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• Director
• Associates
  • Clarence-Smith, W.
  • Freitag, U.
  • Pearson, M.
  • Prakash, O.
  • Ray, H. P.
  • Sheriff, A.
  • Schottenhammer, A.
  • Soodyall, H.
  • Warren, J.
  • Worden, N.
• Research Associates
  • Machado, P.
  • Vink, M.
  • Vernet, T.
• McGill Faculty Affiliates
  • Echenberg, M.
  • Elbourne, E.
• PhD Students
  • Ferguson, M.
  • Ghabrial, S.
  • Rath, Andrew
  • Serels, S.
  • Tesfaye, F.
• MA Students
  • Shivji, N.
• Graduate Assistants
  • Chowdhury, R.
  • Sayles, J.
  • Seagle, C.
• Past Affiliates

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IOWC Research Associates

Markus Vink

Markus Vink is Associate Professor in History at the State University of New York at Fredonia. He gained his PhD from the University of Minnesota (1998) with a thesis entitled “Encounters on the Opposite Coast: Cross-Cultural Contacts Between Representatives of the Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century.” He is Book Review Editor of Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction.

Dr. Vink, whose languages include Dutch, German, French, and Portuguese, has received a number of awards, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2004) and the William T. Hagan Young Scholar Award (2001). His current research interests are focused on a wide range of issues related to cross-cultural encounters in early modern India and the Indian Ocean Basin, most notably slavery and the slave trade, international political economy, comparative institutional (business) history, the law of nations and the freedom of the seas, the relationship between ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ trade systems, the ‘military revolution’, caste formation and identity, and representation and agency. Currently engaged in writing a paper entitled ‘Contingent Lives: Social Identity and Material Culture in the VOC World’, to be presented at a conference in Cape Town, South Africa, in December 2006, Dr. Vink’s longer term aims are twofold: to convert his manuscript entitled ‘Encounters on the Opposite Coast: The Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai, 1640-1690’, into a monograph; and subsequently to write a study of slavery and the slave trade in the Indian Ocean - an extension of his 2004 article in the Journal of World History.

Other research interests include the histories of South Asia (1500-1800), the Indian Ocean (1500-1800), Southeast Asia (1500-1800), early modern globalization, the comparative early modern world (Asia and Europe), cross-cultural encounters, international political economy, overseas church and state, institutional (business) history, European expansion, the Dutch Republic, the “military revolution” and “modern” and “traditional” commercial networks.

Publications

Books

In preparation:

• “Encounters on the opposite coast: The Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka state of Madurai in the seventeenth century.”
• “‘The world's oldest trade:’ Dutch slavery and slave trade in the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth century.”

Published:

• 2008. Mission to Madurai: Two Dutch court journeys into the interior of Southeast India, 1677 and 1762. Dutch sources on South Asia 4. Delhi: Manohar Press, 2008
• 1991. The merchant-warrior pacified: The VOC (Dutch East India Company) and its changing political economy in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991 (with George D. Winius). (Reprinted as paperback by Oxford University Press in 1994).

