The Dutch and "New Diplomacy" in the Early Modern Mediterranean

This paper discusses “new diplomacy” as a category of analysis to study encounters between European and non-European cultures in the early modern world. It specifically addresses the diplomatic relations between Europe and North Africa in the western Mediterranean and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of diplomacy as a tool to understand European expansion and global interactions.

In the early modern Mediterranean, relations between Europe and North Africa revolved around piracy and captivity. To resolve the issues of redemption and stolen goods, Christian states forged relations with Maghrebian rulers. The Dutch Republic, for example, sought diplomatic contacts with Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis. The Dutch and Maghrebians initially found common ground in forming an alliance against Spain, but captivity proved an unsurmountable obstacle to develop diplomatic relations on permanent and equal terms: whereas the captivity of Christian seafarers in North Africa served state interests in the Maghreb, it undermined those of the Dutch and their desire for dominion of the seas. Any compromise was therefore temporary and as easily dissolved as concluded. As a result, Dutch-North African relations were constantly contested, ad hoc, and volatile. Traditional interpretations regard this diplomacy a failure. This paper, however, addresses how the idea of the New Diplomatic History allows us to understand that these “failed” relations are a different form of diplomacy. It thus invites us to re-interpret the diplomatic origins and developments in the western Mediterranean and, equally important, to rethink the position of European states in global power relations.