"The Dutch Diaspora is a comprehensive and personal study of the Netherlands and its former colonial empire. The Netherlands is considered one of the most successful societies in the world, and at one point was the globe's largest empire - stretching from Japan to the United States. The author, Howard J. Wiarda, having grown up in western Michigan, is himself of Dutch descent, and he combines thorough scholarship with firsthand experience of travels to the Netherlands and its far-flung former colonies. The study analyzes how colonies reacted to the institutional and ideological beliefs implanted by the Dutch settlers, and how those colonies evolved in terms of cultural, religious, and political beliefs."--BOOK JACKET.