Abstract
In 1759, the VOC perpetrated a spectacular blunder. The Company’s management in Batavia took the decision to send an expedition to Bengal in order to hinder the EIC. The result was disastrous: the expeditionary force was defeated and the VOC could henceforth only continue its operations in Bengal at the sufferance of the British. Most historians have interpreted the expedition as ill-conceived. The ideological dimension seems to have gone completely unnoticed, however. This article contends that this should not only be regarded as a strategic error, but also as the consequence of ideological considerations. This case, it is argued, demonstrates the existence of a corporate self-perception – shared, or at least adhered to, by the highest managerial echelons – of the Company as a manifestation of the Dutch nation and the extension of its state. This patriotism was interwoven with overarching discourses on the identity of the slowly dissolving Republic.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.