Colonial Background

Mention has been made of the year 1945 when Indonesia declared its inde­pendence. However, Indonesia had to combat the Dutch for its sovereignty, and it was not until 1949 that the Netherlands gave up their claim to Indonesia, which they had maintained after their sudden and unexpected defeat by the Japanese and their swift withdrawal from the colony in 1942.

The centuries between the first arrival of the Dutch in 1596 and their defeat in 1942 have been considered by both colonialists and nationalists to be of special importance. Nationalists are prone to refer to that period as one of continuous colonial rule, whereas colonialists, particularly during the latter days of their rule and after they had lost control altogether, liked to insist on the existence of a special spiritual bond as a result of that centuries-long contact.

A closer look at the dates reveals the following pic­ture. From the first Dutch voyage in 1596 until 1799 contact between the peoples of the archipelago and the Netherlands was maintained through the VOC, the United Dutch East India Company, a privately funded trading organisation. The company, whose main purpose was commercial gain, had a small number of territorial bases of limited size and, through a combination of political circumstances, treaties and alliances with local rulers and the selective use of military force, succeeded in edging out European and Asian competitors such as the Portuguese, British, French and Chinese. Eventually it monopolised the overseas trade of the archipelago and virtually controlled the interinsular trade. The VOC was considerably helped by interethnic conflicts which led it to become involved in the internal power struggle among Indonesian nations. This involvement became strongest on the island of Java, where at times the VOC could be found fighting in alliance with some of the staunchest Islamic states on the north coast.

With the exception of Java, large-scale territorial occupation did not take place before the nineteenth century. A survey pub­lished in 1938 at the height of colonial rule shows that until 1619 only Batavia with its surrounding countryside and the islands of Ambon in the Moluccas were under direct Dutch control. By 1684 a stretch of West Java, some parts of South Sulawesi, and Menado in North Sulawesi had been added. Most of Java followed in the eighteenth century and by 1830 the whole of Java was under Dutch rule. Between 1824 and 1898 South and West Sumatra, Deh in North-east Sumatra, West and South-east Kalimantan (Borneo), the north­ern part of Bali, Lombok and further parts of North Sulawesi and of the islands of Seram in the Moluccas were joined to the Dutch East Indies, partly as a result of changes in the economic policies of the colonial authorities which by then allowed the influx of private European capital into the archipelago and the increased settlement of land-hungry European planters. The rest of the archipelago, i.e. East and North Sumatra (which includes Aceh), most of Kalimantan and Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, the Moluccas and the whole of West Irian were put under direct Dutch control only between 1898 and the 1930s. The Portuguese colony of East Timor, never an Islamic area, was not incorporated into the Republic of Indonesia until 1977.

In 1942 the Japanese overran South-east Asia and with it the Dutch East Indies. They ruled the territory until 1945. This period, though brief in time, was of tremendous significance for the future development of Indonesia. The strict policy of the Japanese of severing all links with European civilisation boosted the self-confidence of Indonesians in a manner the Japanese had not anticipated, and despite the harshness of Japanese rule, it helped to accelerate the process of Indonesian self­identification.

In courting nationalist politicians the Japanese also paid great attention to Islam as a political force, thus planting the seeds of later frustration, when the newly independent republic seemed to revert to a religious policy more akin to that of the former Dutch rulers.