A Tale of Two Oceans: Expansion and Transformation in the Early Modern Dutch World

This paper compares the ways in which their activities in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans transformed the Dutch at home and in their overseas colonies. It argues that both oceans served to extend Dutch warfare to distant shores and waters, changed the Dutch commercial position in Europe, stimulated scholarly study and representation of other continents, and enabled hundreds of thousands of young men to find employment, introducing them to exotic cultures and changing their outlooks and customs in the process.