The Sufferer and the Witness

The colonial experience of Indonesia was a difficult one to endure. Four hundred years of suffering, captivity, and struggles. The explorers of the Portuguese, interesting to the oblivious natives, soon became a harbinger of doom (12); economic exploitations brought by the Dutch ensnared the citizens in an endless loop of poverty; the Japanese treaties led to the torture and agony of millions of Indonesians, executed and raped by the Japanese military.(13)

Yes, the colonial experience tolerated by the natives of Indonesia was marked by anguish, malicious intent, and emotional scarring. Victims of violent injustice since the Portuguese arrived in 1511 (14), continuing with the drawing up of the treaties with the Dutch Netherlands, the Indonesian people finally decided to rise up and claim their independence. Dutch control over the indigenous led to inhuman and cruel treatment; over three-thousand villagers were left dead after an expedition to the village of Aceh. In some places, up to twenty percent of the Indonesian population was wiped out by the Dutch!(15)

And yet the Dutch control over Indonesia was not all negative. Other than expanding the lands of Indonesia far greater than a native could possibly imagine, the Dutch provided a system of education for a small portion of the natives.(16) Its ‘Ethical Policy’ crafted bickering Indonesian aristocrats into an educated elite. The poor natives were economically supported.(17) With the negatives the Dutch provided, a number of positives were also left behind.

Contrarily, however, this was near opposite in the case of the Japanese; no observable benefits lingered when the Japanese departed Indonesia. Not only were thousands snatched as war laborers and died of dehydration, starvation, or of the elements, but a huge portion of Indonesian women were tortured and raped; many men endured the false accusations of war crimes and were executed.(18) The harshness of the crimes also differed, depending on a person’s location and economic status.(19) It seems, then, that only one country provided Indonesia with the tools they needed to self-suffice: the Dutch provided Indonesia with a huge influence in economics and education, which flourished after Indonesia declared its independence; they provided more land and expansion of territory for the natives; lastly, and most importantly, they united the nation of Indonesia.

At the end of the day, as humans, you naturally remember gave you a bandage for a cut and who else poured salt into the wound. The Dutch provided Indonesia with the proper tools to stand tall and survive on its own; they gave the Indonesians tools meant to be used when needed. And use them they did.




The highlighted portion represents the extent of VOC influence, as well as the approximate size of Indonesia and the scattered villages in 1782.

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The Truth About Trade

             A simple trade monopoly: this is simply the terms of which the relationship between the Indonesians and the Dutch existed. Yet, much more was produced from this affiliation. The conquest of Indonesia was started by trade, occurred because of trade, influenced more trade, and resulted in the flourishing of trade in Indonesia. Simply put, trade was emphasized and the key highlight in the Indonesian conquest.

It began with the Dutch forming a treaty with the Portuguese explorers, resulting with the western half of the islands becoming under the control of the Dutch. (5) Then, a sudden trade power emerged in the Dutch East India Trading Company, and ensnared the islands within its grasp; this is where the conquest began. The Dutch East India Trading Company, abbreviated as ‘VOC,’ searched for Indonesian spices to sell on the market for extremely high prices. (6) This led to the grant of a monopoly on trade in the Indonesian section of Java in 1602, and the VOC conquering the Indonesian city of Jayakarta, and founding a city called Batavia in 1619. (7) Next, bits and pieces of Western culture funneled into Indonesia and were supported by Dutch influence, arriving in the form of economic exploitation for most Indonesians. (8)

However, the VOC went bankrupt in 1800, and the Dutch state assumed full control over VOC assets and operations, including the control over Indonesia. As a result of this shift in power, the Java War occurred, and new Dutch systems tied peasants to their lands and forced them to work sixty additional days in governmental plantations each year. (9) When Dutch influence and power expanded to its maximum, numerous territories were added that later became part of modern-day Indonesia. These lands were also heavily involved in trade. (10)

Trade played a huge part in the conquest of Indonesia; due to the occurrences of increasingly rapid industrialization, the Dutch were able to obtain more effective and powerful weapons, and quicker means of transportation, leading to the quick shift of power leaning toward the side of the Dutch. (11) Indonesia is currently a country consisting of more than 17,000 islands, and is second in the world for biodiversity; but to think that none of this would exist without the simple concept of trade would be a difficult task indeed.

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The Time Has Come: The Push for Independence

              For nearly four hundred years the native people of Indonesia have endured hardship, suffering, and torment. However, united because of the Dutch Ethical Policy, Indonesia finally realized that the time to declare their self-sufficiency was at hand. Due to the leadership of Sukarno (Soekarno), born under the name of Kusno Sosrodihardjo, Indonesia was able to successfully proclaim its independence. Sukarno eventually became the nation’s first president because he was well-known for leading the country’s struggles for independence against the Dutch and Japanese.(1)

Essentially, the Indonesian Revolution was successful for one major reason: World War II. As terribly insensitive and warped as that sounds, the logical reason for Indonesia’s success stands valid and supported; the reaper that was World War II had finally taken its toll. In 1942, the Japanese assumed full control of Indonesia and snatched the power throne from the Dutch.(2) Indonesia later declared independence in August of 1945. Within those three years, World War II consumed the lives of many Japanese soldiers and significantly thinned the herd. In 1945, due to the constant utilization of Japanese troops in Indonesia to support the war effort that there were barely any soldiers left, the Japanese were forced to surrender.(3) Constant rioting from several Indonesian villages also didn’t help the Japanese cause; in the end, they were desperate for independence.

Not counting the Portuguese exploration voyages, Indonesia took almost 343 years to unite as a nation and proclaim independence, from the initial rule of the Dutch VOC in 1602, to the Japanese surrender in 1945.(4) After thousands of lives were taken, homes were burned, villages were pillaged, and the quality of life was mutilated and disfigured, the nation of Indonesia finally realized the bleak and important truth. 


Seventeen thousand islands. Four hundred years. Three conquests. One nation led by one man with one solution: independence.

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