VOC and WIC: the differences of a big and a little brother

VOC is well-known as the leading international company of the Dutch East Indies, in full Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, between 1602-1799. It was first of all business, in combination with a fight for power and trade monopoly. Also somewhat with a Calvinist/Christian label: in 1605 the Portuguese fort of Ambon was conquered, all Portuguese and the Jesuit priests removed from the new Dutch territory. The native Catholic converts were apperently without much problems included in the Reformed Protestantism of the Dutch in the Indies. Here they were an exception within a nation that moved towards more and more Islamic regions. Until 1806 no Catholic priests were allowed to enter the Dutch East Indies, while the Protestants were not too active in the propagation of their relation. In the many treaties with local rulers, freedom of religion and also abstention of efforts for conversion were included.
Quite different is the story of the Wesi Indian Company, established in 1621, it had more or less the same priciples about religion: the Calvinist doctrines and practices shold be promoted. In 1634 this company took over the Island of Curaçao was conquered and soon it became first a centre for piracy (the Dutch were still in war with Spain, all over the world, especially in the Netherlands) and later for the trade in slaves. The Dutch could only sell later slaves to the Spanish colonies when they were baptized Catholic. Therefore the WIC allowed priests to stay on the Island, but only in case they restricted their pastoral work to the black slaves, baptized as many as possible. This is the cause why until nowadays the majority of the population in Curaçao is black, Catholic and they speak a language, Papiamento, which had many Spanish words.

Yesterday Dr. Christine Schunck (b. 1942 in Kerkrade, the Netherlands), defended her doctoral dissertation on this strange contradiction: religious tolerance (Catholic baptisms tolerated in a Protestant Island) thanks to racial intolerance. The ruling elite of Curaçao did not allow Catholic pastoral care for other people than the black slaves. Also the governor and the protestant ministers had slaves and they asked the priests (of there was at the time any Catholic priest in the Island) to baptize children of these slaves. The slaves were not allowed to officially marry, but they had seks partners and produced children anyway. Schunck worked in many archives and could find much material about the priests who lived in the Island in such an awkward situation. Also this strange religious system was part of Dutch colonialism. May God forgive them all these things!