Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
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KNIL is an acronym for Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger or the Royal Netherlands Indies Army.
KNIL was formed by royal decree on March 10, 1830. It was not part of the Royal Netherlands Army, but a separate military arm specifically formed for the Netherlands East Indies (also known as the Dutch East Indies). It was involved in many campaigns against indigenous groups in the Netherlands East Indies including the Padri War (1821-1845), the Java War (1825-1830), Bali (1849), and the war of Aceh (1873-1901). After Aceh, the Netherlands East Indies were pacified, and the KNIL served a mainly defensive role protecting the Dutch East Indies from invasion by foreign countries. As a result of this, the KNIL was the main defense against the Japanese in the Netherlands East Indies during World War II.
During this period, which spans from December 1941 to March 1942, the KNIL forces wrote some of the best pages of their military history. The Dutch forces in Indonesia mustered about 85,000 troops, a motley combination of regular Dutch and Indonesian KNIL soldiers, militia and civilian volunteers. The airforce was a sizeable force but most of the airplanes were outclassed by the better Japanese fighters and bombers. Nevertheless, when the Japanese attacked the Dutch colony they encountered a stubborn resistance they probably did not expect.
After WWII, the KNIL performed what the Dutch called "police actions" (Politionele acties) but the Indonesians regarded as Dutch military aggression, in an effort to forestall Indonesian independence. In the course of this, the unit became far more controvesial, being accused of war crimes. Eventually, its efforts failed and Indonesian independence was declared. The KNIL ceased to function after July 26, 1950. However, its legacy has lived on in the Regiment Van Heutsz of the Royal Netherlands Army.
The KNIL was largely made up out of foreigners just like the French Foreign Legion only the troops got the keep their own identity. Up until the Aceh war the KNIL enlisted many Europeans (Germans, Belgians, Swiss etc), natives (Molukans, Timorese, and Mandorese) and even the Ashanti (an African Ghanese tribe) to fight in the jungles of the East Indies. After the Aceh war the KNIL consisted of Indonesians, as well as Indo Europeans and Dutch living in the East Indies. It was forbidden by law to send Dutch conscripts from the Netherlands to the Netherlands East Indies. The ratio of foreign troops to Dutch troops was 60% to 40%.
