Dutch king makes historic apology for his country’s colonial past

Dutch King Willem-Alexander on Saturday made a formal apology for the Netherlands’ 250-year-long involvement in the slave trade and the way the country massively profited it from it.

“On this day that we remember the Dutch history of slavery, I ask forgiveness for this crime against humanity,” the king said, speaking in the Oosterpark in Amsterdam on the 160th anniversary of the abolition of slavery. He admitted, though, that racial discrimination continues to plague the country, which is why he expects some people to disagree with the apology.

The symbolic move comes after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in December apologized for the role the Netherlands played in slavery — marking a U-turn from his previous stance. Two years earlier, Rutte rejected calls to make a formal apology, arguing that doing so would only have a polarizing effect. He made clear that the government wasn’t contemplating paying reparations to its former overseas colonies, in spite of an advisory panel pushing for it in 2021.

According to a study commissioned by the government last month, the House of Orange, the reigning house of the Netherlands, would owe the equivalent of $600 million to the colonies it governed between 1675 and 1770. The same study also shows that the House of Orange was directly involved in the slave trade in the Atlantic.

The Netherlands had a sweeping colonial empire, which included countries such as modern Indonesia, South Africa, Curaçao, New Guinea, and Suriname.