The Harbor at Vlissingen

A ship with the flag of the Dutch Republic navigates choppy waters near the harbor of Vlissingen in the southwestern Netherlands.

The Dutch established themselves as leaders in maritime transport and commerce in the 1600s. Marine paintings such as this one celebrate their prowess. Showing vessels valiantly persisting despite stormy seas, these scenes mythologize Dutch expansion while disregarding its pernicious manifestations in colonial aggression, economic exploitation, and violence.

Indeed, in the 1600s, Vlissingen was a principal harbor for the Dutch East India Company, an amalgamation of private trading companies that pursued the Dutch economic agenda in Asia. Later, it became a major port for the transatlantic slave trade. Between 1730 and 1800, about 500 ships operated by Dutch merchants departed from Vlissingen and nearby Middelburg, taking valuable exports to exchange for people on Africa’s western coast.