Colonialism and Slavery : An Alternative History of the Port City of Rotterdam

Unlike most city histories, this book focuses exclusively on the city’s connections with colonialism and slavery. Rotterdam, the second-largest Dutch city, is one of Europe’s leading ports. Its maritime expansion was intrinsically linked to Dutch colonialism, including slave trading and colonial slavery in the Americas, Africa and Asia. This painful history sits uneasily with the city’s modern cosmopolitan image and its large population of ‘new Rotterdammers’ with colonial roots. The present volume provides a summary of the research that has documented this history, with chapters on the contribution of colonial trade to economic development; the city’s involvement in slavery; the role of the urban political elites; the impact on urban development and architecture; the ‘ethical impulse’; colonial art and ethnographic collections; colonial and postcolonial migration; and finally the resonance of this history in postcolonial Rotterdam. Table of Contents 6 I. Colonial and Postcolonial Rotterdam • Gert Oostindie 10 II. Rotterdam’s Colonial Connections: Shipping and Trade, Industry and Finance • Gerhard de Kok 36 III. Rotterdam and Transatlantic Slavery • Alex van Stipriaan 69 IV. Civic Government and Businessmen in Rotterdam: Colonial Cross-Fertilization • Henk den Heijer 112 V. More than Meets the Eye: Traces of Colonial Past in the City of Rotterdam • Pauline K.M. van Roosmalen 132 VI. Colonial Rotterdam: A Hotbed for Dutch Missionary Work, 1797-1977 • Tom van den Berge 154 VII. A Never-Ending Story: Colonial Collections in Rotterdam • Alexandra van Dongen, Liane van der Linden 172 VIII. Making a Home in Rotterdam: Colonial and Postcolonial Migrants To and From the City • Esther Captain 203 IX. The Road is Mine: The Summer Carnival as a Case Study for Postcolonial Rotterdam • Francio Guadeloupe, Paul van de Laar, Liane Van der Linden 223 About the Authors 241 Index 244