Dutch Diet Diversity: Comparing Seventeenth-Century Dutch Provincial Assemblies (Diets) in East Asia, North America, and the Dutch Republic

Deliberation in autonomous provincial assemblies was central to the self-image of the Dutch Republic (1579–1795). This ideal emerged during the struggle against political and religious colonization by Habsburg Spain (1568-1648), but it remained a linchpin of contemporary political ideology. Paradoxically, the Dutch themselves soon began invading areas around the world, imposing their rule and religion on indigenous communities from the Caribbean to the Indonesian Archipelago. The aim of this paper is to assess how the Dutch, once put in the position of colonial overlords, incorporated the ideals of deliberation and regional autonomy into their political institutions. The focus lies on a particular kind of provincial assembly, the so-called Diet or Landdag. The paper examines cultural similarities and contrasts between three such Diets in diverse regional contexts of the global Dutch empire: the Landdag of New Netherland in North America, the Landdagen of Dutch Formosa (present-day Taiwan), and the Landdag of Guelders in the Dutch Republic itself. The main argument is that contemporaries used highly similar rituals and symbols to negotiate hierarchies both within and between these provincial assemblies and the central institutions of the Dutch Republic.