This thesis shows the reluctant imperialist rhetoric stems from the “exceptionalism trope” underlying contemporaneous debates over Dutch colonialism. Instead it is insisted the activities of the...Show moreThis thesis shows the reluctant imperialist rhetoric stems from the “exceptionalism trope” underlying contemporaneous debates over Dutch colonialism. Instead it is insisted the activities of the Dutch East India Company along Java’s Northeast Coast between 1704 and 1720 can best be understood as a civilising mission. On the one hand, it is shown how the Dutch presence in Asia was imagined as a benign commercial enterprise, aimed at fostering intercultural cooperation and mutual friendship between nations. On the other hand, it is argued that the encounter with the non-European world stimulated the gradual proliferation of orientalist discourses, which eventually signalled the emergence of the Company as a the predecessor of the modern colonial state.Show less
