My Oma was Indonesian and Dutch (she's sadly passed away). Sometimes when talking about ethnicity I mention that and many people are surprised at the combination and I have to break it to them that Indonesia was a colony for more than 300yrs. In the English speaking world there is so much focus on English colonization and imperialism sometimes people forget the other European nations undertaking the same colonial and imperial expansion.
My Oma was a cook for the Indonesian Red Cross, my Opa was a KNIL soldier. They met in Surabaya, had a daughter just before the Japanese invasion. Opa died in Japanese concentration camp while few years later Oma fought the Dutch brutal aggression. Their stories taught me a lot in my formative years.
My opa was also Dutch from his father's side, which honestly I probably should not have been surprised about considering my mom looks like your average European women.
Take a ferry from Singapore to Batam, and you can see how the artificial border between Dutch and British Southeast Asia produced different realities lasting to this day. Once you reach Indonesia, you are in an environment that has much more in common with Jakarta than nearby Singapore - language, infrastructure, forms of business. All because the British and the Dutch drew a line that split the Riau Sultanate down the middle of the Singapore Straits.
Batam is a great city though, a modern and industrialize city, really enjoyed it there Besides it is unfair to compare a medium large indonesian city to a sovereign city state, Batam is also one of many Indonesian Industrial centers
@@briantarigan7685 The reason why one is a sovereign city state in the first place is because a line was drawn in the water between the Dutch and the British.
Very nice video! The Dutch Indonesia also shaped my state here in Southern Brazil. After Indonesia's independence some dutch colonists resettled on an unpopulated region of my state, that is, the northern Campos Gerais of Paraná in cities like Carambeí and Castro making a Little Netherlands in Brazil. This colonists than became the biggest producers of milk in the entire country usually associated with cooperatives with names referencing the Netherlands. Nowadays they also have some touristic potencial and every sunday in the historic dutch center of Carambeí they make a indonesian/dutch traditional lunch for the tourists, so they haven't forgotten their origins in Dutch Indonesia. It's certainly worth the trip, if you are around the region. I highly recommend it!
They received dutch-indonesian migration starting in 1937 but the majority of dutch immigrants in the Carambeí region came earlier and was not of asian dutch origin, but from the Netherlands
Hi, I just want to add a note regarding to the painting at 7:48. I realized that you used Nicolaas Pieneman's "The Submission of Prince Dipo Negoro to General De Kock". As an Indonesian myself, I feel like it'll be better and more accurate if you'd use the Raden Saleh one, Penangkapan Pangeran Diponegoro. Why is that? Pieneman’s painting showed that the painter has never been to the Dutch East Indies. He depicts Indonesians with Arabic faces, which have very different characteristics to Javanese people. Second, Diponegoro was never captured. He was tricked into believing that the Dutch wanted a peaceful talk with him to end the war. In Raden Saleh’s painting, Diponegoro’s face looks tense as he is overwhelmed with anger by the betrayal. But in Pieneman’s painting, the prince’s face is plaintive. Nonetheless, a great video overall. Thank you for covering the history of Indonesia (albeit only a small part of it).
Interestingly, across this islands of thousand different ethnics and culture, they do have same language, the Indonesian language. Among other effort of nationalizations, this epic feat largely contributed to the fact that currently, Indonesia is not only merely a construct shaped by the Dutch. It is a construct that is built by the Indonesians themselves.
The leaders very sensibly chose a language NOT belonging to a local group as their national language Bahasa Indonesia. It was Malay trading language used around that part of the world. This prevented problems such as in the Philippine and India where part of the population resents having to speak the language belonging to another part
It's the Javanese that dominate the country and rule the other islands today. West Papua is Melanesian, a completely distinct ethnicity to the rest of Indonesia. They want nothing to do with Indonesia, and have been fighting for independence since Indonesia took over, but they are violently subjugated by the military, run from Java (and trained and equipped by Australia and the US). Indonesia is still a colonial country, it's just that one island's local elites has taken over managing it.
@@Pushing_Pixels they want nothing to do with indonesia..... Ha. The one who instigated the unity itself came from papuan namely frans kaisiepo. You know what forget it. You know nothing of it and only learn it thru bs western media. Those separatist only came to be after the dutch agreed to hand over half of new guinea island to Indonesia. Which means that it was their last effort to stick their white fingers on the eastern hemisphere. To be fair tho. Indonesia is modelled after the majapahit. Which suites the political construct of current indonesia. A strong core in java. So your statement of some elites reigning unaccounted is legit
@@peterdevalk7929 be realistic. Indonesia are abundant in natueal reasources. Things are generally cheaper there. You are comparing indonesia and the dutch and european in general that often used banking system and WTO to manipulates their economy just to have an edge and survive in their barren and over exploited land
Fun fact: Multatuli means 'I have suffered a lot' in Latin. Multatuli is a pseudonym for the writer Eduard Douwes Dekker. He wrote the book about the coffee trade which had strong repercussions in parliament at the time.
