This book presents a comparative history of the role of monarchs in European colonialism, with chapters on the Belgian, British, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish royal houses. This volume offers a comparative discussion, seeking to identify connections and parallels, as well as contrasts, from early modernity to present-day public debates. Almost all of the European states under discussion here embarked on colonialism as monarchies. The authors in this volume emphasise that across time and place, monarchs supported colonialism in its early stages, including slavery — and none were actively, let alone decisively supportive of abolitionism in their own colonies. Monarchs retained their colonial mindset until the end; not one king or queen anywhere in Europe was known for even silently sympathising with the struggle for independence in the colonies until well after the Second World War.
Gert Oostindie is Emeritus Professor of Colonial and Postcolonial History at Leiden University and former Director of the KITLV /Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies in Leiden (KITLV -KNAW). He published extensively on colonial and postcolonial history. At the request of H.M. King Willem-Alexander, Oostindie directed the research project on the role of the House of Orange-Nassau in the colonial history of the Netherlands (2023-2026). European Monarchs & Colonialism is one of the five books published in this project.
Karwan Fatah-Black holds the UNESCO Chair in Comparative History of Slavery and the Transition to Citizenship at Leiden University and is a senior researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV -KNAW). In addition to his academic research, he actively contributes to the public debate on the colonial past and the place of this history in the collective consciousness. He has overseen research projects on the colonial and slavery history of De Nederlandsche Bank and various municipalities and institutions. Karwan is the editor-in-chief of the book series Slavery & Emancipation (Routledge).
