.P. (eds) Liberal Imperialism in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137019974_2
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