Cornelis Christiaan Goslinga (1910–2000)

Cornelis Christiaan Goslinga (22 July 1910 - 1985)

Cornelis Christiaan Goslinga was the son of a shipping Commander Major Christiaan Goslinga (1877-1931) and his wife Catharina Verkade (1883-1960) and was born in Schiedam, Holland on 22 July 1910 and he had five siblings - Maatje Elisabeth, Simon Tjeerd, Christiaan, Jacobus Daniel (1), Jacobus Daniel (2).

Whilst living in Rotterdam before the start of the second world war Cornelis married his wife Catharina Elisabeth Pama, (1915-) on the 13 April 1938 and they then had three children - Marian Goslinga (1939), Catharina (1941), and Christiaan Melle (1947).

Cornelis obtained his Doctorate of Philosophy whilst at the Nijmegen University, Netherlands (1956).

In 1962 he was appointment assistant professor at University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. Then 1967 he was appointed visiting Professor of History at the University of Florida. He became Professor of History at the University of Florida.

When Cornelis Goslinga was preparing his Curaçao and Guzman Blanco: A Case Study of Small Power Politics in the Caribbean (Gainesville, 1975) he assembled some 29 documents from the Rijksarchiv, The Hague, which deal with smuggling between Venezuela and Curaçao in the period 1870–1894 (collection now at the University of Florida).

According to Cornelis Ch. Goslinga: During the years of the [Dutch West India] company's decline, great changes had occured in the Caribbean area. Sugarcane, which had been introduced in the West Indies by Columbus a century and a half earlier, was under cultivation on most of the islands prior to 1650. The English and the French, however, had not known how to convert the cane into sugar, molasses and rum. Dutch refugees from Brazil, who poured into the area after 1654, brought with them the techniques of sugar cultivation and manufacture. Furthermore, Dutch capital helped the French and English planters purchase the necessary equipment on a credit basis. Dutch control of the slave markets in Africa secured the necessary labor. Dutch ships bought up the sugar crops and provided the colonies with food, hardware and other needed commodities throughout that period of English civil strife when the London government could do little to help them. The Dutch did the same with the French. (pages 333-334 of The Dutch in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast, 1580-1680).

He wrote some twelve books about Netherlands Antilles, History, Suriname, Slavery, Dutch Caribbean Area, West-Indische Compagnie (Netherlands), West Indies, and even Venezuelan Painting. In later years he was ably assisted by his daughter Marian, a budding historian.

His 712 page book entitled "The Dutch in the Caribbean and in the Guianas 1680-1791" (1985) was written while he was emeritus professor of the University of Florida. It is a sequel to his "The Dutch in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast 1580-1680" (1971). However, the subjects dealt with in his second volume are different and his source data has been criticized be some. In the earlier study he concentrated on the political and military developments caused by the Dutch penetration in the Americas.

He died in California on the 19 February 2000.

Publications

Emancipatie en emancipator: de geschiedenis van de slavernij op de Benedenwindse Eilanden (1956)
The Dutch in the Caribbean and on the Wild Coast, 1580-1680 (University of Florida Press, 1971)
Curaçao and Guzmán Blanco: A Case Study of Small Power Politics in the Caribbean (1975)
Tápame en andere Antilliaanse verhalen (1975)
A short history of the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, (1979)
De Trinitaria (1981)
Los holandeses en el Caribe (1983)
The Dutch in the Caribbean and the Guianas 1680-1791 (1985)
The Dutch in the Caribbean and in Surinam, 1791/5-1942 (1990)
Sjons en slaven. Verhalen uit de Antilliaanse slaventijd (1992)
Christina historische roman over de Nederlandse slavenhandel (2000)