Internationale Neerlandistiek - Current Issue

Between 1638 and 1658, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) expelled the Portuguese from the island of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) and took control of the coastal regions. The VOC introduced new products, European knowledge, and colonial infrastructure, all of which had a significant impact on Ceylonese culture, society, and language. Dutch became the administrative language, though it was never widely spoken as a colloquial language.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many hundreds of VOC employees settled in Ceylon as vrijburgers or burgers after completing their contracts. When Ceylon came under British control in 1796, the British administration recognized these ‘Burghers’ as a distinct ethnic group, identifiable by their first or last names, religion, clothing, customs, and appearance—but not by their language. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Burghers transitioned from Dutch to English. Under British rule, the Burghers held a privileged position. However, this changed dramatically after Ceylon gained independence in 1948. In 1956, the government passed a language law making Sinhala the sole official language. This prompted a large-scale migration of Burghers to English-speaking countries, particularly Australia. Although this appeared to signal the decline of the small Burgher community, interest in Burgher heritage began to revive in the late twentieth century, both within Sri Lanka and among the diaspora. In recent years, public figures have increasingly acknowledged and celebrated their Burgher roots.

This article examines Dutch plans from the 1850s to establish settler colonies in the Dutch East Indies archipelago. Although parts of the Dutch East Indies had been under Dutch rule since the seventeenth century, it had never become a typical settler colony. The Indies remained an administrative society, where the Dutch governed while the local population performed the hard labor. Plans were launched in the 1850s to change this situation. Proponents hoped that settler colonies would not only stimulate the Indies’ economy but also help solve overpopulation in the Netherlands and strengthen the Dutch character of the Indies. Given the far-reaching implications of these proposals, King William III decided to establish a commission to thoroughly investigate them. This article analyzes the commission’s report and the responses to it. Notably, the VOC (Dutch East India Company) past – despite the Company’s dissolution in 1799 – was central to the arguments of both supporters and opponents. They studied VOC experiments with settler colonies and historical VOC contracts to identify suitable and available lands. The commission ultimately advised against the plans, particularly due to concerns about the tropical climate and potential damage to Dutch prestige and stability in the region. The complexity of acquiring sufficient land also played an important role in this negative advice. Although the plans were rejected, the discussions demonstrate the continuing colonial ambitions of the Netherlands in the mid-nineteenth century.