Oped by Ineke van Kessel in NRC about misleading use of the term 'colony'

Ineke van Kessel wrote an oped in NRC in response to an earlier article (‘Erken het héle koloniale verleden’, 5 June 2023). Van Kessel writes that the Dutch forts on the Gold Coast (Ghana) were trading posts: The Netherlands exercised no territorial authority there and no European settlements were established. This makes it misleading to speak of a 'colony', she writes. The European fortresses functioned on the basis of treaties with the local rulers, in which the mutual rights and obligations were laid down. 

Read the enitre letter (in Dutch).