Imperialism in the Dutch East Indies

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The Dutch East Indies, now known as Indonesia, is one of the island regions of Southeast Asia. It is an archpelagic nation with 13,667 islands, five main islands (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya), and sixty smaller archipelagos. In 1596, a four-ship Dutch fleet entered Indonesian waters on the western tip of Java as well as north-coast Javanese ports returning home with a profitable cargo of spices. Several Dutch trading concerns sent out ships to the island when these voyages became "wild" or unregulated. This was the start of the United East India Company (VOC) which was under a charter issued by the Dutch parliament. The Dutch United East India Company (VOC) established a trading post on the north coast of Java which seized control of the spice trade, and gradually asserted military and political control over the archipelago. Dutch policies served essentially economic goals, such as the exploitation of the East Indies' rich endowment of natural resources. The Dutch government used a method of forced labor called the Cultivation System on Java to gather these natural resources. The enormous projects the Dutch received from the East Indies made the colony the envy of the imperialist powers. The Dutch government sought to improve the welfare of the people because of the cycle of poverty and overpopulation; however, the Dutch did little to promote self-government and did not recognize the people's aspirations for independence.

The Japanese Occupation

The Japanese occupied the archipelago in order to secure its rich natural resources. Japan's invasion of North China by the end of the decade had become bogged down in the face of stubborn Chinese resistance. To feed Japan's war machine, large amounts of petroleum, scrap iron, and other raw materials had to be imported from foreign sources. Indonesia supplied 25% of this oil. Japan demanded that the East Indies government supply it with fixed quantities of vital natural resources, especially oil. Further demands were made for some form of economic and financial integration of the Indies with Japan. The Indies followed the United States in freezing Japanese assets and imposing an embargo on oil and other exports. The Battle of the Java Sea resulted in the Japanese defeat of a combined British, Dutch, Australian, and United States fleet.

The Japanese divided the Indies into three jurisdictions: Java and Madura were placed under the control of the Sixteenth Army; Sumatra, for a time, joined with Malaya under the Twenty-fifth Army; and the eastern archipelago was placed under naval command.

The National Revolution

The East Indies was not granted formal independence by the Japanese in 1943. Japan announced in September 1944 that not only Java but also the entire archipelago would become independent. In March 1945, the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence (BPUPKI) was organized, and delegates came not only from Java, but also from Sumatra and the eastern archipelago to decide the constitution of the new state. The committee wanted the new nation's territory to include not only the East Indies, but also the East Timor. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered and Indonesia gained its independence.

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