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IV. British and Dutch Imperialism: A Comparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

H.L. Wesseling
H.L. Wesseling
Affiliation:
Leiden University
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Extract

The words that serve as a motto for this paper are taken from the finest novel about Dutch fin de siècle society and indeed, in my opinion, the finest novel in Dutch literature, Louis Couperus' De Boeken der Kleine Zielen (The Books of the Small Souls). They form part of a dialogue between the widow of a former Governor-General of the Netherlands Indies and her, obviously, very dis-appointed grandson, a young colonial civil servant in the beginning of his career.

Type
Article
Information
Itinerario , Volume 13 , Special Issue 1: India and Indonesia: General Perspectives , March 1989 , pp. 61 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1989

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References

Notes

1 Some of the remarks – if not reflections – in this paper are also to be found in an introduction I wrote for Mommsen, Wolfgang J. and Osterhammel, Jürgen, Imperialism and After: Continuities and Discontinuities (London 1986) 1–10Google Scholar as well as in a contribution to the Festschrift for Robinson, Ronald, ‘The Giant that was a Dwarf’ in: Porter, Andrew and Holland, Robert eds., Theory and Practice in the History of European Expansion Overseas (London 1988) 58–70Google Scholar.

2 Hancock, Sir Keith, Survey of British Commenweallh Affairs. II Problems of Economic Policy (London 1940) 1–2Google Scholar.

3 Hobson, J.A., Imperialism: A Study (London 1902) 25Google Scholar.

4 Ibidem, 15.

5 Ibidem, 65.

6 Gallagher, J. and Robinson, R., ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, Economic History Review Second Series VI, 1 (1953) 1–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Cf. Gallagher, J. and Robinson, R., ‘The Partition of Africa’, New Cambridge Modern History XI (Cambridge 1962)Google Scholar; Robinson, R., ‘Non-European Foundations of European Imperialism: Sketch for a Theory of Collaboration’ in: Owen, R. and Sutclifle, B. eds., Studies in the Theory of Imperialism (London 1972) 118–140Google Scholar.

8 Brunschwig, H., Mylhes et re'alites de I'impe'rialisme colonialfrancais, 1871–1914 (Paris 1960)Google Scholar.

9 The recent book by Marseille, J., Empire colonial et capitalisme français: Histoire d'un divorce (Paris 1984)Google Scholar offers many new data and throws a new light on the economic aspects of French imperialism.

10 Wehler, H.-U., Bismarck und der Imperialisms (Cologne 1969).Google Scholar

11 Miege, J.-L., L'impe'rialisme colonialitalien de 1870a nosjours (Paris 1968)Google Scholar.

12 Hammond, R.J., Portugal and Africa, 1815–1910: A Study in Uneconomic Imperialism (Stanford 1966)Google Scholar.

13 Clarence-Smith, G., The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825–1975: A Study in Economic Imperialism (Manchester 1985)Google Scholar.

14 Stengers, J., ‘King Leopold's Imperialism’ in: Owen, and Sutcliffe, eds., Studies in the Theory of Imperialism, 248–275Google Scholar.

15 As quoted in Kuitenbrouwer, M., Nederlanden deopkomst van het modeme imperialisme: Koloni'e'nen buitenlandse politick, 1870–1902 (Amsterdam 1985) 195Google Scholar.

16 Cf. Hoist, H.Roland, Kapitaal en arbeid in Nederland (2 vols.; Amsterdam 1902)Google Scholar.

17 Cf. Schoffer, I., ‘Dutch Expansion and Indonesian Reactions: Some Dilemmas of Modern Colonial Rule (1900–1942)’ in: Wesseling, H.L. ed., Expansion and Reaction: Essays on European Expansion and Reactions in Asia and Africa (Leiden 1978) 78–100;CrossRefGoogle ScholarFasseur, C., ‘Een koloniale paradox: De Nederlandse expansie in de Indonesische Archipel in het midden van de negentiende eeuw (1830–1870)’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 2 (1979) 162–187;Google ScholarWesseling, H.L., Myths and Realities of Dutch Imperialism: Some Preliminary Observations (Paper presented to the Second Dutch-Indonesian Historical Conference, Ujung Pandang, 22–30 June 1978)Google Scholar.

18 Kuitenbrouwer, Nederland en de opkomst van het modeme imperialisme.

19 Ibidem, 8–9.

20 Betts, R., The False Dawn: European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford 1976) 81Google Scholar.

21 Cf. Fasseur, ‘Een koloniale paradox’.

22 R. Robinson, ‘The Excentric Idea of Imperialism, with or without Empire’ in: , Mommsen and Osterhammel, , Imperialism and After, 286Google Scholar.

23 Th. August, ‘Locating the Age of Imperialism’, Itinerario 10, 2 (1986) 85–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 In his paper for the Leiden conference, ‘Problems of Comparison: Colonial India and Indonesia in the Nineteenth Century’, Gordon Johnson suggests a rather different chronological pattern of economic development. I don't know whether this is true for India. Ifso, the British case is certainly different from the Dutch one.

25 Clarence-Smith distinguishes an ‘imperialism of the weak’ which he finds in ‘the countries of southern and eastern Europe’ (Clarence-Smith, The Third Portuguese Empire, VII). I don't see very clearly where he finds ‘the colonial expansion of the countries of […] eastern Europe’, nor do I understand why an ‘imperialism of the weak’ could not be found in rather more northern countries like Holland and Belgium too.

26 Cf. Gallagher and Robinson, ‘Imperialism of Free Trade’.

27 Cf. P.M. Kennedy, ‘Why did the British Empire Last So Long?’ in: Kennedy, P.M., Strategy and Diplomacy, 1870–1945: Eight Studies (London 1983) 197–218Google Scholar.