Some corrections (although this was mostly from local indonesian history book): 1. The cause for the local kings exploitation was because they were promised more reward by the dutch if they could produce surpluses in the productions, and the dutch didn't do anything to fix this as it benefited them. 2. Diponegoro was not one of these kings, and if he do, he wouldn't have gotten so much support in his war because there's no way for the people who's being exploited to support the exploiter. 3. Instead, the cause for this war was a succession conflict in Yogyakarta sultanate in which the dutch intervend to gain influence. So of course this pissed Diponegoro, who was one of the successor, and started opposing the dutch, this way he earned the support of the javanese people who was at that time suffered under the exploitation, hence the scale of the war. 4. The scale of this war caused massive loss for the dutch, and in the end they started to make some reforms to appease the people so as to not cause another rebellions, and they were successful doing it, until the culturstelsel. Seeing your sources in the description, it seems that most of them were from the dutch so a lot of them may have been biased. It would be nice if you could include more of the indonesian sources to balance things out.
Indonesian history book for what level??? Anak SD? Anak SMP? atau Anak SMA? atau Anak Kuliah? During my SD time, it was pre-reformasi era, the history book was largely DOWNPLAYED the roles of local rulers as the reason why the Dutch stayed for so long. As if it was all the Dutch fault. However, the year during my SMA and Kuliah years after reformasi. The history book no longer downplay the local rulers/sultans roles in preserving Dutch East Indies. The nuance is totally different, we were taught when we were colonized it was also because of our corrupted local leaders (you cannot openly discuss this during Soeharto era history book). Having studied history at school for both era, I learned that even in Indonesia. There is also political bias when studying history.😅 Apart from that local rulers' roles, the history mentioned in this video is pretty similar with the one we learned at school in Indonesia (for both Before and After Reformasi) such as Cultuurstelsel. I believe if you really want to know when the history lesson start to deviate between The Dutch and Indonesia it would be anything that happens after 1942, especially 1945-1949... Many disagreement over there. But pre-1942, the history teaching for both Indonesia and Dutch was pretty similar. Though, I must say, this video left out the fact that the Dutch was extremely apartheid in the Indies where societies were divided into social classes and racial identity which led to Youth Movement in early 1900s. The first youth movement was due to apartheid in the Dutch East Indies Education system. This is why after independence, only few was able to speak Dutch. Because the Dutch language was reserved to the elites. The elites tend to speak only malay to locals.
Well i know someone that descendent from sultan HB III generation (his other siblings apart from diponegoro), he said diponegoro never actually "rebeled" or against the sultan and yogya, it was actually an ideas brewed by sultan HB II's sons, that had enough of the dutch that were the reason for solo-yogya split and hostility, not to mention the exploitation. And diponegoro was to be the spearhead with HB III in throne, the other siblings were lived in hiding outside the keraton, even outside of yogya border, which means they lived in dutch controlled areas (now central java). Basically acting as "spies".
@@ilhamrj2599 yes that's why most Indonesian don't speak dutch. And even if my grandpa and grandma from mother side knows dutch and spoke dutch to each other (both were from "upper classes" and lived in Dutch controlled area), they didn't teach Dutch to their children, and prefer to spoke in javanese or bahasa indonesia to the kids or the servants.
It's not that they're proud of their dark past, of slavery etc. It's a romantic feeling you get when you go to a "paradise on earth". Yes, many old Dutch to this day still take Indonesia as their "homeland", they were born there, their childhood with the natives... it's just a nostalgia, where the food was better and more spicy (lol), the climate was nice (maybe back then...). The world's most prominent scholar for the Javanese language, a Dutch, maybe Zoetmuller, (he's even better than the most culturally-advanced Javanese), he said "Java is my homeland. I love its culture. It's mine too. I'd like to die here as a Javanese". And he did. Can't say they have that feeling because they want to revive colonialism, nope...
Because in those times we were on top of the world. We fought much larger countries and won. We were recognized as a global powerhouse. For a small country thats just cool. That's why we call it the golden age. It's not necessarily that we are proud of trading slaves etc.
