Cornelis Goslinga has set himself the huge task of filling the gap in English-language literature on the Dutch presence in the Caribbean. The Dutch in the Caribbean and in Suriname 1791/5-1942 is the last volume in the trilogy The Dutch in the Caribbean. This third book presents the history of the Netherlands Antilles since the demise of the West India Company (1791) and of Suriname following the liquidation of the Society of Suriname in 1795. In fifteen chapters, Goslinga tells the tale of failing Dutch colonial policy and miscarried plans. In one scathing sentence he condemns the Dutch lack of interest, vision, and intelligence: “There [in the Netherlands] is a passiveness, a slowness in the decision making process, that is irritating and paralyzing” (p. 266). Not surprisingly then, Goslinga concludes his magnum opus with a cri de coeur: “There is, undoubtedly, a debt to pay, a debt which started when Abraham Crijnsen in a glorious attack took Fort Willoughby and renamed it Fort Zeelandia in 1667” (p. 729).
The choice of 1942 as the final year of the trilogy is not altogether convincing. According to Goslinga history becomes political science with the last forty years, and therefore he declines to study these decades. One can appreciate this reasoning, yet it does not make the choice of 1942 a logical one. First, this year is in the middle of World War II, which triggered major social, economic, and political changes in the Dutch Caribbean. Second, Queen Wilhelmina indeed announced in 1942 a reform of the relations between the Netherlands and her colonies—the reason Goslinga picked that year. However, the Dutch followed this up only twelve years later with the enactment of the Charter of the Kingdom, making Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles autonomous partners of the Netherlands. Thus 1954 would have been a more logical concluding year.
Of course, the publication of the last volume of a standard work is an invitation to reflect on the complete trilogy. The first response that comes to mind is one of admiration for the courage and stamina of a scholar who has combed archival sources in Curaçao and the Netherlands as well as secondary literature in his search for data. Yet here one also touches on the major weak point: the reader is almost swallowed up in an avalanche of facts, names, and figures. Furthermore, Goslinga stays close to official sources and so emphasizes the role of the colonizer and of the colonial elite. Commerce as well as constitutional and military developments are the heart of the matter. Societal and cultural changes are only touched upon. Slaves, maroons, women, and laborers appear in official reports only during crises and so, too, in Goslinga’s work. It sounds like a paradox, but after more than 2,200 pages we still know precious little about the history of the Antillians, Arubans, and Surinamese.