Articles

• 2007. “Freedom and slavery: The Dutch Republic, the VOC world, and the debate over the 'world's oldest trade'”: South African Historical Journal 59 (2007), pp. 19-46
• 2007. “A work of compassion? The Dutch slavery debate in the seventeenth century” in: Contingent lives: Social identity and material culture in the VOC world, Nigel Worden ed., Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 2007, pp. 463-499
• 2007. (with Jean Taylor, Heather Sutherland, and Robert Ross). “Comparisons and ways forward,” in: Contingent lives: Social identity and material culture in the VOC world, Nigel Worden ed., Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 2007, pp. 602-612
• 2007. “Indian Ocean studies and the ‘new thalassology’”: Past, present, future”: Journal of Global History 2:1 (forthcoming).
• 2006. “Between profit and power: The Dutch East India Company and institutional early modernities in the age of mercantilism,” in: Jerry H. Bentley and H. Parker eds., Between the Middle Ages and modernity: Individual and community in the early modern world. New York, NY: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 285-306.
• 2005. “A match made in heaven? World-system analysis and Dutch Indian Ocean studies,” in: Leonard Blussé and Ernst van Veen eds., Rivalry and conflict: European traders and Asian trading networks in the 16th and 17th century. Studies in Overseas History Vol. 7. Leiden: CNWS Publications, pp. 267-314.
• 2004. “From port-city to world-system: Spatial constructs in Dutch Indian Ocean studies, 1500-1800,” Itinerario 28:2, pp. 45-116.
• 2003. “‘The world's oldest trade:’ The Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade in the seventeenth century,” Journal of World History 14:2, pp. 131-177.
• 2002. “Between the devil and the deep blue sea: The Christian Paravas, a ‘Portuguese’ client-community in 17th-century southeast India,” Itinerario 26:2, pp. 64-98.
• 2001. “The temporal and spiritual conquest of the Fishery Coast: The Portuguese-Dutch struggle over the Parava community of southeast India, c. 1640-1700,” Portuguese Studies Review 9:1/2, pp. 372-397.
• 2000. “‘New’ or ‘high’ imperialism, 1870-1914: Process and patterns,” World History Bulletin 17:1, pp. 16-31.
• 2000. “Church and state in seventeenth-century colonial Asia: Dutch-Parava relations in southeast India in a comparative perspective,” Journal of Early Modern History 4:1, pp. 1-42.
• 1999. “Cross-cultural encounters, 1500-1850,” World History Bulletin 15:2, pp. 31-39.
• 1997. “Images and ideologies of Dutch-South Asian contact: Cross-cultural encounters between the Nayaka state of Madurai and the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century,” Itinerario 21:2, pp. 82-123.
• 1995. “The Dutch East India Company and the pepper trade between Kerala and Tamilnad, 1663-1795: A geohistorical analysis,” in: K.S. Mathew ed., Mariners, merchants and oceans: Studies in maritime history. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers & Distributors, pp. 273-300.
• 1993. “South India and the China Seas: How the V.O.C. shifted its weight from China and Japan to India around A.D. 1636” (with George D. Winius), in: Artur Teodore de Matos and Luís Filipe Reis Thomaz eds., As relações entre a Índia portuguesa, a Ásia do Sueste e o Extremo Oriente. Macao and Lisbon: CNCDP, Commissão Territorial para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, Fundação Oriente; Instituto Cultural de Macau, Instituto Portugûes do Oriente. (Reprinted in: George D. Winius, Studies on Portuguese Asia, 1495-1689. Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2001, X, pp. 125-140.)
• 1991. “The entente cordiale: The Dutch East India Company and Portuguese shipping through the Straits of Malacca, 1641-1663,” Revista da Cultura 13/14, pp. 288-309.
• 1990.“Mare liberum and dominium maris: Legal arguments and implications of the Luso-Dutch struggle for control over Asian waters, ca. 1600-1663,” in: K.S. Mathew ed., Studies in maritime history. Pondicherry: Mission Press, 1990, pp. 38-68.
• 1990. “Passes and protection rights. The Dutch East India Company as a redistributive enterprise in Malacca, 1641-1662,” Moyen Orient & Océan Indien. Middle East & Indian Ocean XVIe-XIXe s. 7, pp. 73-101.

Encyclopedia Entries

Forthcoming:

• “Jan Huyghen van Linschoten,” in: The Oxford companion to exploration, David Buisseret ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• “Expeditions, world exploration: Netherlands,” in: The Oxford companion to exploration, David Buisseret ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• 2007. “Heeren XVII,” Encyclopedia of Western colonialism since 1450, Thomas Benjamin ed. 3 vols. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, II, pp. 548-549.
• 2007. “Jan Pietersz. Coen,” in: Encyclopedia of Western colonialism since 1450, Thomas Benjamin ed. 3 vols. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, I, pp. 239-241.
• 2007. “Indian Ocean slave trade,” in: Encyclopedia of Western colonialism since 1450, Thomas Benjamin ed. 3 vols. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, III, pp. 1039-1041.
• 2004. “Dutch East India Company,” in: Berkshire encyclopedia of world history, William H. McNeill, Jerry H. Bentley, David Christian, David Levinson, Heidi Roupp, and Judith P. Zinsser eds. 5 vols. Brrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group, II, pp. 583-586.
• 2004. “Dutch East Indies,” in: Europe, 1450-1789: Encyclopedia of the early modern world, Jonathan Dewald ed. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, II, pp. 189-195.
• 1996. “Hendrik Jansen van Barrefelt,” in: The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation, Hans J. Hillerbrand ed. 4 vols. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996, I, pp. 124-125.
• 1996. “Hugo Grotius,” in: The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation, Hans J. Hillerbrand ed. 4 vols. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, II, pp. 197-198.
• 1996. “Justus Lipsius,” in: The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation, Hans J. Hillerbrand ed. 4 vols. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, II, pp. 426-428.
• 1996. “Philippus Rovenius” in: The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation, Hans J. Hillerbrand ed. 4 vols. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, III, pp. 453-454.
• 1996. “Sasbout Vosmeer” in: The Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation, Hans J. Hillerbrand ed. 4 vols. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, IV, pp. 249-250.

