Netherlands East Indies
Netherlands (Dutch) East Indies (Nederlands[ch] Oost-Indie) was the colony covering much of present-day Indonesia. Until the late 1700s, the East Indies Company (VOC) represented Dutch authority in Asia. Headquartered in Batavia (now Jakarta), the VOC had posts and territories that stretched from South Africa to Japan. The Netherlands Indies arose when the Dutch government acquired VOC possessions in 1795 and the bankrupt company's charter lapsed in 1800. The Dutch lost their Asian territories outside the Indonesian archipelago, especially during the Napoleonic Wars, and from 1824 their sphere of influence was confined to present-day Indonesia. In 1830, the Dutch ruled only Java and parts of Sumatra and other islands; they gradually conquered or incorporated the remainder of the archipelago, especially in the 1870–1911 period.
Batavia remained the colony's administrative center, with a governor-general ruling on behalf of the Dutch state. The archipelago was divided into gewesten (provinces), generally headed by residents. The lower levels of administration were largely indigenous, either consisting of coopted local elites, such as the bupati (regents) on Java, or zelfbesturen (native states) with limited autonomy. Nineteenth-century colonial policy was aimed at enriching the Dutch, first through forced cultivation (the Cultivation System—Cultuurstelsel), and from 1870 by the Liberal Policy that opened the economy to private enterprise. The 1901 Ethical Policy aimed also to improve local living standards and make education more widely available.
In the twentieth century, the Netherlands Indies gradually became constitutionally distinct from the Netherlands. The Volksraad (People's Council), elected by restricted franchise and with limited legislative powers, was created in 1918; in 1922, the Indies became a rijksdeel (part of the realm), formally on par with the Netherlands. There were, however, no official plans for eventual independence or autonomy, despite the demands of a nationalist movement.
The Japanese conquered most of the Indies in 1942, and a colonial government-in-exile was established in Australia. On 6/7 December 1942 (6 December in the Netherlands, 7 December in Indonesia), Queen Wilhelmina promised postwar reforms, but after the 1945 Indonesian revolution the Dutch were able to recover only part of the Indies. The Dutch sought to retain influence by creating a federal system, including the nationalist Indonesian Republic, but military and diplomatic pressure forced them to transfer sovereignty to independent Indonesia in December 1949.
Further Reading
de Kat Angelino, A. D. A. (1931) Colonial Policy: Vol. 2 of The Dutch East Indies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vandenbosch, Amry. (1942) The Dutch East Indies: Its Government, Problems, and Politics. 3d ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
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