Industrializing Shell-Bead Production in Northern New Jersey: Reuniting Collections from Stoltz Farm (1770–1830) and the Campbell Wampum Factory (1850–1900)

Historical Archaeology - By at least 1770, settlers of northern New Jersey appropriated the production of Indigenous shell beads, including iconic styles of wampum and hair pipes. At that time,...     

Dutch Mercenaries in the Tsar’s Service: The Van Bockhoven Clan

Historians have pointed out that the Dutch played a key role in Europe’s Military Revolution. Neither the Dutch role as the foremost international arms traders of the seventeenth century nor the significance of Dutch officers in seventeenth-century militaries has been very much studied. This essay suggests that the Dutch were rather more influential in Russia’s adoption of some of the key innovations of the Military Revolution than the historiography of late Muscovy has acknowledged. It does this by investigating the importance for Russia’ military modernization of a Dutch officers’ clan, that of the van Bockhovens. They provide a telling case study of the extent of this Dutch influence.

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Dutch Oven and Bantenese Cooking Stove: Coarse Earthenware Study in the Sultanate of Banten,Java, Indonesia

This paper analyzes Dutch and indigenous adaptation processes of foodways in the colonial Dutch East Indies, using seventeenth to early nineteenth-century archaeological evidence from Banten, Java. Banten was a global trading center and the focal point of the expansion in Asia of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Its cosmopolitan and multinational society was already apparent when the Dutch arrived in 1596. Our research suggests that the Dutch in Banten adapted to using locally produced utilitarian earthenware instead of importing European vessels or having European-style cookware made in Banten. Banten’s pre-existing market-oriented urban society made many of the basic necessities available for the VOC garrison in Banten. Perhaps equally important in facilitating Dutch adaptation to local foodways was the presence of local women and Asian cooks in their daily life.     

Dat Scaecspel: a profane-ethical exploration

The Dutch translation of Jacobus de Cessolis' Ludus scaccorum is an adaptation of the Latin text with so many interventions from the Dutch translator that the Dutch version becomes an independent plea for just behaviour. The context is presumably that of the Dutch comtal court of 1400.     

Coordinating Hunger: The Evacuation of Children During the Dutch Food Crisis, 1945

The evacuation of Dutch children during the so-called ‘Hunger Winter’ of 1944/1945 is one of the canonized stories of the German occupation of the Netherlands. In the most common version of the story, a Dutch interdenominational organization managed to evacuate 40,000 to 50,000 starving children from the urbanized and famished west to the agrarian north-east region of the country, whilst being constantly obstructed by German and Dutch National Socialist authorities. This article challenges this well-known representation of the child evacuations, arguing that it was largely a narrative constructed in the post-war period. Contrary to popular beliefs, this article demonstrates that the evacuations were in fact supported by the German occupier. Most important for the success of the evacuations, however, was the co-operation of tens of thousands of ordinary Dutch citizens, regardless of their religious or political views. These two observations not only challenge Dutch historiography, but also international literature on the presumed causes and effects of the Dutch food crisis.     

Colonial exhibitions,hybrid architecture,and the interpretation of modernity in the Dutch East Indies

To gain more economic profit and strengthen its colonial power, the Dutch brought Western technologies and products to their colonies and organized colonial exhibitions, modeled on the successful international exhibitions in Europe. This article analyzes colonial exhibitions in the Dutch East Indies and the ways that Dutch architects used various local architectural forms for those ephemeral events to attract visitors and to modernize the colony. The empirical case study discusses hybrid architecture in the Dutch East Indies at three events: Pasar Gambir of Batavia, Jaarmarkt of Surabaya, and the 1914 Semarang Colonial Exhibition. Through analysis of archival and historical documents, I argue that the use of local architectural forms in colonial exhibitions helped the colonies to adapt to modernity and created places where local people could practice a Dutch lifestyle and create their own idea of modernity.     

