According to reports, the Dutch royalty profited more than £800 million from the slave trade and the invasion of territories under its control, prompting the king to apologize for slavery and colonialism.
According to Mail Online, King Willem-Alexander will formally apologize on July 1 as the nation observes Keti Koti, or Emancipation Day, which marks the 160th anniversary of the abolition of slavery.
According to a report commissioned by the Dutch government, the Princes of Orange, notably William III, who later became the King of England, assisted in establishing a policy of exploitation, slavery, and forced labor throughout Asia and the Caribbean.
MPs were given the latest paper, titled “State and Slavery,” last week. During the Dutch slave trade in the period of colonialism, it was discovered that the House of Orange made what would be the equivalent of €1 billion (£853 million) in modern currency.
It follows King Charles’ endorsement of a significant UK probe investigating the monarchy’s role in the slave trade.
The study is anticipated to examine past leaders’ connections to organizations engaged in the slave trade, such as the Royal African Company and its vice governor, Edward Colston, whose statue was hurled into Bristol Harbour by anti-racism demonstrators in 2020.
According to The Times, Hanke Bruins Slot, the Dutch minister of home affairs, said the new study’s conclusions painted a “confrontational and very painful picture” of the early Dutch state’s involvement in an “unprecedented scale of slave trade and slavery.”
She continued, “The’story’ should have been told ‘earlier.'”
The Netherlands did not abolish colonial slavery until 1863, making it one of the last countries to do so.
Raymond Schutz, a historian who worked on the new report, estimated that William III and his successors earned ‘3.04million guilders in colonial profits.’
Speaking to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, Mr. Schutz said that amounted to €545 million (more than £464 million) in today’s money.
A further €502 million (£428 million) was earned by the Princes of Orange from their role in the conquest of territory in Asia and the Caribbean.
