Multicultural environments are not as new as you might think. In his recently published book Werkers van de wereld (workers of the world) IISH researcher Matthias van Rossum demonstrates that the crews of VOC ships were characterized by an enormous diversity: seamen from the Dutch Republic and the rest of North- West Europe worked and lived together with seamen from India, China, Indonesia and sometimes from the Middle-East. The study proves that this did not necessarily lead to problems.
Naturally, tensions ran high at times, but on the basis of lawsuits about conflicts, mutual sex, theft and even mutinies, Van Rossum paints a picture of fairly equal relations between Europeans and Asians during this period.
Van Rossum: 'If looked at from the much-discussed VOC (Dutch East India Company) mentality perspective, we could say that the VOC was characterized by a sensible multiculturalism. Working relationships were more important than cultural divisions. Two centuries of sailing under difficult conditions and with mixed crews actually went fairly smooth.'
The relative equivalence was in great contrast to the deteriorating position of Asian workers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Van Rossum: ‘The working relations during the VOC era were partly as equivalent because Asians came from economies that were already highly developed. Consequently equivalent relations do not arise just like that.’
Van Rossum studied history at the VU, Amsterdam and is currently working at the IISH as a researcher. Werkers van de wereld is his thesis.