And before the islands were called Indonesia and Dutch East Indies by Europeans, the Chinese called the region Nanyang or the Southern Ocean, the Arabs called them Jaza’ir al-Jawi or the Java Islands, and actual Indians called them Dwipantara or "islands in between". Nusantara, the name chosen by the government for their new capital, means "outer islands" and this was the Old Javanese term for the archipelago. It's honestly such a cool sounding name. Better than Indonesia imo. It's nice when a country embraces its ancient heritage. The temples they built are architecturally incredible. More architects these days need to look at the past at these designs and think out of the box instead of designing the most basic skyscrapers
Taking Indonesia as name is for remembering the Colonial event, so every nationalist wont forget what happen to this country before. If the ducth or other nation laugh to the name “indonesia” then its gonna be a fuel to more nationalist grow in this nation Its the implementing the quotes “we forgive but we shall not forget”
Propaganda, but NOT History, has led us to believe that the Empire of Japan began its territorial expansion in the 1930’s, invading China, creating the puppet State of Manchukuo and “Provoking” the war with the Western Powers. But, Was this really, how events happened? Did Japan invade China and South East Asia? It seems so. However, the Propaganda does NOT say that for centuries, all Asia was invaded by Western Powers. England occupied India, Burma (Myanmar); Singapore, Malaysia and China (Hong Kong, Nanking, Shanghai, etc). France dominated all Indochina. The Netherlands intervened by the Force of its Arms, to all of Indonesia. And Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and of course, also the United States were in South East Asia cuz, for example this country, the US, occupied the Philippines since 1898. (Spanish-American War). Thus the panorama in the 30's, the Empire of Japan, when defeating to the Tsarist Russian Empire, it also decided to "Grow" by invading its neighbors. In those years, all European nations had colonies in Africa, India, the Middle East, Asia and America. (England came to occupy almost ¼ part of the planet). For its part, the US, in 113 years of existence as a nation in those years, had "Grown" 711 the size of its territory from its original 13 colonies. Now is the picture clear? Japan for its part, had fought on the side of the winners in World War I (1914-1918), and they, the Japanese, not awarded any "Gain". The western victors of WWI divided the world. Japan was excluded. Thus, Japan's motives for attacking and expanding as the Europeans and the US did seem clearer, right? Then they, the Japanese, attacked China in 30’s, which was occupied by 6 Western Powers for almost a century. None of the Western Powers occupying China at this time, OPPOSED or fought Japan for Invading China. NONE! Then, 11 years later after having occupied the territory of China and coexisted without any problem with the Western Powers within China, they, the Japanese, attacked Hawaii, which in turn, this Island had been occupied and annexed by the US in 1898. (In 1900-01, Hawaii became US territory and Hawaii ceased to be an independent nation after more than 630 years of sovereignty. By the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States had just completed the 40th anniversary of the military occupation and annexation of Hawaii). They, the Japanese, attacked Singapore, which was then a Colony of England. They, the Japanese, attacked the Philippines, which were occupied by the US and whose Gov’r, Douglas MacArthur reined as Emperor. Yup… Truly like an Absolute Autocrat. Therefore, the Japanese did NOT attack (In the 40’s), Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Borneo, Timor, the Philippines, etc. In reality, the Japanese attacked England, France, Belgium, Holland, the US, etc. That is, the Japanese attacked the Western Powers invading all of Asia. That is the verifiable truth. But, Propaganda has made us believe that the good guys were us, the US. And of course… Nanking was a horrendous Genocide committed by Japan, but, it was no more horrendous than the 12 Genocides committed by the United States in his History and all over the world. Nor was it less horrendous than the Genocide committed by King Leopold II of Belgium, in Central Africa. Nor was Nanking more or less horrendous than the Genocides that the British Empire committed in America, Africa, Australia, Middle East, India and also in China too. And now, the Japanese are our friends and allies... Yup… But, to fight against China, AGAIN!!! Well… No More. No More British Malaya nor British Borneo nor British wherever. No More French Indochina. No more Dutch Indies. No More Portugese Domains. No More US Domain here. Asia is for Asians and “The China Sea” belongs to CHINA. Westerns powers have nothing to do in Asia.
@@INTJ791 The Name of Nusantara is not even modern Javanese language, it's from sanskrit origin that even the first Kingdom in Indonesia, the hindu Kingdom of Kutai Martadipura(the location in East Kalimantan/Borneo) use as their goverment official language. And "Nusantara" is not just Kalimantan Capital, it's all Indonesian capital. Nusantara is a combine word of nūsa, a word from old Javanese that mean island. Old Javanese is a languege that combine a austronesian and sanskrit. if you notice. old Javanese writing system is femiliar to sanskrit writing system. Than अन्तरा (antarā) is from sanskrit that in the early kingdom in Indonesia use as a common official languege that we can find in all early indonesian kingdom stone inscription. Our ancestor change from "Dwipantara" to "Nusantara" because when the Singosari, Srivijaya, and Majapahit start having teritorial outside their island, Dwipa is not commenly use by the commen people in that time. They prefer to use Nusa to prefer a island description.
Great video. FYI, I just found my grandfather belongings in my house. A box contain old Guldens (Dutch money), invoice and notes. This was his salaries for being a "mandoor" or supervisor for Dutch sugarcane plantation. Before he passed away, he told me a story about how ignorance the natives before were educated by "ethical policy", which made they didn't think about themself for hundreds years. Eventually, a little educated population spark the revolution for natives. This is why education always be a great weapon, ironically acted as double edge sword for Dutch in its colony.
The reason why many east Indies native is uneducated is because duct east Indies private school act, restrained native to open school, keep school costs very high for native, to the point only aristocrat and rich can access it. My grandfather fortune enough to go elementary school (his family have rather good status in local area)
Ignorance? The region of Lampung and interior North Sumatra had more than 50% literacy rate by 1910 (Dutch sensus). Because the Dutch (and the missionaries) introduce latin script along with their not-so-ethical-but-so-called 'ethical policy', the literacy rate went down to around 5-10%. Only after we kicked the Dutch, the literacy rate went skyrocketing.
