According to Mail Online, King Willem-Alexander will formally apologize on July 1 as the nation observes Keti Koti, or Emancipation Day, which marks the 160th anniversary of the abolition of slavery.
According to a report commissioned by the Dutch government, the Princes of Orange, notably William III, who later became the King of England, assisted in establishing a policy of exploitation, slavery, and forced labour in Asia and the Caribbean.
‘State and Slavery’ is the name of the new report, which was presented to MPs last week. It was discovered that the House of Orange profited from the Dutch slave trade and colonialism to the tune of €1 billion (£ 853 million) in modern currency.
It happens after King Charles supported an important UK investigation into the monarchy’s role in the slave trade.
The study is anticipated to examine past leaders’ associations with organisations engaged in the slave trade, such as the Royal African Company and its vice governor, Edward Colston, whose statue was hurled into Bristol Harbour by anti-racism demonstrators in 2020.
According to The Times, Hanke Bruins Slot, the Dutch minister of home affairs, said the new study’s conclusions painted a “confrontational and very painful picture” of the early Dutch state’s involvement in a “unprecedented scale of slave trade and slavery.”
She continued, “The’story’ should have been told ‘earlier.'”
One of the last nations to abolish colonial slavery was the Netherlands, which did so in 1863.
According to historian Raymond Schutz, who contributed to the new research, William III and his successors made “3.04 million guilders in colonial profits.”
Mr. Schutz stated it amounted to €545 million (more than £464 million) in today’s money in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.
The Princes of Orange gained an additional €502million (£428million) by their participation in the acquisition of territories in Asia and the Caribbean.
