A capital was established in Batavia (now Jakarta), which became the center of the VOC's Asian trading network. The VOC foremost goal was to wage war, capture Portuguese ships and fortresses, disrupt and take over their trade routes, and replace their treaties with rulers across Asia. Recognising the potential of the East Indies trade, the Dutch government amalgamated the competing companies into the United East India Company ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC). After many skirmishes and hardships, two-thirds of the crew did not return, the ships made it back to Holland and other Dutch expeditions soon followed. See also: Company rule in the Dutch East Indies and Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815) Expansion of the Dutch East Indies in the Indonesian Archipelagoįollowing disruption of Dutch access to spices, the first Dutch expedition set sail to reach the East Indies in 1595 to access spices directly from Asia. In 1580 Portugal formed a union with Spain, and therewith entered the war with the Dutch Republic. The first Europeans to establish themselves in Indonesia were the Portuguese in 1512 who established a network of trading posts and fortresses throughout the region, including at the spice islands of the Maluku islands. The islands were known to the Europeans and were sporadically visited by expeditions such as that of Marco Polo in 1292, and his fellow Italian Odoric of Pordenone in 1321. Sultanates, city states, local kingdoms and tribes were all connected through trade, creating a mixed Hindu-Buddhist-Islamic culture, and Malay as lingua franca throughout the region. By the 16th century, a large part of the Archipelago was ruled under Islamic states, except Bali that retained a Hindu majority. For centuries Hindu-Buddhist civilizations were dominant, increasing trade links instigated the spread of Islam. From classical antiquity on the archipelago was also a major part of the global spice trade. Since centuries BCE the islands were part of migratory and commercial exchange within south-east Asia, India, Arabian peninsula and east-Africa. See also: History of Indonesia Before the Dutch Īt the time when Europeans arrived, the Indonesian archipelago supported various states, including commercially oriented coastal trading states and inland agrarian states (the most important were Srivijaya and Majapahit). Scholars writing in English use the terms Indië, Indies, the Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands Indies, and colonial Indonesia interchangeably. The name Dutch Indies is recorded in the Dutch East India Company's documents of the early 1620s. The original name Dutch Indies ( Dutch: Nederlandsch-Indië) was translated by the English as the Dutch East Indies, to keep it distinct from the Dutch West Indies. The word Indies comes from Latin: Indus ( Names for India). At that point, the entirety of the colony ceased to exist. In 1962, the Dutch turned over their last possession Dutch New Guinea ( Western New Guinea) under the provisions of the New York Agreement. During the Indonesian Revolution and after Indonesian independence, almost all Dutch citizens repatriated to the Netherlands. Indonesia became one of the leading nations of the independence movement after World War II. Heavy pressure from the United States threatened to terminate the financial aid for the Netherlands and lead to the recognition of Indonesian sovereignty at the 1949 Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference. The Dutch responded by building up of an army of nearly two hundred thousand troops which defeated the Indonesian nationalists by attrition warfare. Following the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945, Indonesian nationalist leaders Sukarno and Hatta declared independence instigating the Indonesian National Revolution. Japan's World War II occupation dismantled much of the Dutch colonial state and economy. In the early 20th century, local intellectuals conceived Indonesia as a nation state, and set the stage for an independence movement. The term Indonesia was used for the geographical location after 1880. The colonial social order was rigidly racial with the Dutch elite living separately from but linked to their native subjects. Using exploitative labour, the colony contributed to Dutch global prominence in spice and cash crop trade in the 19th century, and coal and oil exploration in the 20th century. The Dutch East Indies was one of the most exploited colonies under European rule. At the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, the Dutch reign reached the greatest territorial extent in the early 20th century. North Borneo dispute ( Philippine militant attacks)ĭuring the 19th century, the Dutch fought many wars against indigenous rulers and peoples.
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