In the framework of the MARBLE-project ‘On Expedition’ Dr. Matthias van Rossum, Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam will give a lecture on: ‘Multicultural Company. Work, diversity and intercultural relations under the Dutch East India Company’.
When: Wednesday 9 March, 13.30-15.30
Where: Spiegelzaal, Grote Gracht 80-82
Organisers: Ernst Homburg and Annemieke Klijn
Summary:
The Dutch East India Company (= VOC) employed a large and diverse workforce. The Scandinavian sailors and German soldiers recruited in the Dutch Republic are perhaps the most famous examples. The diversity of the workforce overseas, however, has received much less attention. Throughout its overseas maritime empire, the VOC recruited large numbers of Asian sailors and soldiers, and employed Asian and African slaves and convicts. In the service of the VOC, these different groups often came into close contact, and even worked alongside each other. This lecture explores this world of work and intercultural contact, looking especially at the dynamics amongst sailors, slaves and convicts in (intercultural) working environments under the Dutch East India Company.
