Oostindie and Klinkers add depth to the study of post-World War II Caribbean decolonization with their comparative analysis of the former Dutch colonies of Surinam, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. Their detailed analysis of Dutch decolonization policies of the 1940s cover such issues as the political processes of decolonization, development aid, the Dutch Caribbean exodus to the metropolis, and cultural antagonisms. Putting these issues within a larger context, the authors skillfully contrast the decolonization process of Dutch Caribbean states with the current policies pursued in the...

Migration flows in the former Dutch colonial orbit created an intricate web connecting the Netherlands to Africa, Asia and the Americas; Africa to the Americas and to Asia; in the nineteenth century Asia to the Americas, with, in the post-Second World War period, the direction of migration shifting to the Netherlands. Some of these migrations were voluntary, others were forced; they helped to create colonial societies that were never typically Dutch, but did have Dutch characteristics. Power imbalance, ethnic differences and creolization characterized the cultural configuration of these...

Dutch Atlantic Connections focuses on the Dutch dimension of the integrated Atlantic World between 1680 and 1800. In recent years, it has increasingly become clear that Dutch activities in this Atlantic world were of far greater significance than historians hitherto assumed. This volume illustrates how Dutch networks functioned in the Atlantic and highlights the pivotal and, indeed, exceptional role of the Dutch in the Atlantic. The chapters present the economic function of the Dutch as middlemen and brokers who helped the Atlantic system operate by embedding themselves in the networks...

Wim Klooster and Gert Oostindie present a fresh look at the Dutch Atlantic in the period following the imperial moment of the seventeenth century. This epoch (1680-1815), the authors argue, marked a distinct and significant era in which Dutch military...