Dutch Colonial World
A. Dutch Colonies
B. History of the Netherlands
C. Other Helpful Resources
Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie/Dutch East India Company (VOC) (English and Dutch versions)
De VOC site exhaustive, mostly in Dutch
De VOC startpagina equally exhaustive, also in Dutch
VOC Kenniscentrum KITLV site (in Dutch, but it has great maps and images)
Links to websites about the VOC
New Netherland Project Webpage (English)
African Burial ground in New Amsterdam/New York
Virtual Tour of New Netherland (English)
Dutch Asiatic Shipping, 1595-1795 digital database put together by the ING (Institute of Dutch History) containing information on the more than 4,700 outbound and 3,400 homebound voyages undertaken by Dutch ships in the 17th and 18th centuries. (English and Dutch)
Uitgevaren voor de Kamers: 700,000 Mensen op de Zee: a collaborative site about the 700,000 people sent out for the VOC in the eighteenth century to the East Indies. Info based on so-called "soldij boeken" which recorded the wages of soldiers and mariners.
Atlas of Mutual Heritage "an expanding data bank containing a survey of former Dutch settlements in the East and West, and illustrative material of these settlements (maps, paintings, drawings, prints and photos)." (In English and Dutch)
Extensive bibliography on Dutch Colonial History in the 17th and 18th centuries
TANAP, a massive Dutch-Asian-South African Heritage Program, dedicated to preserving and improving accessibility of the records of the world's "first international", the VOC, held in archives around the world. Click on "VOC" here or on the TANAP home page to access a series of articles written by specialists in English about the VOC.
Resolutions of the Council of Policy (Governor and Council) at the Cape of Good Hope are the backbone of the archives of the VOC establishment in South Africa. Searchable database covers the years 1651-1795. "The resolutions contain a treasure of information about VOC servants as well as the native people, slavery, plant and animal life, products and explorative expeditions. The resolutions were written in early-modern Dutch handwriting and have been transcribed and digitised by South African scholars. In Spring 2004 an extensive introduction as well as a glossary will be added." (records are in Dutch)
Website about slavery at the Cape of Good Hope. Click on "Slave House: Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope" for entry into the site. There does not seem to be a direct link.
Database of freed slaves and slave owners in Surinam will eventually provide information on the 34,000 enslaved people freed in Surinam when the Dutch abolished slavery on July 1, 1863; for now, it provides information about 4,320 who lived in Paramaribo. (in Dutch only)
National Library of Australia website about Indonesia exhaustive. A great place to start research on Indonesia.
RootsWeb.Com Dutch-Colonies archives - has lots of offbeat info on specific people and families that might be of use to someone working on, particularly, New Netherland.
Site on Portuguese and Dutch colonial history - quirky! seems to cover the entire world. Nice images, bibliographies, and other great links.
Peter Stuyvesant's World: This site was put together by students at the University of Utrecht who studied New Netherland for half a year. They digitized many seventeenth-century Dutch texts, annotated them, designed lists of seventeenth-century terms and their modern equivalent, and they wrote commentaries and annotations, which they hyperlinked. The site also contains time lines and student essays. Much is in Dutch but English speakers may find some portions helpful. Navigate the site by clicking on various items on the opening page (ie. the hourglass provides a time line; the book provides access to the various seventeenth-century travel narratives about NN; etc.)
The Atlantic World: America and The Netherlands, an on-going project of the Library of Congress and the National Library of the Netherlands, in English and Dutch. A whole segment deals with New Netherland. Includes the full text, and translations, of some key seventeenth-century texts.
History of the Netherlands: Primary Documents (many of them translated into English)
Repertorium Geschiedenis Nederland: electronic bibliography containing 170.000 entries about the history of the Netherlands, its former colonies, and current overseas areas. This is the link to the search page in English.
Very comprehensive website from the University of Leiden on Dutch history by topic, by period, info about archives, museums, databases, documents, bibliographies and more.
Website of Het Museum van de Vaderlandse Geschiedenis (Low Countries History Museum - version in English available)
VOC Glossarium database of Dutch and East Asian terms used in the VOC period.
Het geheugen van Nederland contains images and documents from Dutch museums and other cultural institutions.
Zinnen en Minnen, An exhibit at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam about painters of Dutch daily life in the seventeenth century. Provides a selection of 35 pictures on the web - text, unfortunately, in Dutch, though the bibliography contains some English-language titles.
Correspondence of William of Orange/Willem van Orange (1533-1584) - almost 13,000 letters in various languages (German, Dutch, French).
Digitaal Vrouwen Lexicon van Nederland: biographies, in Dutch, of women who made a contribution to Dutch history (including Dutch colonies) from the earliest period until about 1850. Eventually some 1000 biographies will be up. All in Dutch.
Website dedicated to Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (in various languages, including English)
Colonial Maps of the Caribbean
Maritime History on the Internet: A Guide to Doing Maritime History online, put together by the University of Washington Libraries
Univ. of Texas website on Guyana (formerly Berbice)