Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands

by Ben Coates

By the late 1700s the WIC had gone bankrupt and the VOC was struggling to stay afloat, eventually going bust in 1798. It was disbanded a few years later, an ignoble end for a once mighty institution. With the VOC gone, the Dutch crown assumed responsibility for all its overseas possessions and debts, including the colony of present-day Indonesia. It would cling to them for nearly another 150 years. The story of Dutch decolonisation is too long to recount here, but suffice to say it was not an edifying spectacle. Colonial power had routinely been abused in places like Java and Sumatra, and many of the local inhabitants lived in abject poverty. In the mid-nineteenth century the Dutch writer Multatuli wrote a famous book about the corrupt administration of the Dutch colonies, Max Havelaar, one of the first publications to advocate what later became known as ‘fair trade’. The ensuing publicity shamed the government into adopting a more ethical policy, but did little to address the underlying injustices.