Book Reviews

• 2007. Sugata Bose, A hundred horizons: The Indian Ocean in the age of global empire. London and Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. In: Itinerario 31:1 (forthcoming).
• 2006. Marc Kleijwegt ed., The faces of freedom: The manumission and emancipation of slaves in Old World and New World slavery. The Atlantic World 7. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill Academic Publishers, 2006. In: Itinerario 31:1 (forthcoming).
• 2006. Gwyn Campbell ed., Abolition and its aftermath in the Indian Ocean, Africa and Asia. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005. In: Itinerario 30:3 (forthcoming)
• 2006. Julia Adams, The familial state: Ruling families and merchant capitalism in early modern Europe. The Wilder House Series in Politics, History and Culture. Ithaca, NY; Cornell University Press, 2005. In: Itinerario 30:2, 162-166.
• 2006. Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Peter Rietbergen eds., Hof en adel: Aziatische vorsten en de VOC 1620-1720. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 223. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004. x + 349 pp. ISBN: 90-6718-231-1 (pbk.). In: Itinerario 30:2, 153-155.
• 2006. Hendrik E. Niemeijer, Batavia: Een koloniale samenleving in de 17de eeuw. Amersfoort: Uitgeverij Balans, 2005. In: Itinerario 30:1, 159-162.
• 2005. M.N. Pearson, The world of the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800: Studies in economic, social and cultural history. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Burlington, VT, and Aldershot, Hampshire, 2005. In: Itinerario 29:3, pp. 133-136.
• 2005. Holden Furber, Sinnappah Arasaratnam, and Kenneth McPherson. Maritime India. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004. In: The Historian 67:3, pp. 552-553.
• 2004. R.J. Barendse, The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean world of the seventeenth century. Armonk: East Gate Book, 2002. In: The Historian 66:3, pp. 604-605.
• 2004. Michael N. Pearson, The Indian Ocean. London and New York, NY: Routledge, 2003. In: Itinerario 28:1, pp. 92-95.
• 2003. François Valentyn, Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën. 5 vols. in 8 books. Franeker: Uitgeverij Van Wijnen, 2002-2003. In: Itinerario 27:3/4, pp. 291-294.
• 2003. Leo Akveld and Els M. Jacobs eds., De kleurrijke wereld van de VOC: Nationaal jubileumboek VOC, 1602-2002. Bussum: Uitgeverij THOTH, 2002. In: Itinerario 27:2 (2003), pp. 155-158.
• 2003. Jos Gommans, Mughal warfare: Indian frontiers and highroads to empire. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002. In: Itinerario 27:1, pp. 117-121.
• 2003. Jos Gommans, Mughal warfare: Indian frontiers and highroads to empire. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002. In: Journal of Early Modern History 7:1/2, pp. 172-178.
• 2002. Nicholas B. Dirks, Castes of mind: Colonialism and the making of modern India. Princeton, NJ, and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2001. In: Itinerario 26:2, pp. 150-153.
• 2002. H.W. van Santen, VOC-dienaar in India: Geleynssen de Jongh in het land van de Groot-Mogol. Franeker: Uitgeverij Van Wijnen, 2001. In: Itinerario 26:1, pp. 167-169.
• 2001. Jos Gommans, Lennart Bes, and Gijs Kruijtzer eds., Dutch sources on South Asia, c. 1600-1825. Volume 1: Bibliography and archival guide to the National Archives at the Hague (the Netherlands). Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2001. In: Itinerario 25:3/4, pp. 230-233.

Upcoming Events

• 
• IOWC Visiting Lecturer: Himanshu Prabha Ray
  28 November 2008, 5-7pm
  The Greeks in the Western Indian Ocean and the Coming of Islam

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• 
• International Conference on Debt & Slavery
  7-9th May, 2009
  Please note the timeline for submission of papers has changed.

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