The apology is to redress how the Dutch exploited more than 600,000 people. The Netherlands’ involvement in slavery began in the 17th century when the transatlantic slave trade was already being carried out by other former European colonial powers like Spain and Portugal.
Through the Dutch West India Company (WIC), the Dutch Empire began colonising large parts of land in South America and the Caribbean, and bought slaves from Africa to work on the sugar, cotton and coffee plantations of these lands.
