Steaming worldwide waters: adaptation and transformation in the Netherlands

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The nineteenth-century Netherlands rebuilt its overseas trade on the basis of colonialprotection. The revived empire was defended by a colonial army in the East, and a middle-sized navy divided between opposite sides of the world. By the end of the century industrialization and free trade had transformed Dutch shipping and overseas trade. RESUME. Au XIXe siecle, les Pays-Bas reedifierent leur commerce exterieur sur la base de la protection coloniale. Le nouvel empire etait defendu par une armee coloniale a l'est et par une marine de moyenne taille dispersee aux quatre coins du monde. Vers la fin du siecle, l'industrialisation et le libre-echange ont transforme la navigation et le commerce exterieur neerlandais. The long-term decline of the Dutch Republic as a maritime power encompassed a variety of institutional, financial, geographical and socio-economic factors. In the mid-18th century, the Republic of the Seven United Provinces was no longer able to compete with Great Britain and France. During the revolutionary period from 1795 to 1813 the decline of the Netherlands accelerated as a result of the Napoleonic Wars and the Continental System. Long-term trade virtually came to a standstill and warships were locked in the roads of Holland and Zeeland by enemy-blockading squadrons. The colonies and trading posts of the former Dutch East India Company and West India Company were occupied by the British. Following the victory of the Allied armies at the Battle of Leipzig, supporters of the exiled House of Orange seized power. In his famous proclamation of 17 November 1813 Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, head of the provisional Dutch government in the first turbulent months, optimistically stated “The sea is open, trade revives […] The old times are coming back again.”1 Van Hogendorp and his political friends hoped the Prince of Orange would be the instrument to restore prosperity. With British support, the Netherlands became a monarchy under King Willem I. The United Kingdom of the Netherlands was reinstated as a colonial power to counterbalance France on the continent. All the colonies Great Britain had seized in the Napoleonic Era were returned to the Netherlands, with the exception of Ceylon, the Cape Colony and Guyana. The Dutch field of action was actually narrowed to the Indonesian Archipelago in Southeast Asia and Surinam, six Caribbean islands and, until 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast in the Atlantic.