Biography of Alexander Idenburg

Hans van der Jagt writes his PhD-thesis on Alexander Idenburg (1861-1935), a Dutch statesman who was responsable for the Dutch colonial policy between 1900 and 1925. Idenburg tried to introduce a development policy in the Dutch colonies. He had to deal wih salafism, a fundamentalist movement in Islam. Around 1900, Holland had about 35 million Islamic inhabitants in the Dutch East Indies. In the Netherlands, people feared that anti-Western propaganda from the Arabic world would be introduced in the colonies. One of Idenburgs plans was to plead for a hold on migration by Arabic muslims to the Dutch East Indies.

This project is supervised by prof.dr. George Harinck (VU) en prof.dr. Hans Renders.

Hans van der Jagt is PhD-student at the Free University, Amsterdam.

Email hvdjagt@gmail.com