Project description
Revisiting the Dutch seaborne empire’s influence on modern-day Europe
The Dutch were internationally feared and revered for their maritime prowess and multinational business models - but what was the underside of their global rise to power? The EU-funded MaritimeImagination project investigates how the ocean is deeply entangled in Dutch state and empire formation, paying particular attention to Dutch discourses about the maritime, the ocean, shipping, colonialism, slavery and maritime law. In doing so, the project looks across disciplines, historical eras and continents to better understand the interlinking of capitalism, race, colonialism and empire at sea. Creating a cultural oceanography of Dutch maritime imagination, this project will demonstrate how an ocean-based framework can engender new ways of theorising Dutch imperialism and its aftermaths.
Objective
"In 1609, Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, commissioned by the VOC, published Mare Liberum. The book argued for a juridical distinction between land-based sovereignties and the ""free sea,"" heralding a new maritime imagination and international legal order that still persists today. Grotius is not just an exemplary figure for early deliberations on maritime worlds, his work carries particular resonance for Dutch articulations of empire and colonialism rooted in oceanic spaces that have shaped its historical and contemporary position in a global context. Although historians agree that The Netherlands was more interested in commercial maritime trade than European settlement, accounts of Dutch empire and colonialism remain land-based, simply mentioning the ocean as a route between colony and metropole. Maritime Imagination addresses this oversight by developing a cultural oceanography of the Dutch maritime imagination, generating an innovative multi-era and interdisciplinary approach to the study of maritime worlds. Applying an oceanic perspective, I aim to show how a maritime frame -rather than a land-based frame- engenders new ways of theorizing the formation of Dutch empire and colonialism and its impact on the present. Starting from an oceanic framework that crosses existing analytic divides between culture, society, law, economy, and environment, I aim to contribute to the emerging interdisciplinary field of Oceanic Studies. Maritime Imagination researches four interrelated ocean temporalities (17th cent. - present), in which I position Dutch ship voyages as laboratories of colonialism and empire. Visions of the ocean, deeds performed at sea, how they are imagined and their impact are what I call maritime imagination, which can only be illuminated by foregrounding the ocean as a central locus that engenders, shapes and transforms world views, culture, self/other definitions, laws, economy, and ecologies of extraction and sustainability -i.e. through a cultural oceanography."
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences oceanography
- social sciences law
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.