Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History
Belgium's Caribbean Sugar: Indentured Labor in Suriname
While the Congo Free State dominates discussions of Belgian colonialism, Belgium’s brief but intense involvement in Suriname offers a different window into imperial exploitation. This episode explores the 17th-century attempts by the Society of Antwerp Merchants and the Ostend Company to establish sugar plantations in the Dutch colony. We examine how these failed ventures laid groundwork for later European labor strategies, including the controversial importation of indentured workers from Java and China after the abolition of slavery. By focusing on figures like Jan de la Haye and the…
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