Indonesia-Dutch History Essay, Research Paper

NATIONALISM – people?s sense of belonging together as a nation

- loyalty to the nation, pride in its culture and history

- a desire for national independence

- movement in which the nation-state is regarded as paramount for the realization of social, economic and cultural aspirations of people

I. CAUSES FOR THE RISE OF NATIONALISM IN INDONESIA

- the Indonesians seeked for unity in their country to fight the colonizers (Dutch) that are getting their natural products to improve their own economy

- the Indonesians didn?t like the Dutch to have a better economy than they do

- the Indonesians also thought that there might be a possibility that the Dutch will conquer their lands so they formed groups that are against them

- the Dutch penetrated the Javanese society more deeply and they expanded their control to other regions

- the Dutch annexed large areas of central Java and enforced the ?Culture System? on the Indonesians which was very unfair to the peasants who had to devote 1/5 of their land for the government?s use

- unjust treatment of Dutch to the Indonesians regarding trading, economic and political rights

II. METHODS USED

- through direct force and alliances with native leaders, the Dutch governor-general, Coen, tried to stop the inter island network of traders from engaging in international trade.

- The Dutch clashed briefly with Mataram, then settled into a period of coexistence. The Dutch captured Malacca in 1641, but Malacca no longer had complete control of the spice trade to Europe. To gain a trade monopoly, the company allowed cloves to be grown only on the island of Ambon and nutmeg and mace to be grown only in the Banda Islands. The company destroyed the spice trees in other places. In 1678, Mataram was forced to cede the Priangan region of western Java to the Dutch company.

- The Dutch East India Company introduced coffee and other new crops to Java. It also started a system of forced deliveries of crops that relied heavily on cooperation from agreeable Javanese aristocrats

- Dutch interference in Mataram?s affairs led to the kingdom?s division in 1755. In the Moluccas, the Dutch extended their trading rights into political control. Elsewhere in the eastern islands, most local rulers retained their internal autonomy but were drawn into special relationships with the Dutch

III. OUTLINE OF EVENTS

- Britain occupied Java briefly during the Napoleonic Wars

- Both the British and later the Dutch tried to centralize and reform Java?s administration

- The Dutch wavered between opening the area to individual enterprise and reverting to a monopoly system

- From 1825 to 1830 the Javanese prince led a guerilla revolt against the Dutch

- The wars, which left as many as 200,000 dead, cost the Dutch huge sums of money and they ultimately decided for a government monopoly

- The Dutch annexed large areas of central Java and in 1830 introduced the Culture System, under which peasants had to devote part of their land (one fifth or more) to cultivating government-designated export crops instead of rice. Extremely profitable for the Dutch, the system was blamed for widespread famine in parts of Java in the 1840?s and 1850?s.

- As the Dutch penetrated Javanese society more deeply, they also expanded their control to other regions.

- By 1837, they had imposed their rule over parts of the Sumatran interior, and in 1858 they annexed the northeastern coastal principalities. Dutch rule beyond Java, however, was something indirect.

- In the mid-19th century Dutch liberals campaigned against the Culture System, and by the 1870s some of the system?s harshest aspects were removed. The new Liberal Policy gave farmers more freedom to grow crops they wanted.

- Oil, tin, and rubber later began to replace coffee, sugar, and tobacco as the main exports to Europe. These products came largely from outside Java, and the Dutch took control of the islands where they were produced.

- In the late 19th century, the Dutch were engaged in a 30 year was with Aceh and Bali, which ended in 1908 in the former and 1909 in the latter

- By this time, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, the Lesser Sunda Islands and most of Borneo had also been brought under firmer Dutch control

- The first important vehicle for the anti-Dutch nationalist movement was the Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union), establish in 1912.

- Growing out of a protective association for batik merchants, the Sarekat Islam by 1918 claimed a membership of more than 2 million people throughout the archipelago.

- The Dutch were initially conciliatory toward Sarekat Islam, and in 1916 they established the Volksraad (People?s council)

- In the Volksraad, selected representatives of major population groups could deliberate and offer advice to the government

- After World War 1 (1914-1918), however, and especially after an abortive Communist- led insurrection in 1926 and 1927, the Dutch government adopted a more repressive policy

- In the 1920?s the Indonesian nationalist movement was headed by leaders who were not primarily Muslim, notably Sukarno, an advocate of complete independence who founded the Indonesian Nationalism Party in 1927

- Despite the Dutch arrests and exiles of Sukarno, other nationalist leaders and the banning of the PNI and other non cooperating parties, the nationalist movement maintained its momentum

- Only after Germany overran the Netherlands during World War II (1913-1945), however, did the Dutch even hint at a postwar transfer of political authority

- The Indonesian army of more than a million troops, officially organized to help the Japanese, used the opportunity for officer training and showed its mettle in the fights against the Dutch in the Indonesian revolution (1945-1949)

- The summer of 1945, with impending defeat in sight, the Japanese tried to make a gift of independence to the Indonesians, But Sukarno?s government did not want it as a gift from the Japanese.

- The Indonesians declared themselves a republic

IV. INDONESIAN NATIONALIST LEADER

SUKARNO?.

- Paramount leader of Indonesia?s nationalist movement and the country?s first president

- First expounded his political ideas in an article on Nationalism and Marxism, a synthesis the marked his political thought throughout his career

- During the Japanese occupation he was permitted to promote Indonesian nationalist aims in return for mobilizing support for the Japanese war effort

- In 1945, just after Japan?s surrender, Sukarno proclaimed Indonesia?s independence

- He subsequently led the new republic?s struggle against the re imposition of Dutch colonial rule, and Sukarno continued as Indonesia?s president after the Dutch formally transferred sovereignty in 1949

- When the system of parliamentary government proved ineffective, Sukarno in late 1956 called for the dissolution of all political parties; in 2959 he instituted his so-called Guided Democracy and the following year he dissolved the elected parliament

- He compelled the Dutch to cede West Irian and proclaimed a ?confrontation? with the newly formed Federation of Malaysia in 1963. He took Indonesia out of the United Nations in 1965

- An attempted coup led to Sukarno?s downfall. He acted indecisively in its after math, he could prevent neither the mass killings that followed nor the elimination of the Communist party. The army leader General Suharto forced Sukarno to delegate effective power to him in March 1970

V. OUTCOMES

- The Dutch launched what was called the ?police action?, a vicious attack on the territories held by the Republic of Indonesia. A shocked world brought pressure on the Dutch primarily through the United Nations Agencies

- The Security Council adopted a cease-fire resolution on August 1, 1947. It also established a Committee of Good Offices, consisting of the United states, Belgium, and Australia to talk to the two parties. An agreement emerged in January 1948 proposing plebiscites in various islands of the archipelago to decide whether the inhabitants preferred to join the Indonesian republic or to have Dutch sovereignty continue

- The clashed between the Dutch and Indonesian forces continued on a small scale, escalating into another ?police action? in December 1948

- At the conference?s urging, the Security Council ordered an immediate cease-fire, release of political prisoners, and the reestablishment of the republican government in Jogjakarta.

- The United States also brought tremendous pressure on the Netherlands government, which yielded to the tide of world opinion, finally agreeing to transfer sovereignty to Indonesian hands on December 27,1949

- Indonesian nationalism had, at last, fully triumphed over an obstinate colonialism