Dutch king apologizes for the monarchy's role in global slave trade

Dutch king apologizes for the monarchy's role in global slave tradeEnlarge this image toggle caption Remko de Waal/AP Remko de Waal/APThe King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, on Saturday apologized for his ancestors' role in perpetuating a global slave trade that saw hundreds of thousands of colonized peoples trafficked away from their homes to work on enterprises that enriched the Dutch state. Late last year the long-standing Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, also apologized during a speech at the country's National Archives. Many of the descendants of enslaved people now live in the Netherlands as Dutch citizens. The Dutch were at one point — through a state-sanctioned private enterprise called the Dutch West India Company — the most prolific trans-Atlantic slave traders of all the European powers. The Dutch monarch also promised a similar effort to that recently undertaken by King Charles III of Britain to examine his own family's history of involvement in the slave trade.