Dutch King Calls Findings on Colonial Past Painful
CARIBBEAN · ARUBA · KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS
Key Facts
- —The country Aruba is one of four countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, alongside Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the Netherlands. King Willem-Alexander is head of state of all four.
- —What happened On 2 October 2026 in Leiden, the king called a study of his family’s colonial past “painful and confronting”, NOS and Leiden University reported.
- —The numbers About 60 researchers, five books, 1600 to 2025. The study estimates the family earned about half a billion euros in today’s money (about US$564 million) in the 19th century.
- —What it means for you For the Kingdom’s Caribbean islands, the study finds the royal family backed colonialism but earned almost nothing from Caribbean slavery, because its attempts failed.
- —Still open As of 2 October no follow-up measures were announced. Island governments’ responses, and any role at the 17–18 November Kingdom Summit, are unknown.
A study of the colonial past of the Dutch royal family was presented to King Willem-Alexander in Leiden on 2 October 2026. He called its central conclusion “schrijnend en confronterend”, or painful and confronting.
The king is head of state of the whole Kingdom of the Netherlands, which includes Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The findings arrive weeks before the four governments meet at the first Kingdom Summit in Sint Maarten.
What the king said
The handover took place in the Academiegebouw, the historic main hall of Leiden University. Lead researcher Gert Oostindie read out a summary, then presented five books to the king.
The research showed that “contrary leadership” was missing where it might have made a difference, the king said. “That is a painful and confronting conclusion. A conclusion that touches me.”
He called the findings “unvarnished and penetrating” and said he embraced them. “For me this work is not an ending but an incentive,” he added, according to NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster.
He recalled his apology for slavery three years ago. This study goes further, he said, showing that stadholders and kings actively supported colonialism and slavery, including the crushing of resistance.
What the researchers found
About 60 researchers studied the House of Orange-Nassau from 1600 to 2025. Their first conclusion is that the family backed colonialism “with conviction and without substantial reservations”.
Every stadholder (the Orange princes who led the Dutch Republic) and monarch up to Queen Wilhelmina saw colonial rule as legitimate. The stadholders and King Willem I raised no objection to the slave trade, the university said.
Willem II and Willem III, in the 19th century, thought differently but did not support abolition. “The spirit of the times is no excuse,” Oostindie said.
Their power was limited, however. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch East and West India Companies and the States General, the republic’s assembly, set policy.
King Willem I, who reigned from 1813 to 1840, was the main exception. He controlled colonial government and founded the trading company behind the profitable cultivation system in the Dutch East Indies.
The money, and the Caribbean
The researchers estimate the family earned about half a billion euros in today’s money during the 19th century. That is about US$564 million at 0.887 euros per dollar on 2 October 2026.
Most of it came through the Dutch East India Company and later the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. From the transatlantic slave trade and Caribbean slavery, the rulers earned almost nothing.
Oostindie said this was not restraint, because their attempts to profit there failed. Dossier Koninkrijksrelaties, a news site on Kingdom affairs, reported no earnings from the former Netherlands Antilles.
Aruba belonged to the Netherlands Antilles until 1986. Colonial appointments and contacts still strengthened the family’s social and political standing, the university said.
A turn after 1948
The picture changes with Queen Juliana, who took the throne in 1948. She and Queen Beatrix built close ties with postcolonial communities, the king said in his speech.
The king started the research on the colonial past of his family in late 2022 and paid for it himself. The royal household had no say in its design, conduct or results, Leiden University said.
Oostindie called Willem-Alexander the first European monarch to give such an account. The king said he could not change the past but could contribute to the present and the future.
What Is Not Yet Known
The king named no specific follow-up steps in his remarks on 2 October. It is not yet clear whether the governments of Aruba, Curaçao or Sint Maarten will respond formally.
The king asked that the results be available to everyone. Whether the colonial past features at the November summit, whose agenda is unpublished, remains open.
Sources: Leiden University (2 Oct 2026); NOS (2 Oct 2026); Dossier Koninkrijksrelaties, including the text of the king’s speech (2 Oct 2026); NoticiaCla (2 Oct 2026). Euro conversion at 0.887 per US dollar (2 Oct 2026).
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief