What if the Dutch Empire Reunited Today?

During the a hundred year period between the late 16th and late 17th centuries, the Dutch Empire was at its all time territorial peak and controlled a significant chunk of the world's land area, scattered across many different continents and in all corners of the globe, with many vital colonies in possession. The empire's naval and sea power was also one of the most powerful and dominant in the world at its time which assisted it to gain its overseas territories. However, as always, the glorious territorial and power apex of the Dutch didn't last for long, though, and gradually, as the 18th and 19th centuries dawned, new powers such as the British and the French began to slowly gain influence in regions the Dutch previously held, even losing many colonies like Ceylon, Southern India, South Africa and its American territories, until finally, at the end of the Colonial Period,  the Dutch's last colony, Suriname was granted full independence in 1975, marking the official end of the empire. But what if it reunited today?

The first thing we need to think about a reunited Dutch Empire is the population and land it would directly control. To begin with a total of 15 modern-day countries would lose all or some of their territory to the empire: Belgium, Brazil, France (Overseas Territories and Regions), Ghana, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Taiwan and the United States. 4 of these countries would be located in Europe, 4 in Asia, 3 would be in Africa, 3 in South America, and 1 in North America.

Due to a vast number of countries making up the empire, it would have a large land area, standing at around 3,323,000 Square Kilometres (1,283,000 Sq mi). This would be huge and also enough to make it the 7th biggest country in the world, larger than other big countries like an independent India (3,287,000 Sq km) and Argentina (2,780,000 Sq km), but still very much smaller than Australia (7,692,000 Sq km) and an independent Brazil (8,515,000 Sq km).

Despite being significantly smaller than Australia in land area, the Dutch Empire would actually dwarf its population, with a gargantuan 461 Million citizens living within its borders, compared to Australia's puny 26 Million in comparison. This amount would easily make it the 3rd most populous country in the world, even having more than 100 Million people than an independent United States (331 Million) and nearly double the population of an independent Indonesia (276 Million) the amount of times I have to say  the word independent really shows how prevalent the Dutch Empire was in the world, but of course significantly behind the population mammoths of an independent India (1.38 Billion) and China (1.4 Billion).

As well as all of this, a reunited Dutch Empire would also boast some huge and impressive cities, with lot's to show for, scattered all around its territories in all different continents and cultures. If we had to choose a capital city for the empire in the real world, the most likely option to pick from would be Amsterdam, in the Netherlands itself, as not only is this city the historic capital of the Dutch in the 16th and 17th centuries, but is also still a modest-sized economic and population hub today. Even though, Amsterdam would be the most probable capital city, however, this would definitely not be the biggest city in its borders; far from it even. Instead, Jakarta, in Indonesia, would be the biggest, with a huge population of 32,100,000. Here would be the rest of the top 10 biggest urban areas in the Dutch Empire.

Bringing us to the next topic, on top of all of this, the Dutch Empire would also have a gargantuan economy, even around the same size as other notable and huge economies. With a GDP standing at $6.271 Trillion, this whopping amount would be enough to easily place the empire in 3rd place, in terms of Nominal GDP, steaming past every single economy, like even Japan ($5.378 Trillion), Germany ($4.319 Trillion) and the United Kingdom ($3.124 Trillion), but the two first and second place economic juggernauts: China ($16.642 Trillion) and the United States ($22.675 Trillion).

Despite having a massive total GDP, the Nominal GDP Per Capita of the empire wouldn't really be that impressive, mainly due to some quite impoverished areas within its borders such as Indonesia, Ghana and more. Taking all of this into consideration, and with the actual calculations done, the average yearly income of a citizen in the empire would be $13,609. This would still be enough to make it have the 76th highest per capita income in the world, even above the Global Average of $11,339 and many other countries and territories too, such as Monserrat ($13,487) and Palau ($12,850), but poorer than Panama ($13,690) and Antigua and Barbuda ($13,824).

Staying on the wealth and economy side of the Dutch Empire's statistics, it would also control a small portion of the world's oil reserves, located in Indonesia, which would make it a key player in the oil exporting industry around the world.

The next topic we need to think about a reunited Dutch Empire is the religious and ethnic groups that would be prevalent within its borders.

Starting with Religion, Islam, quite surprisingly would actually be the faith with the most followers in the empire mainly due to the huge population growth and spread of the religion across the Indonesian part of its borders which would in total make just over half of the population 57% to be precise) adhere to it. Having a massive 242 Million Muslims in the country would also actually make it the largest Muslim country by people as well which would be quite interesting. Following behind 19% would be Christians, which would be closely trailed by Hindus at 17% and Buddhists at 3.1%. The final 3.7% of the population would be a mix of various different small religions prevalent in the empire and Atheists.

Looking at Ethnic Groups now, first up would be Dravidian ethnicities, with the majority of them being located in the country's territories in the Indian subcontinent, which would altogether be collectively the largest in the empire representing 25%  Next, following extremely closely behind, being the second largest ethnic group in the empire, would be Javanese people, native to Indonesia, representing 24%.This would be trailed by people that identify as exclusively Black at 10.8% and people that identify as exclusively White making up a further 5%. Ironically, Dutch people would actually only be the 5th largest ethnic group, representing just 2.3% of the population. The final 38.9% would be a mix of various other different ethnicities in the empire.

Similar to its religious and ethnic groups, the languages spoken among the Dutch Empire's citizens would also be very interesting. First of all, various different languages native to Indonesia, such as Javanese, Sundanese and Indonesian, would collectively be the most spoken languages in the empire, with 57% of the population natively speaking them altogether. Next, at 13%, would be Tamil speakers mainly focused around the empire's land in Tamil Nadu, which would be followed by Malayalam at 7.1%, English at 4.7%, Sinhala at 4.1% and Dutch at 3.6%. The final 10.5% of the population would be a mi of various other small languages in the empire's borders.

One specific official languages for a reunited Dutch Empire would be very difficult to predict mainly due to the wide variety of different languages spoken within it but I suspect that there would be many official languages, depending on the most spoken of them.

Finally, the last thing we need to think about a reunited Dutch Empire is its military, which would definitely be as impressive as any other of its statistics. Beginning with manpower, the empire would possess a huge 837,200 active-duty personnel, which would actually be the 6th largest force in the world even significantly larger than many other formidable armies such as Pakistan (654,000 troops) and Iran (610,000 troops), but behind the amount of Russia (1,014,000 troops) and North Korea's (1,280,000 troops). In addition to this, the empire would also find in possession a further 2,142,000 troops placed in reserves, which would bring its army to a massive total of 2,979,200.

The budget to fund this enormous military would also stand at a large amount of $55.9 Billion, which would become the 6th highest budget in the world, ahead of the budgets of France ($50.1 Billion) and Germany ($49.3 Billion) but behind the budgets of Saudi Arabia ($61.9 Billion) and Russia ($65.1 Billion).