Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies Dutch colony ← 1800–1949 → Flag Coat of arms Map of the Dutch East Indies showing its territorial expansion from 1800 to its fullest extent prior to Japanese occupation in 1942. Capital Batavia Government Colonial administration Governor-General List of Governors-General History  - VOC in Indonesia 1603 to 1800  - Nationalisation of the VOC 1 January 1800  - Japanese occupation[1] March 1949  - Dutch recognition of Indonesian sovereignty 27 December 1949 Currency Dutch East Indies Gulden

This article is part of the History of Indonesia series
See also: Timeline of Indonesian History
Prehistory
Early kingdoms
Tarumanagara (358-669)
Srivijaya (7th to 13th centuries)
Sailendra (8th to 9th centuries)
Sunda Kingdom (669-1579)
Medang Kingdom (752–1045)
Kediri (1045–1221)
Singhasari (1222–1292)
Majapahit (1293–1500)
The rise of Muslim states
The spread of Islam (1200–1600)
Sultanate of Ternate (1257–....)
Malacca Sultanate (1400–1511)
Sultanate of Demak (1475–1548)
Aceh Sultanate (1496–1903)
Sultanate of Banten (1526–1813)
Mataram Sultanate (1500s to 1700s)
European colonialism
The Portuguese (1512–1850)
Dutch East India Co. (1602–1800)
Dutch East Indies (1800–1942)
The emergence of Indonesia
National awakening (1899–1942)
Japanese occupation (1942–1945)
National revolution (1945–1950)
Independent Indonesia
Liberal democracy (1950–1957)
Guided Democracy (1957–1965)
Start of the New Order (1965–1966)
The New Order (1966–1998)
Reformasi era (1998–present)
Edit this template

The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, (Dutch: Nederlands-Indië; Indonesian: Hindia-Belanda) was the Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the former Dutch East India Company that came under the administration of the Netherlands in 1800. During the nineteenth century, Dutch possessions in the archipelago and its hegemony were expanded, reaching their greatest extent in the early twentieth century. Following the World War II Japanese occupation, Indonesian nationalists declared Indonesian independence in 1945. Thereafter and as a consequence of the subsequent Indonesian National Revolution, the Netherlands formally recognised Indonesian sovereignty in December 1949.

Establishing a hegemonic Indies empire

In an 1806 to 1816 interregnum, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British took over administration of several Dutch East Indies posts including Java before Dutch control was restored. The fact that Indonesia still drives on the left is a legacy of this period. The 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty, ceded Dutch control of Malacca, the Malay Peninsula, and possessions in India (Dutch India from 1609) to Great Britain in exchange for British settlements in Indonesia, such as Bengkulu in Sumatra. The resulting delineation of borders between British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies remains today between Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively. The capital of the Dutch East Indies was Batavia, now known as Jakarta, which remains the capital of the Indonesian republic.

For most of the Dutch East Indies history, and that of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) before it, Dutch control over these territories was tenuous; it was not until the early 20th century that Dutch dominance was extended to what was to become the boundaries of modern-day Indonesia. Although Java was under Dutch domination for most of the 350 years of the combined VOC and Dutch East Indies era, many areas remained independent for much of this time including Aceh, Lombok, and Borneo.^[2]

The submission of Prince Diponegoro to General De Kock at the end of the Java War in 1830

There were numerous wars and disturbances across the archipelago as various indigenous Indonesian groups resisted efforts to establish a Dutch hegemony, which weakened Dutch control and tied up its military forces.^[3] In the seventeenth century, the VOC had used its superior arms, and Buginese (from Sulawesi) and Ambonese (from Maluku) mercenaries to expand and protect its trading interests across the archipelago. The most prolonged conflicts were the Padri War in Sumatra (1821–38), the Java War (1825–30) led by Prince Diponegoro, and a thirty-year war in Aceh. Although each resulted in an eventual Dutch ascendancy, Indonesians used Islam as a vehicle for opposition to the Dutch, which along with communism and nationalism, would be used to a much greater extent and eventual success in the twentieth century struggle for independence (see Indonesian National Revival and Indonesian National Revolution).^[2]

