13 The “Violent Opium Company” (VOC) in the East

Abstract

Joseph Conrad’s horror story about Belgian imperialism in Congo (1899; 1902) was published at the same time that Multatuli’s famous book found its first readership. Both told the world about what really happened in the colonies: of the Dutch in the East Indies and of their civilized neighbors, the Belgians, in Africa. For the Dutch Guyana (“West Indies”) their image as extremely cruel and greedy slave holders was established long ago by the books of the Scottish soldier Stedman (ca. 1790) and others. The Asian opium history of the Dutch imperialists and colonists started long before these publications were written.