Colonies of benevolence: A carceral archipelago of empire in the greater Netherlands

The Colonies of Benevolence, an early 19th-century Dutch social experiment, emerged as a model for pauper relief and rehabilitative discipline, challenging traditional notions of imprisonment. This 'carceral archipelago' served as a blueprint for domestic settler colonialism and was widely emulated across Europe and in Java, lasting over a century. The study reveals that this system addressed Liberalism's contradictions by disciplining the property-less without incarceration, offering insight into its dual role as both a colony and a 'prison designed not to be a prison.' By analyzing Foucault's omission of colonialism, the research contextualizes the experiment within broader imperial dynamics.

Schrauwers, A. (2020). Colonies of benevolence: A carceral archipelago of empire in the greater Netherlands. History and Anthropology, 31(3), 352–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2020.1762592