A maritime coffee chain and the making of a colonial coffeescape
From coffee cultivation on Java to consumption in the Netherlands between 1700 and 1950
T.M. van den Brink (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
C.M. Hein – Promotor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
U. Bosma – Promotor (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
R.J. Rutte – Copromotor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
This thesis examines the 250-year spatial development of the maritime coffee chain connecting Java and the Netherlands between 1700 and 1950. By integrating the Global Commodity Chain framework with the Petroleumscape concept, the study demonstrates how state institutions, private businesses, shipping companies, social associations, and intermediaries together formed a colonial “coffeescape,” consisting of a logistical, governance, and imaginative layer.
Based on extensive archival research and detailed contemporary maps and images, architectural and spatial analyses, the thesis demonstrates how the expansion of coffee cultivation on Java profoundly transformed its landscape. The advancing frontier was initially strongly anchored in forced labour after which it was succeeded by free market forces. However, both systems led to an enormous environmental degradation. The thesis further shows how this process was connected to developments in port cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam and their hinterland which underwent substantial infrastructural, organisational, and imaginative changes as they processed ever‑increasing volumes of Java coffee.
The spatial perspective applied in this research shows that decision makers shaped the Coffeescape far beyond their own locations, revealing the wider consequences of their choices. Reflecting on sustainability, the thesis argues that understanding past systems of extraction and chain coordination is essential for evaluating the global environmental impacts of future decisions and the role of port cities. This coffeescape’s history demonstrates the enduring consequences of commodity-driven development. The research therefore concludes that sustainable futures require engaging with the perspectives and decisions of organisations shaping these global maritime commodity chain today rather than by abstract models.
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