Disturbances continued to break out on both Java and Sumatra during the remainder of the 19th century, and between 1846 and 1849, expeditions to conquer Bali were largely unsuccessful. The Banjarmasin War in southeast Borneo resulted in the Dutch defeat of the sultan. In Aceh, guerrilla leaders fought off Dutch invasion in what was the longest and bloodiest conflict from 1873 to Acehnese surrender in 1908. As exploitation of Indonesian resources expanded off Java, most of the outer islands came under direct Dutch government control or influence. Significant Indonesian piracy remained a problem for the Dutch until the mid-19th century.^[2]

Under the 1904–1909 tenure of governor-general J.B. van Heutsz, the government extended more direct colonial rule throughout the Dutch East Indies, thereby laying the foundations of today's Indonesian state.^[4] Although relatively minor, Indonesian rebellions broke out, but control was taken off the remaining independent local rulers although their wealth and splendour under the Dutch grew;^[5] southwestern Sulawesi was occupied in 1905–06, the island of Bali in 1906-08 with the Dutch intervention in Bali (1906) and finally the Dutch intervention in Bali (1908), and the Bird's Head Peninsula (West Papua), was brought under Dutch administration in 1920. This final territorial range would form the territory of the Republic of Indonesia proclaimed in 1945, with the exception of Netherlands New Guinea territory, which became part of the Indonesian republic in the 1960s.

Economic and social history

Workers pose at the site of a railway tunnel under construction in the mountains, 1910.

Dutch economic strategy for the colony during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries can be defined along three overlapping periods: the Cultivation System, the Liberal Period, and the Ethical Period. Throughout these periods, and until Indonesian independence, the exploitation of Indonesia's wealth contributed to the industrialisation of the Netherlands. Large expanses of Java, for example, became plantations cultivated by Javanese peasants, collected by Chinese intermediaries, and sold on overseas markets by European merchants. Before World War II, the Dutch East Indies produced most of the world's supply of quinine and pepper, over a third of its rubber, a quarter of its coconut products, and a fifth of its tea, sugar, coffee, and oil. Indonesia made the Netherlands one of the world's most significant colonial powers.^[2]

Despite increasing returns from the Dutch system of land tax, Dutch finances had been severely affected by the cost of the Java and Padri Wars. The Dutch loss of Belgium in 1830 brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy, and a concerted Dutch exploitation of Indonesian resources commenced. In 1830, a new Governor-General, Johannes van den Bosch, was appointed to make the Dutch East Indies pay their way. An agricultural policy of government-controlled forced cultivation was introduced to Java. Known as the Cultivation System (Dutch: cultuurstelsel); much of Java became a Dutch plantation, making it a profitable, self-sufficient colony and saving the Netherlands from bankruptcy. The Cultivation System, however, brought much economic hardship to Javanese peasants, who suffered famine and epidemics in the 1840s.^[2]

Critical public opinion in the Netherlands led to much of the Cultivation System's excesses being eliminated under the agrarian reforms of the "Liberal Period". From 1870, producers were no longer compelled to provide crops for exports, but the Indies were open up to private enterprise, which developed large plantations. Sugar production, for example, doubled between 1870 and 1885; new crops such as tea and cinchona flourished, and rubber was introduced, leading to dramatic increases in Dutch profits. However, the resulting scarcity of land for rice production, combined with dramatically increasing populations, especially in Java, led to further hardships. Changes were not limited to Java, or agriculture; oil from Sumatra and Kalimantan became a valuable resource for industrialising Europe. Dutch commercial interests expanded off Java to the outer islands with increasingly more territory coming under direct Dutch government control or dominance in the latter half of the nineteenth century.^[2]

In 1898, the population of Java numbered twenty-eight million with another seven million on Indonesia's outer islands.^[6]

In 1901 the Dutch adopted what they called the Ethical Policy, under which the colonial government had a duty to further the welfare of the Indonesian people in health and education. Other new policies included irrigation programs, transmigration, communications, flood mitigation, industrialisation, and protection of native industry. Political reform increased the autonomy to the local colonial administration, moving a degree from central control from the Netherlands, whilst power was also diverged from the central government to more localised governing units. Although far more progressive than previous policies, the humanitarian policies were ultimately inadequate. While a small elite of secondary and tertiary-educated Indonesians developed, the overwhelming majority of Indonesians remained illiterate. Primary schools were established and officially open to all, but by 1930, only 8% of school-aged children received an education. Industrialisation did not significantly effect the majority of Indonesians, and Indonesia remained an agricultural colony; by 1930, there were 17 cities with populations over 50,000 with a combined population of 1.87 million.^[5] However, the education reforms, and modest political reform, resulted in the creation of a small elite of highly educated indigenous Indonesians, who promoted the idea of an independent and unified "Indonesia" that would bring together disparate indigenous groups of the Dutch East Indies. A period termed the Indonesian National Revival, the first half of the twentieth century saw the nationalist movement develop strongly, but also face Dutch oppression.^[2]