The foundations of modern political thought

This paper aims at setting Montesquieu's 1729 sojourn in the Dutch Republic within its specific Dutch context whilst reconsidering the impact this short period may have exerted on his work. Based on a wide variety of Dutch, English and French sources, the article offers a study of Montesquieu's Dutch networks and contacts, a comparative Franco-Dutch approach to taxation and fiscal policy and an insight into the history of the stadholderate under William IV. The main argument made in the paper is two-fold: first, that the Dutch Republic was a mirror Montesquieu held up to the French monarchy, allowing him to put a number of ideas of government to the test; secondly that, owing to the fluctuating nature of Dutch political events between 1729 and 1748, the Dutch model remained somewhat elusive in Montesquieu's broader understanding of the paradigm of republican regimes.     

Imitation in European herring fisheries,C. 1550–1860

For no less than 300 years, c. 1550–1860 the Dutch way of fishing was the envy of neighbours in the North Sea area and looked upon as the undisputed best practice. However, it turned out that the perception of the Dutch Golden Age of fishing outlived the reality by at least 150 years. This paper explores the consequences of the image of Dutch dominance, as seen through 41 different attempts to build a fleet and run fishing operations similar to the Dutch. Most of them were short-lived, and some never made it to the fishing grounds before going bankrupt. When reviewed one by one, they all have unique reasons for lacklustre performances. Privateering, warfare, bankruptcy, and bad fishing luck are all valid explanations at the level of politics and short-term events. However, when looked upon in connection to each other, some recurrent features of more-or-less sound policies appear, as well as structural, social, and natural conditions for varying degrees of success and failure. Two waves of imitation emerge from this comparison. In the mid-1600s and then again during the 1760s–1770s there was a particularly strong Europe-wide interest in emulating Dutch fisheries.     

The Praelium Nuportanum by Isaac Dorislaus: Anglo–Dutch Relations and Strategic historiography1

This article investigates the Anglo–Dutch scholar and diplomat Isaac Dorislaus's sole published work, Praelium Nuportanum (PN; 1640), on the battle of Newport in 1600. After presenting some new or little known information about the work, it discusses PN's intellectual context and concludes that the work is a reminder of successful Anglo–Dutch cooperation in the past, of Dutch indebtedness to English assistance, and the Republic's importance as an ally for England, all relevant to the negotiations running in 1640 for an Orange–Stuart wedding, and their backgrounds in the British Civil Wars and Anglo–Spanish–Dutch relations at the time. After the troubles ensuing from Dorislaus's Cambridge lectures on Tacitus in 1627, PN shows the author reconciled with the Court and the Laudian faction. With respect to style and content, PN appears clearly Tacitist in style, with many direct quotations from Tacitus, but this Tacitism operates more on a literary than a political level. Much of PN's historical content is a reworking of Francis Vere's Commentaries (published 1657). From the perspective of the Protestant ‘Anglo–Scoto–Dutch public sphere’ recently discussed in the scholarship, PN might perhaps be read as a warning of the gradual emergence of an Anglo–Dutch Calvinist–parliamentarian ‘realm’ as a force opposing the Crown.     

Dutch Spatial-economic Investment Policy Revised: Strengthening the Role of Parliament

The central research questions in this contribution are: how are spatial-economic investment projects assessed, selected and prioritized nation wide, and how can the role of Parliament be defined and, if necessary, be strengthened? In practice, this centres on the issue of how to avoid “entrapment”. A critical assessment of the current Dutch policies to strengthen the economic structure of the country is followed by a discussion of the proposals presented in 2004 by the Dutch Parliamentary Commission on Infrastructure Projects. This contribution concludes that the acceptance of (the majority of) the Duivesteijn Commission's proposals will greatly clarify and strengthen the position of the Dutch parliament in selecting and prioritizing spatial-economic investment projects. The Dutch experience may be relevant for parliaments in other countries as well.     

Women and Guilds: Corporations and Female Labour Market Participation in Early Modern Holland

Recently, historians have suggested that the economic role of Dutch women and the remarkable economic development of the Dutch Republic are related. Guilds are said to have played an important role. This article analyses the female admission to guilds in early modern Holland in order to assess how guilds affected female labour participation. A classification of guilds according to their admittance of women reveals significant variations in the extent of incorporation of women. Gender norms were not rigid and were applied with flexibility. Thus, guilds formed no obstacle for women in contributing to the flourishing economy of the Dutch Republic.     

Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the 17th-Century Anglo-Dutch East-Indiaman Avondster in Bay of Galle, Sri Lanka

The Avondster was a 17th century British ship captured by the Dutch and used by the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) trading with Asia until it was wrecked in Galle Harbour, Sri Lanka in 1659. The shipwreck was found in 1997 to be in very good condition but under threat from development in the harbour. From 2001–2004 an archaeological project was implemented by the Dutch/Sri Lankan Mutual Heritage Centre. The aims were to record and recover important cultural material as well as to build up the capacity of a Sri Lankan Maritime Archaeology Unit for implementing future work.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

‘Gathered on the Point of a Bayonet’: the Negara Pasundan and the Colonial Defence of Indonesia, 1946–50

ABSTRACT

This article examines the rise of the Negara Pasundan, or Pasundan State: a distinct polity in West Java that was run by the Sundanese - with Dutch consent - during the Indonesian War for Independence (1945–9). The argument engages with several debates connected to decolonisation, examining colonial violence and its perpetrators, loyalty, and the often neglected role of indigenous agency. In contrast with cases where colonial coercion brought local elites and militias to the defence of the European authorities, Sundanese leaders themselves chose to support the Dutch. This support, however, should never be mistaken for loyalty to the Dutch or their empire. Rather, the Sundanese leadership unilaterally renegotiated the Dutch-Sundanese alliance as soon as the fortunes of war shifted. To safeguard the political future of their negara, the Sundanese proved willing to side with the party that initially set out to destroy them and the Dutch: the Republik Indonesia.     

Re‐creating ‘Dutchness’: cultural colonisation in post‐war Holland

Abstract. Following the liberation of the Netherlands from German occupation in 1945, many Dutch intellectuals were seriously concerned about the moral comportment of the Dutch in particular its youth. In their view, the war led to a sapping of norms, values and virtues they deemed ‘typically Dutch’ which could bring about complete social disintegration. Therefore, they launched campaigns to reinstate the ‘old ways’. Based on what they believed to be the nation's authentic folk culture and character, they attempted to culturally colonise the Dutch. This article describes and analyses various forms of this institutional cultural nationalism in the second part of the 1940s.     

Water wizards: reshaping wet nature and society

The article investigates how humans ‘networked’ wet nature and how this affected the shaping of Dutch society. First, it takes a grand view of Dutch history and describes how wet network building intertwined with the shaping of the Dutch landscape, its economy and its polity. Second, it investigates the specific challenges of wet network building—integrating potentially conflicting uses of water into one design—for the case of the national fresh water supply network (1940–1971). Finally, it discusses ecological damage, emerging new risks and cultural patterns related to wet network building.     

Social Careers Across Imperial Spaces: An Empire Family in the Dutch-British World, 1811-1933

Here the object biography of a scale model of an old Dutch colonial sugar factory directs us to the history of an extended family, and demonstrates the connectedness of people and identities across and within European imperial spaces in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This case study shows how people in colonial Indonesia became ‘Dutch’ through their social networks and cultural capital (for instance a European education). They even came to belong to the colonial and national Dutch elites while, because of their descent, also belonging to the British colonial and national elites. These intertwined Dutch and British imperial spaces formed people’s identities and status: the family discussed here became an important trans-imperial patrician family with a broad imperial ‘spatial imagination’, diverse identities and social circles. It was mostly women who played important roles in these transnational processes— roles indeed that they played well into the early twentieth century when colonial empires ceased to exist and the nation-state became the ‘natural’ social and political form of the modern world, obscuring these transnational processes.     