@@wenderis ya kan secara umum emang gak dapet akses pendidikan pra politik balas budi. Bukan berarti harus 0%. Buktinya baru ada gerakan2 inteleltual awal abad 20 an, bukan sebelumnya
Indonesian here. there's a common misconception in our people about that the dutch colonising our islands for 350 years, but that not the exact meaning of it. in fact, 350 it's about from how the dutch made an attempt to contact with the local inhabitant/pribumi and their merchant by estabilishing the VOC, and then their struggle to conquer completely the nusantara after they take over the voc because bankruptcy. but still at that that time the dutch didn't completely took over all indonesia.
@@Gabriel-l Yes and that is called Aceh Darussalam They are once who controls the entire Sumatra and Half of Java And when Ottoman Empire in 18th century is Weak, the Dutch took opportunity for the prey of Colonialism by Europeans
@@barryirlandi4217 I would be very surprised the Ottamans could project power that far out across oceans. They would've be so lacking in naval technology after the 16th century, they couldn't handle the Portuguese and this was centuries before the Dutch war against Aceh.
Another great video about Dutch history! However, I did notice some 'mistakes'. The cultuurstelsel was not implemented until 1830, not 1815. And the Java-war (1825-1830) did not start because of the cultuurstelsel, it was actually the other way around. Because of the Java-war and eventually the Belgian independence war, The Netherlands was broke. This is why they implemented the cultuurstelsel. You could say that the landrentestelsel was similar enough to be considered part of the cultuurstelsel however it definitely did not start the Java war and started in 1813 not 1815. The biggest surprise for me, was that you said that the Java war was started because of the abolishing of the cultuurstelsel. This is just plain wrong. The cultuurstelsel was ended in 1870, but the java war started BEFORE this whole stelsel. Actually against the rising of Calvinism in the region, plus meddling in a succession crisis by the Dutch caused this war.
Ah yes, the Majapahit...Bill Wurtz did well in teaching me about that empire. Regarding Prince Diponegro, Prince Diponegoro's rebellion wasn't him overworking the farmers but rather, the Dutch were unwilling to lose influence over the Yogyakartan court by creating a succession crisis, and they also wanted to build a road through his parents' tomb which was his final straw. Of course, it ended in Dutch victory, and when they invited Diponegro for a "peace conference"...they captured him. He died in Makassar, South Sulawesi in 1855 at age 69 (nice) while kept prisoner in Fort Rotterdam.
Just a little fact according to volume 2 of the book "Van Nul tot Nu": on page 7, the Indonesian farmers were FORCED to cultivate pepper plants instead of rice, by the decree of the governor-general Jan Pieterzoon Coen! Guess what happens to the rice price at harvest time? But the Dutch couldn't care less about whether the local population would starve or not. It's ALL about profits.....
Yes we did. Multiple times. You're just not strong enough in your heart to forgive us. There has to be some forgiveness down the line. Apart from that - Indonesia has its own horrible track record of atrocities it hasnt adressed.
There were no good colonizers, neither did the Dutch when they colonized Indonesia, they were cruel, greedy for Indonesia's wealth. Even after 17 August 1945 Indonesia declared independence, the Dutch came back to Indonesia to colonize again. Look how greedy the Dutch are for Indonesia
They came back because their assets are taken over illegally by Indonesian. Simply put, Indonesia was the motherland, the Netherlands 🇳🇱 was the fatherland. They broke up because of 🇯🇵 arrival. Japan made Indonesian heart melted, the promised us Independence, let’s kick out the Dutch. It was a horrible times for the Dutch, the fatherland was attacked brutally by NAZI, and tortured by the Japanese soldiers in motherland Indonesia. After WW 2, when situation was calmed a little bit, they came back to motherland, but the motherland already filed a ‘divorce’ to the Dutch. The Dutch couldn’t accept this, the divorce needs a trial in court. And you have to share the properties, here, Indonesia 🇮🇩 the motherland’s took over the Dutch assets, the Dutch debt. This is why they came back, and we got the independence in The Hague, Indonesian flag 🇮🇩 was raised in the Hague Led by the Queen Juliana. It’s legal then, go ahead Indonesia, we go own way now but you have to pay 4.4 billion guilder, our assets and debt. Based on round table agreement, we are supposed to be a federal or called Republik Indonesia Serikat RIS, Unites states of Indonesia. But Sukarno broke up the agreement.. as Indonesian, I really dislike this national figure.
You absolutely need to distinguish the difference between "muslim country" and "country with most muslim population". Indonesia is not a muslim country, will never be.
I've been looking for exactly this type of video on the colonization of Indonesia for YEARS! Bedankt for making it. I'm a history teacher in the United States, and I won't speak for people's knowledge in other countries, but Indonesian history is an absolute unknown here.
I'm from Indonesia, and just want to inform that I already learnt about the history of the US war of independence and state building when I was still in elementary school (grade 5 and 6).
also man this history cover is heavlily ducth sided. if anyone wants to get a neutral one should probably find a national no... a national conservative Muslim source that didn't like to bias to much since they were desendence of those that didn't mind ducth rule but hated portugese rule
There is a book called "The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World" There is another history of Indonesia that correlated with the USA,, in case you're interested.
I'm an Indonesian and I would argue that the narrative presented by this video is not the most accurate. I would advise you to present videos from Indonesian-made content for a better understanding of the Natives social, economic, political, and cultural background at the time
Are you Dutch? (Just curious). Could you please do a video on the Netherlands Antilles and what the differences were once the Dutch took the islands from the Spanish? What did they use them for and how both colonizers shaped them and their people?
hey mate, thank your for this fantastic video. wether we like it or not, Indonesia and Dutch have shared and entangled history. now it's already in the past, become a lesson and story for both people of both Nations going forward. may Indonesian and Dutch people always be at peace and prosperity. cheers for us all. regards from Indonesia
I’m always amazed at the friendliness of the Indonesian people, even when I mention my county’s terrible deeds, for which I feel we need to apologize profusely and often! Especially the “Aksi polisionil” by the Belanda is something my generation can simply not understand 😓
@@oopphh._. well, yeah it kinda looks the same. But when it comes to laws and shi, you can see the difference between "Muslim majority countries" and "Muslim countries".
I just hope that the part 2 will be criticall for Indonesian to reflect but not failed to understand how nationalism in Indonesia grew like so many other videos that using european model on developing natiolism (i.e. ethicity). We can be critiall about some treatement that minorities get in Indonesia but still understand that is it because ethnic/religius differences or political entanglement from both outside and/or inside Indonesia.
Thank you for bring Max Havelaar. Multatuli with his book make everything changed colonialism in east indies because that book had powerful impact for Dutch government, because of that Dutch government give east indies noble family go to school, in the future first generation who had knowledge from school share their idea of indendence until Soekarno/Hatta generation
If Dutch were forced to take responsibility for the harm and crimes they commited against Indonesia, then they would now be very bankrupt country. If anyone from the Dutch government sees this post, please at least return the artifacts you stole from our country.
Them artifacts, I'd sometimes jokingly said they're better off stolen (and preserved) by the Dutch. Instead of getting defaced, destroyed, buried, by the Moors. You know who.
@@abcddef2112 recognizing the independence occurred at 1949, December 27th. And by international law, any country derived from the Dutch East Indies, which is Indonesia, SHALL carry the burden of the old state's debt....
@@zainabe9503 Ah yes but theres another insidious reason, by not recognizing the independence date, dutch state avoid the justification for the crime commited against another state during this time period. Victims then technically were dutch citizens at the time which is still incredibly bad for netherlands as that equate with for example saddam killing iraqis kurds. These family of the victims if they wanted to get justice have to go through netherlands court not Indonesian court, and most of them doesnt even know they have the option. Though luckily small surviving groups of family of the victims have got some reparations from Dutch state, though most would not likely get anything as they already dead buried in history which the white man conveniently forgotten, while deciding justice for the world in the hague's ICC.
Correction.. Indonesia is not the biggest muslim country, but the biggest muslim populated country, Indonesia doesn't use syariah law (except Aceh province), the nation acknowledge 5 religion, each Indonesian have their religion written in their ID which is one of the 5 acknowledged religion, and some province even predominately by non-muslim, and Indonesia celebrate each of the religion special day as a national holiday, not to mention the biggest buddhist temple in the world is in Indonesia, so to call it a muslim country is incorrect.
Its pretty iresponsible to say that the current indonesian border is not shaped by indonesian people. Because indonesia did fought for independence, not only that it fought to become the current border. Statement like that and purpoted history channel like this rarely use historical source that is written by its people vs history written by europeans. One example: clearly is the usage of "indonesia" themselves for example as always listed constructed by logan etc, without mentioning that 'indonesianist' use them to indentify themselves forming a new identity. Next is sometimes the lack of mention of the youth pledge in 1928. Where multiple identities group which include islands, religion, race and ethnic, decided to adopt the indonesian identity. Dutch authorities tried to fought against this identity creation. Next is the your mentioning KNIL recruiting for moluccans because they dont have jobs anymore. No recruitments for KNIL for local indonesians are clearly designed to 'divide and conquer'. Because not only moluccans are recruited but minahasan, javanese, sundanese etc. Not only also ethnicities but religion,most recruited are non muslims. Like moluccans which you meant southern part or ambon (becouse northern part are mostly muslim). Minahasans are mostly protestant. Next even javanese which are mostly muslim or abangan, the only high ranking official are nonmuslim like oerip sumoharjo, gatot subroto etc. This is why decolonization also is needed in historical sources. I challenge you to count how many are europeans how many are native indonesians. Produced by indonesian universities and historians.
amazing video! if i can just ask for smth, can u please increase the volume of the audio next time? like the clairy is great, it's just that the audio is a bit low. i tried playing other videos to double check the problem wasn't with my device, and yours sounds a bit quiet. other than that, great video! keep 'em coming!!
