Thursday, August 4, 2011

DTN News - DUTCH EAST INDIES: Dutch Colony That Became Modern Indonesia ~ Part Of Our Roots

Defense News: DTN News - DUTCH EAST INDIES: Dutch Colony That Became Modern Indonesia ~ Part Of Our Roots
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 4, 2011: This morning I received a very pleasant email from my younger brother Bob with a photo image of Indonesia during the 1930's era showing our grandparents, uncles and aunts. Our grandfather Rademaker was a ranking officer in the Dutch Indies armed forces and the photograph has been taken somewhere in Batavia (Indonesia) at an army cantonment base.


Dutch East India Company in Indonesia and Economic History
In the 14th century, the Indonesian archipelago thrived with many kingdoms and a spice trade controlled by Arabs. The first Europeans to arrive were the Portuguese in 1498. The Dutch war of independence against Spain, and the Spanish and Portuguese union disrupted Dutch access to spices brought to Europe by the Portuguese. Wishing, therefore, to ship spices from Asia themselves, the first Dutch expedition set sail for the East Indies in 1595. When it made a 400% profit on its return, other Dutch expeditions soon followed, but the competing merchant companies cut into their own profits. Recognising the potential of the East Indies trade, the Dutch government amalgamated the companies into the United East India Company (VOC).

As the British did with the East India Company, the Dutch granted a charter to the VOC to wage war, build fortresses, and make treaties across Asia. Where the Dutch thought the local rulers to be too weak, the VOC used violence to gain control and these became the first truly colonised areas. A capital was established at Batavia (now Jakarta), which became the centre of the VOC's Asian trading network. To their original monopolies on nutmeg, mace spice, cloves and cinnamon, the company and later the colonial government introduced non-indigenous cash crops like coffee, tea, cacao, tobacco, rubber, sugar and opium, and safeguarded their commercial interests by taking over surrounding territory.

Despite its profit, the company went bust in the late 18th century. It was formally dissolved in 1800 with its colonial possessions in the Indonesian archipelago—including much of Java, parts of Sumatra, much of Maluku, and the hinterlands of their ports such as Makasar and Menado on Sulawesi and Kupang on Timor—were nationalised under the Dutch Republic as the Dutch East Indies.



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