Becoming (more) Dutch as medical recommendations: how understandings of national identity enter the medical practice of hymenoplasty consultations

This article looks at how Dutch national identity enters the practical setting of a medical consultation. Extending the growing scholarships of everyday nationalism and engaging with the notion of multivocalism, this article shows how Dutchness is understood in the form of desirable personal characteristics. These characteristics are promoted by physicians to patients of migrant ancestry looking for a surgery called hymenoplasty. This article presents unique scholarly observations of a case where a particular understanding of national identity is recommended as part of medical advice. Furthermore, by closely examining exchanges between doctors and patients, this article argues that Dutchness is in a state of flux where a person of migrant ancestry can simultaneously be seen by others as Dutch and non‐Dutch.     

Anti‐nationalist nationalism: the paradox of Dutch national identity

Academic research on contemporary Dutch nationalism has mainly focused on its overt, xenophobic and chauvinist manifestations, which have become normalised since the early 2000s. As a result, less radical, more nuanced versions of Dutch nationalism have been overlooked. This article attempts to fill this gap by drawing attention to a peculiar self‐image among Dutch progressive intellectuals we call anti‐nationalist nationalism. Whereas this self‐image has had a long history as banal nationalism, it has come to be employed more explicitly for political positioning in an intensified nationalist climate. By dissecting it into its three constitutive dimensions – constructivism, lightness and essentialism – we show how this image of Dutchness is evoked precisely through the simultaneous rejection of ‘bad’ and enactment of ‘good’ nationalism. More generally, this article provides a nuanced understanding of contemporary Dutch nationalism. It also challenges prevalent assumptions in nationalism studies by showing that post‐modern anti‐nationalism does not exclude but rather constitutes essentialist nationalism.     

The Dutch social democrats and the South African war, 1899–1902

This article examines the attitude of the Dutch Social Democrats towards the South African War (1899–1902). At the beginning of the war the SDAP (Social Democratic Workers’ Party) had three seats in the Staten‐Generaal (Parliament). By 1902 this had increased to seven. The South African War created a wave of nationalism in the Netherlands. The Boers were of Dutch descent, and the Dutch generally saw the war as their own. As much as it wanted to assist the Transvaal, the Dutch government, however, could not afford to annoy Britain upon whom she depended for commercial protection of her East Indian colonies. In Social Democratic circles there was a mixed reaction to the war, particularly as their enemy, the Dutch bourgeoisie, had taken the side of the Boers. Arguments were raised for and against on the one hand, humanitar‐ianism and the law of nations, and on the other, historic‐materialistic considerations. The organs of the SDAP—De Sociaaldemokraat and later Het Volk—supported the Boer cause. Their internationalism almost compelled the Social Democrats to stand aloof from the chauvinistic Dutch bourgeoisie. They pointed out that the Netherlands, with its policy on Acheh, an independent sultanate on Sumatra, was in actual fact also an imperialistic nation. Anti‐British sentiment among the Social Democrats rose sharply when the Amsterdam diamond cutters also became victims as many lost their jobs in the wake of the war. Chamberlain (the British Colonial Secretary) and Kitchener (British Commander‐in‐Chief) were seen as war criminals. When, towards the end of 1901, the Amsterdam Water Transport Leagues attempted to organise an international boycott of British shipping, the SDAP sympathised with the plan, but did not give its official approval. Nothing came of the attempt. The Dutch Social Democrats reluctantly accepted the peace, feeling that the Boers would in the future be exploited by British capitalism.     

As nation,people and public collide: enacting Dutchness in public discourse

In recent decades, Dutchness has become an intensely debated issue in Dutch public sphere. The article problematises the labelling of nations and nationalisms that occurs in public and academic understandings of these developments. Craig Calhoun's concept of discursive formation is argued to be more fruitful for understanding the recent contestations over Dutchness. Yet Calhoun's theory is itself in need of elaboration. Whereas Calhoun proposes to focus on the extent to which nations are constructed as publics of highly differentiated members, it is precisely this image that is central to an exclusionary discourse of Dutchness and enables the exclusion of cultural others from the Dutch imaginary. By analysing the enactment of Dutchness through discourses on citizenship, the surprising congruence of pluralism and exclusion in the Dutch context is explored.