Introduction: The Dutch East Indies and Europe, ca. 1800-1930. An empire of demands and opportunities

Abstract

Empires constantly depended on extra-imperial resources, labour, and expertise. This opened up and sustained opportunities for a broad range of European individuals and institutions to engage in 'foreign empires'. Conversely, individuals and institutions within empires also benefitted from growing extra-imperial demands for colonial objects, expertise, and commodities. This introductory article to this special issue on the interactions between the Dutch East Indies and diverse European nations further elaborates these conceptual considerations. It then introduces five case studies that open up new avenues to empirically examine empires outside the analytical framework of national empires. They show how the Dutch colonial 'state of violence' in Southeast Asia enabled and necessitated various forms of European collaboration and integration, as well as interactions with Southeast Asian societies in the fields of science, travel, museum collections, agriculture, colonial warfare and photography.