The hard birth of a colony

The hard birth of a colony

In the morning of 17 August 1945, the two most important leaders of the Indonesian nationalist movement, Sukarno and Hatta, appeared in front of a house in Jalan Pegangsaan Timoer in Jakarta. The first read a statement which they had written down the night before: Proclamation: We, the people of Indonesia, Hereby proclaim the independence of Indonesia All (...)

The prelude of a new era	The hard birth of a colony

The VOC had built a vast Asian trade network from Batavia, founded by Jan Pieterszoon Coen in 1619. During the time, the VOC had also become a territorial power. Semarang fell under the rule in 1678, together with several other seaports along the Javanese coast from Tegal to Soerabaja. Furthermore the VOC claimed the sovereignty over the so-called Ommelanden (rounding area) from Batavia and (...)

The 'settlement' of colonial rule	The hard birth of a colony

In the early morning of 19 August 1816 a proclamation was made by the British in the city council of Batavia that Jawa and its subjects would belong to the Dutch again. 'Under a salute of 21 cannon shots, the English flag descended,' as was said by an eye witness,' under a same salute the Dutch flag was raised. Both anthems were listened to with great spirit, while the thunder of heavy armory on t (...)

An ethic avant la lettre	The hard birth of a colony

The situation on Maluku had the special attention of the governor-general Van der Capellen. He would visit the group of islands himself in 1824 in an effort to convince the population that the colonial government was doing good as well. Van der Capellen, born in Utrecht in 1778, during his education at the universities of Utrecht and Göttingen was influenced by works of Abbé Raynal. The last named (...)

The colonial life	The hard birth of a colony

Together with the commissionaire-general there was a relatively big group of people moved towards the Indies for quite some time. The long period of isolated European living in the Indies had developed an own character even more than it used to be, which caused the differences between the ‘oldies’ and the ‘greenies’ to as big as never before. The oldies stayed on top of the European community - fo (...)