A New Dutch Imperial History?: Perambulations in a Prospective Field

Remco Raben

doi:10.18352/bmgn-lchr.8353

Abstract

This article discusses the recent developments in imperial history in Great Britain and France and analyses the state of Dutch research in the light of these new approaches. Raben concentrates on three broadly defined topics – the webbed character of colonial spaces, the impact of empire on metropolitan societies and the moral ramifications of colonial empires. The way imperial histories are written is determined by the experiences with ‘empire’ in the metropolitan countries. Despite essential differences in imperial circumstances in and of the Netherlands, Dutch historiography could be inspired by the British and French developments to explore the spatial, cultural and moral relationships between the various parts of the Dutch colonial world. This article is part of the special issue 'A New Dutch Imperial History'.

Highlights

This article discusses the recent developments in imperial history in Great Britain and France and analyses the state of Dutch research in the light of these new approaches
Since the end of colonial rule and the arrival of postcolonial migrants in the former metropolises, colonial history has lost much of its innocence and political logic.[3]
I will investigate various directions for Dutch imperial historiography, based on the research field charted by a new generation of imperial historians, sometimes designated as New Imperial Historians

Summary

New Imperial Histories

Nowhere has the effort to reformulate imperial history been so concentrated and prolific as in Britain, where since the late 1980s academic authors started to challenge the accepted views on British identity and the legacies of British imperialism.[5] Catherine Hall wrote in this respect of ‘a profound destabilisation of white identities’.6. Whether these ‘white identities’ were uprooted is open to debate, but it is true that assumptions of Britain’s place and historical role in the world were fiercely challenged by the arrival of migrants from the former colonies and other non-Western countries. Stapel (ed.), Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch Indië II and III, in Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 79 (1939) 589-595, published in English in J.C. van Leur, Indonesian Trade and Society: Essays in Asian Social and Economic History (The Hague, Bandung 1955) 261-267, especially 261

In Great Britain these new developments have been labelled New

Imperialisms of sorts

Imperial citizenship and culture

Moral spaces

Findings

Conclusion