Bali is the only place in indonesia that still holding on to the original cultures of our first cilization in much of area that were once indianized especially Java island. Baliness are Javanese technically.
@@davidivory3234 Indonesian muslims have rich cultural heritage. Even the culture of Aceh became the highlight of Asian Games opening ceremony. Many people wrongly assume that outside of Bali, Indonesia is cultureless Taliban land.
Freeport in West Papua is overrated. It only gives the government $1 billion of net profit, while Papuans get annual subsidy of $5 billion through DIPA and special autonomy fund.
Hey Jochem, I'm new on your channel and from that I've watched I find it super interesting and my kind of thing, I love your videos and most importantly your idea about the channel. Just like you history has always fascinated me since my childhood and I hope I get fascinated by your videos in my teenage. Love from India 🇮🇳
Dutch deforestation in Sumatra. The Dutch started deforestation in the East Coast of Sumatra. At least 80% of the area in the lowland of North Sumatra had been deforested by 1940. Karl Pelzer’s study using data of 1940 showed that in the two largest tobacco production area (Deli and Serdang afdeeling), 61% of the land was used for tobacco production, 31% not being used, and only 8% under forest. So more than 90% of the area had already been cleared. … on the distant horizon, encompassed by the virgin forest, half enveloped still in the milk-white morning mists, was land that would one day become the new estate. For centuries on end the secret struggle for life had gone on in the perennial dusk. Suddenly men had come, cutting, uprooting, destroying the majestic tree trunks, and the myriad suckers of the creepers. The blows of axes had resounded through the forest, and a thundering roar, magnified a thousand fold, had echoed through the dim depths like the sound of a dire disaster as these old giants of the forest fell dying. Still, under these colossal trunks with foliage lying criss-cross all over the ground, the black, soft, moist humus had continued to live. … Then in one morning at one stroke fire had put an end to all that remained. It had flared up, crackling, hissing, sizzling among the mighty tree trunks. … There had been a raging era of fire, a furious flood of flames bellowing as it reached up heavenward. Before they had realised what was happening, plants and animals had been annihilated. Madelon Lulofs-Szekely, Coolies (1933) Felled trees for tobacco plantation in Deli in 1890s. When we talk about deforestation, Indonesia always came up as the main culprit. Less talked about is Dutch root of deforestation in Indonesia. As described above by Madelon Lulofs-Szekely, many parts of Sumatra’s East coast were still covered by jungles in the 19th Century. The Dutch discovered the tobacco industry in Deli in the 1860s and created a an industrial-scale plantation system. The local sultans collaborated and gave concessions of 1000-2000 hectares of land to each company in a 75-year lease. The Dutch colonial planters assumed that tobacco could only grow well in the soil that had just been cleared from the virgin jungle. Thus the industry drove large-scale virgin forests clearing to produce tobacco leaves exported to Europe and America. The Dutch then realised they cannot clear the land unlimitedly. In 1880, the fallow system was introduced. The land is cultivated once for tobacco and left fallow for 8 years. Thus, each year only a tenth of the area was used for tobacco production. Cleared jungles The 1890 Koloniaal Verslag (colonial report) reported that the area of the East coast of Sumatra (Deli, Padang Bedagai, Serdang, Landkat, Batu Bara, Labuhan Batu & Asahan afdeeling) had established a total of 232 estates/companies with a total of 426,000 hectares of land concession. The east coast of Sumatra was then known as Cultuurgebied, the plantation belt. The areas had been carved up with concessions for tobacco and rubber, as shown in this map from 1920. The plantation belt of the East Coast of Sumatra in 1920. The yellow areas are for tobacco and green areas are for rubber. A closer look on the map for the afdeeling of Serdang, about 85% of the area had already been given to various companies. The land was divided into parcels, each with a company’s name. A map of the Serdang division. All lands were parcelled and allocated to companies. It is challenging to estimate the amount of deforested areas, but most lands on the East coast of Sumatra had already been cut up as concessions to European companies since 1870s. Karl Pelzer’s study using data of 1940 showed that in the two largest tobacco production area (Deli and Serdang afdeeling), 61% of the land was used for tobacco production, 31% not being used, and only 8% under forest. So more than 90% of the area had already been cleared. All products from the land were exported. Feldwick reported the following principal articles exported from the east coast of Sumatra in 1915: Kerosene, 140,280,021 litres; benzine and gasolene, 84,600,762 litres; liquid fuel, 6,296,20 litres; forest products, 6,006,621 kg; , rubber: Hevea, 9,085,943 kg; Ficus plantation, 441,222 kg; Ficus jungle, 32,213 kg; other sorts, 1,693 kg; Copra, 5,105,240 kg; gambier, 2, 124,979; gutta-percha, 583,421 kg; charcoal, 916,704 kg; Coffee: Liberia, 2,174,106 kg; Robusta, 1,188,552 kg ; Java, 11,047 kg; other sorts, 97,264 kg; black pepper, 1,487,555 kg; Penang