Chemistry and colonialism in the port cities of Amsterdam and Batavia

This paper will present work in progress directed toward charting the sites in Amsterdam and Batavia (the Asian ‘capital’ of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC)) in which chemical production and application – understood both in material terms and in terms of knowledge – were somehow linked to practices of colonial exchange and management.   This analysis needs to be situated in the larger historical context which includes (1) Dutch domestic concerns with political, economic and moral decline, some of which was met by calls for increased attention to chemistry education and application; (2) challenges faced by the VOC, leading ultimately to its bankruptcy at the end of the century; (3) the establishment in 1778 of the Batavian Society for Arts and Sciences in Batavia; (4) the international relations between the practices and practitioners of chemistry in Amsterdam and other European centres, especially in Germany.