Philippine-Dutch social relations, 1600-2000

Abstract

Few historians have focused their research on Dutch-Philippine relations, and the few important exceptions like N.A. Bootsma, Ruurdje Laarhoven, M.P.H. Roessingh and Fr. P. Schreurs, MSC have confined themselves to small regions or periods. The recent commemoration of the first Dutch cir cumnavigation of the globe by Olivier van Noort demonstrated the lack of an up-to-date overview of the ups and downs in Dutch-Philippine relations in the course of the past four centuries. This may not seem surprising, consider ing the absence of a history of intense, continuous contact. The two sides started with a drawn-out contest, followed by nearly three centuries of little connection, and only fifty years of significant flows of trade, people, trans port and information. The year 1600 was a remarkable one for the emerging Dutch nation, which had been fighting for its independence from Spain since 1568. A major battle was won at Nieuwpoort, while in Asia two small fleets ventured beyond Java, then newly 'discovered' by Cornells de Houtman (1595-96). The expedition of the Liefde (Love) resulted in long-lasting trade relations with Japan, with the Dutch obtaining an import and export monopoly through their factory at Deshima. Later in the same year, Dutch sailors under Olivier van Noort entered Philippine waters for the first time. While Dutch-Japanese relations developed into centuries of peaceful ex change and trade, those in the Philippines were laden with enmity between the Dutch and the Spanish. Their violent conflict in Western Europe was fought partly in Asian waters. The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 ended a long period of bilateral attacks, which intensified the heavy exploitation of Filipinos by their colonizers, as well as by marauding Dutch fleets trying to harass the Spanish. After the mid-seventeenth century, the former European foes with drew largely into their own separate Southeast Asian spheres of influence. When the Spanish slowly opened their colony for trade by Western na tionals in the early nineteenth century, the Dutch were hardly interested. At the beginning of the 20th century, less than a dozen Dutch nationals resided in the Philippines.