Removal of the colonial state

The invasion and occupation of Indonesia during World War II brought about the destruction of the colonial state in Indonesia, as the Japanese removed as much of the Dutch state as they could, replacing it with their own regime. Although the top positions were held by the Japanese, the internment of all Dutch citizens meant that Indonesians filled many leadership and administrative positions. Following the Japanese surrender in August 1945, nationalist leaders Sukarno and Hatta declared Indonesian independence. A four and a half-year struggle followed as the Dutch tried to re-establish their colony; although Dutch forces re-occupied most of Indonesia's territory a guerrilla struggle ensued, and the majority of Indonesians, and ultimately international opinion, favoured Indonesian independence. In December 1949, the Netherlands formally recognised Indonesian sovereignty.

The 1949 agreement, however, left out Western New Guinea, which remained under the auspices of Netherlands New Guinea. The Indonesian government under Sukarno pressured for the territory to come under Indonesian control. Skirmishes took place between 1961 and 1962, including a brief naval engagement in 1962. The United States pressured the Netherlands to surrender it to Indonesia in August under terms negotiated in the New York Agreement. At the same time, the Australian government reversed its policy and supported Indonesian control of the area. As a result, the Dutch turned-over the territory to UNTEA temporary administration in 1962, who was subsequently replaced by Indonesian administration on May 1963. Today, it remains as part of Indonesia.

Nostalgia

Portrait of a European family living in Batavia. Dated between 1900 and 1940.

Many surviving colonial families and their descendants who moved back to the Netherlands after Independence or after the 1950s lessening Dutch colonial presence tended to look back on the era with a sense of the power and prestige they had in the colony with such items as the 1970s book Tempo Doeloe (Old times), and other books and materials that became quite common in the 1970s and 1980s.^[7]

Indo (Eurasian) repatriants

The majority of Dutchmen that repatriated to the Netherlands after and during the Indonesian revolution are Indo (Eurasian), native to the islands of the Dutch East Indies. This relatively large Eurasian population had developed over a period of 400 years and were classified by colonial law as belonging to the European legal community.^[8]

In Dutch they are referred to as 'Indische Nederlanders' (Indies Dutchmen) or Indo (short for Indo-European). Of the 296,200 so called Dutch 'repatriants' only 92,200 were expatriate Dutchmen born in the Netherlands.^[9] Being part Indonesian as well as born and bred in the Dutch East Indies this first generation immigrant group is particularly prone to nostalgia.^[10]

Including their 2nd generation descendants, they are currently the largest foreign born group in the Netherlands. In 2008, the Dutch Census Buro for Statistics (CBS)^[11] registered 387,000 first and second generation Indos living in the Netherlands.^[12]

See also

• Dutch Empire
• History of Indonesia
• Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
• Government Navy

References

General

• Boomgaard, Peter (2001) (in Dutch), Het Indië Boek, Zwolle: Waanders, ISBN 978-90-400-9594-8. 
• Braudel, Fernand, The perspective of the World, vol III in Civilization and Capitalism, 1984
• Reid, Anthony (1974). The Indonesian National Revolution 1945-1950. Melbourne: Longman Pty Ltd. ISBN 0-582-71046-4. 
• Ricklefs, M.C. (1991). A Modern History of Indonesia, 2nd edition. MacMillan. chapters 10–15. ISBN 0-333-57690-X. 
• Vickers, Adrian (2005). A History of Modern Indonesia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54262-6. 
• Witton, Patrick (2003). Indonesia. Melbourne: Lonely Planet. pp. 23–25. ISBN 1-74059-154-2. 

Notes

External links

• "dutch+indies") 11 Dutch Indies objects in 'The European Library Harvest'
• Parallel and Divergent Aspects of British Rule in the Raj, French Rule in Indochina, Dutch Rule in the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia), and American Rule in the Philippines