The Netherlands, the small European country I was born in, was once an enormous colonial power. We occupied and ruled parts of North and South America, Africa and Asia: areas and countries that are now called New York, Brazil, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Indonesia. We brought the first African slaves to North America. In the course of time we were kicked out of almost all of these countries and the last big land we gave up – willingly, almost eagerly – was Suriname in 1975. Traditional colonialism is behind us. When I moved 20 years ago to the States I didn’t realize it was a colony, albeit it free from the original colonizers, the Brits, the Dutch, the French and the Spaniards. But the US is a colony where the colonizers were nót kicked out: they stayed. I am not sure if many US citizens would define their country as such, but that insight dawned on me when my American children went to school and started history education last year.
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