Kersttoespraak van Zijne Majesteit de Koning Willem-Alexander op paleis Huis ten Bosch.
The Dutch royalty reportedly profited more than £800 million from slave trade and invasion of conquered territories, prompting the king of the Netherlands to apologize for slavery and colonialism.
According to Mail Online, King Willem-Alexander will issue the formal apology on July 1, the 160th anniversary of the end of slavery on what is known as Keti Koti, or Emancipation Day.
According to a report commissioned by the Dutch government, the Princes of Orange, notably William III, who became King of England, helped to develop a policy of exploitation, slavery, and forced labor in Asia and the Caribbean.
Last week, the new research, dubbed ‘State and Slavery,’ was presented to MPs. During the Dutch slave trade and colonialism, the House of Orange earned the equivalent of €1 billion (£853 million) in today’s money.
Kersttoespraak van Zijne Majesteit de Koning Willem-Alexander op paleis Huis ten Bosch.
It comes after King Charles supported a landmark UK investigation into the monarchy’s role in the slave trade.
The study will look into former rulers’ connections to slave-trading organizations, such as the Royal African Company and its vice governor, Edward Colston, whose statue was hurled into Bristol Harbour by anti-racism protesters in 2020.
According to The Times, Dutch Home Affairs Minister Hanke Bruins Slot stated that the findings of the new study gave a “confrontational and very painful picture” of the early Dutch state’s involvement in a “unprecedented scale of slave trade and slavery.”
She went on to say that the’story’ should have been revealed ‘earlier.’
The Netherlands was one of the last countries to abolish colonial slavery, doing so in 1863.
According to Raymond Schutz, a historian who worked on the new research, William III and his successors gained “3.04 million guilders in colonial profits.”
Mr Schutz told the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that this amounted to €545 million (more than £464 million) in today’s money.
The Princes of Orange received an additional €502 million (£428 million) for their role in the conquering of land in Asia and the Caribbean.