nuts, 4,006,294 kg; rattan, 4,517,462 kg: sago flour, 176,586 kg; Deli tobacco leaf, 20,821,722 kg; tea leaves, 638, 118 kg ; trassi, 8,717,755 kg; salt or dried fish, 26,092,005 kg; fresh fruit, 47,092 kg. Plantation was a big investment. As reported further by Feldwick: At the end of 1915, the total amount was estimated at over f 200,000,000. Of this sum, tobacco claimed about 46,000,000, of which f 40,000,000 represented Dutch money, and f 4,665,000 British. Coffee and rubber absorbed about f 124,000, 000, and of this Dutch investments aggregated over f 62,000,000 and British f 53,645,932. The money in tea stood at f 7,170,000, nearly f 6,000,000 of which British capital. Coconuts, coffee, gambier, and oil palms have also attracted foreign capital. The Americans were in as well with the Hollandsch Amerikaansche Plantage Maatschappij (later became the United States Rubber Plantation Inc.) in Kisaran. The Belgians had Société Financière des Caoutchoucs (Socfin) with oil palm plantations in Asahan. The following graph illustrated the area harvested for the main commodities in the east coast. Tobacco was the main product, reaching a peak in 1910, and soon rubber took over. Overall, I estimated by 1940, over 1 million hectares of the land in the east coast of Sumatra had been deforested by colonial planters. And all of the monies go to foreign companies. Thee Kian Wee summarised it as In 1938 this region, with an area of only 1.7 percent of the whole territory of the country and a population of only 2.5 percent of its total population, accounted for not less than 21 percent of the country‘s total exports. Finally on the extinction of animals, Albert Frys-Wyssling, the father of molecular biologist who worked for AVROS in Medan in early 1930s wrote: the original large animal fauna of the Sumatran lowland forests with elephants, rhinos, tapir and orangutans had long been expelled from the cultivated land of the east coast, but the small remnant of the jungle had given the tigers and their feeding base of wild boars a shelter in the middle of the plantation area. Ladislao Szekely in Tropical Fever wrote: Dark and precipitous, the fringe of the forest reared skyward. Tomorrow those trees, too, would lie felled on the ground. With no mercy, no compassion, the human will here squander its energy. A few years hence bungalows would stand here, tennis courts and streets would be built, automobiles would be tearing along and factory chimneys smoking. Only yesterday the bloodthirsty tiger had here mangled his booty; frightened the herd of deer had fled; quietly and majestically the rulers of the desert, the elephants, had paced through their realm. However, we need to remember that forests are not important, just money is important! Afterall, we need to buy a car every year and new computers, playstations, phones and more and more and more of NADA
Thanks for this great video! It would be really cool if you could discuss the role of the Netherlands in the development of Capitalism and asset speculation. I’d like to learn about the tulip craze.
A great and concise description of the Indonesia's past when the Dutch colonized the then Republic of Indonesia. Being Indonesian, I am proud of our nation's leaders who have struggled for freedom and finally proclaimed the independence of our country. Just a few notes on the narrator's spells that need correction: Majapahit not Majapit, and Hatta not Hakka. Look forward to watching the second part of the video.
Is indonesian imperialism better? Educate yourself on how many papuas you have murdered. And that is just one ethnicity that indonesia has dominated by force. An estimated 500000 cummunists were murdered in indonesia too. But it only matters to you if its done by white people
Th 1585 sultan islam mengalahkan majapahit. Th 1590 VOC datang utk berdagang. Sultan2 tsb menjual tanah nusantara. Aset VOC makin besar. VOC menyewa pasukan utk mengamankan aset2 mereka. Sampai lah PD 2 1942 jepang menguasai indonesia. Belanda/voc pergi. 1945 coba agresi 1 dan 2 tapi kalah. Semua aset VOC diambil indonesia. Itulah fakta.
En waarom krijgen wij dit niet op de middelbare school als geschiedenis les???? And I am part of this horrendous Colonialism history and as part of the diaspora: I am born in Suriname as WONG JOWO! My ancestors goes back from the Cities Magelang (Hoorayyyyy Diponegoro) and Jogyakarta.
I just liked that Indonesia and Netherlands are at peace now and have strong trade business. I hope colonialisation never happened again. Peace and prosperity for Indonesia-Netherlands 🇮🇩 🙏🇳🇱 God Bless Us ☝️
Dutch colonialism was the worst colonialism in all European colonialism, they only thought about entrails, resources and so on, but provided very little human development education etc., when compared with British colonialism which relied more on treaties, the Dutch were the worst, they forced the local people are stupid.. a small example is only 4% of the local people speak Dutch even though the Dutch inhabited Indonesia for 350 years.. and also by British colonialism they freed up local people to become rulers and regulate how many resources were for the British, so don't be surprised. Most of the British colonies were able to directly manage the country because they already had education in regional governance, while the Dutch did not want to give local communities a chance to regulate the seat of government, which made Indonesia really have to find a way to manage the country.
