Editing History of the Netherlands (section)

===Slave trade===
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Although slavery was illegal inside the Netherlands it flourished in the Dutch Empire, and helped support the economy.<ref>Postma, Johannes, ''The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600–1815'' (2008){{Full citation needed|date=November 2012}}, p. {{Page needed|date=October 2011}}</ref> In 1619 The Netherlands took the lead in building large-scale [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trading]] between Africa and Virginia, by 1650 becoming the pre-eminent slave trading country in Europe. It was overtaken by Britain around 1700. Historians agree that in all the Dutch shipped about 550,000 African slaves across the Atlantic, about 75,000 of whom died on board before reaching their destinations. From 1596 to 1829, the Dutch traders sold 250,000 slaves in the Dutch Guianas, 142,000 in the Dutch Caribbean islands, and 28,000 in Dutch Brazil.<ref>van Welie, Rik, [http://www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/nwig/article/view/3580/4340 "Slave Trading and Slavery in the Dutch Colonial Empire: A Global Comparison"], ''NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids,'' 2008, Vol. 82 Issue 1/2, pp. 47–96, Table 2 & Table 3. Retrieved 9 October 2011.</ref> In addition, tens of thousands of slaves, mostly from India and some from Africa, were carried to the Dutch East Indies<ref>Markus Vink, [https://historycooperative.org/journal/the-worlds-oldest-trade-dutch-slavery-and-slave-trade-in-the-indian-ocean-in-the-seventeenth-century-3/ "'The World's Oldest Trade': Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century"], ''Journal of World History'', 14.2 (2003):</ref> and slaves from the East Indies to Africa and the West Indies.