Colonialism and imperialism
One of the main questions that social-economic historians ask about the ‘Great Divergence’ between the West and the Rest is when the vast global income discrepancies started. Has Europe been ahead of other parts of the world – especially with respect to China and Moghul India – since 1500, 1600, 1700, or only since 1800, or perhaps much earlier? One subordinate question is whether the prosperity of the West is primarily attributable to the exploitation of the Rest. In other words: is capitalism in the form of colonialism and imperialism to blame for world poverty?
The Netherlands had a special role in the beginnings of colonialism. Through the United East India Company (VOC) it sent as many ships to Asia as all other countries combined. Active from South Africa to China and Japan and employing 50,000 workers, the VOC qualifies as the world’s first multinational. From 1641 to 1854 the Dutch Decima settlement was the only European trading post in Japan (154). In addition, the VOC had dozens of major and minor outposts along the coasts of India, Ceylon, and Indonesia (155). In the Americas Dutch merchants and plantation owners were especially active in the Caribbean (156).
From the end of the eighteenth century, European involvement with the rest of the world intensified (157-158). In the nineteenth century the introduction of steamships put longstanding ideas about connecting oceans through canals in a different perspective. Digging the Suez Canal was one of those ideas of the adherents of the early (‘Utopian’) socialist Saint-Simon (159-160). World harbours were built in ocean sounds, for example in Singapore (161-162). In addition to trade, large-scale colonial agriculture (163-164), mining, and industry began. A great many Europeans became acquainted with the culture of their colonies and vice versa (165-166).