One thing that struck me about how pervasive and insidious the Dutch influence has been in essentially creating Indonesia is the Indonesian language. When I visited Bali, the Indonesian language was utterly dominant. I worked on learning Indonesian before I went because you could barely find materials on Balinese, and when I was there, any interaction that could not be handled in English could easily be handled in Indonesian, there was no need to know any Balinese and no advantage to learning it. I saw almost no public signage nor heard any public media in Balinese - everything was in Bahasa Indonesia. This level of cultural obliteration and banishment of local languages from the public space is stunning, and it is all thanks to the successor regime's effort to forge a single nation out of a highly diverse archipelago forcibly united by the Dutch.
Oh I couldn't imagine if we were still using our local languages. Indonesian language (Malayu) was selected because it was the lingua franca of the archipelago, even before the Independence. It was the language of trade, of diplomatic relations, a language that unites all. But imagine how the Javanese language was not selected as the national language, despite the Javanese comprising nearly 90% of the archipelago's population at the time.
Hmmm, yes and no. Yes in the sense that, like most other European countries, the Dutch did try create a single region out of many different ones. No in the sense that technically the Dutch never went as far as to try create a universal language. As you say yourself it was the successor regime. Bahasa Indonesia was created at a later stage post independence. So you can blame the Dutch for creating this belief in a single nation, but you cannot entirely blame them for the obliteration of local languages. Not trying to dimiss the colonial legacy entirely, but at this point you sort of dismiss the responsibility of the post independence government.
??? people still talk with their respective traditional languages tho? ofc not in public places and involving bules cause... why would they do that lmao? my batak mom still speaks batak with her family. my friends here in central java speak javanese with each other regularly. where i come from, west java, sundanese or basa sunda is a mandatory lesson in all schools. and on social medias, you get tons and tons of contents in various traditional languages. I'm not saying that our languages need zero protection, but as an indonesian myself i can tell you that our languages are still very much used in our day to day life.
@@captaincronch6007 it's a substratum level, though, particularly in Bali where I could directly observe it, and that is overall very unhealthy for the status and overall use of those languages, even if it takes a few generations for the effects to be fully felt. What you're describing would apply to the status of the Irish language for centuries, but it eventually underwent near-total collapse.
as an Indonesian i dont really understand you considering we use our regional languages normally as slang or entirely, but the reason much of the media uses Indonesia is solely because how the majority population (Javanese and Sundanese) have spread across the archipelago, and the reason we even made it was to give a common language as an answer to the hundreds of languages where going for a 30 minute walk will intertwine you with 3-4 local languages. The state i live (Banten) can have multiple cultures from Javanese, Sundanese, Batak, Aceh, Betawi, and much more in common whilst being able to communicate with each other for normal actions. And much of my family can still communicate normally with our local languages, with many schools doing cultural exchanges and strong encouragement to present their culture to everyone. If you didnt find any local languages then it might be because you didnt speak Balinese. A local from Bali cant expect the person next to them to know their language just because they might be a Javanese or Ambonese.
@@shyamashyam391 in 🇮🇩 we're called ultr* it's Ormas2 They're always do protest or against Current government even though Pakde Jokowi or Current president is tolerant/Good one for 🇮🇩.. They always t*lk b*d million million times 🤧🤧
Karma is going on in the Netherland, the land become small, people become immoral, drugs everywhere and big sex industry is located here. less children, less job opportunities but the situation in indonesia is vice versa. country become more wealthier, more young people and good economy in future, the biggest 20 economy growth in the world.
Great video as per, looking forward to the rest of the series. Just one thing, during Chapter 3, you talked about English colonies - but the Acts of Union was in 1707 - so they were British colonies. A key distintion to make !
Indonesia:we were under colonial rule for more than 200 years when we wanted to declare our independence we had to pay a debt to the Netherlands But we somehow managed to pay off the debt...great success 😅
After twelve years of history classes in the Netherlands, I learned new things from this video. I hope future generations watch videos like these in their classes because it's embarrassing how little I knew after high school
Indonesia exist is not caused by dutch occupation, the idea as one nation is mentoned hundred years before dutch came to Indonesia. There is kingdoms which mentioned concept as one nation, like Sriwijaya Kingdom, Singasari Kingdom and the largest (almost same with current Indonesia) is Majapahit Kingdom.
No. Without the dutch the "Indonesians" would've lived under a number of different kingdoms and sultanates. I, living in Samarinda, would've been under Kutai sultanate, the others would've been under Demak or Banten or, well, you get it.
Prince Diponegoro's rebellion wasnt about the Dutch messed up with brutal feudalistic practice but because the Dutch unlike the English interfering too much into Javanese sultan court life also because they have this plan to build railroad into prince's ancestor graveyard which was considered to be great insult.
if we follow indonesia's legacy with Sriwijaya Kingdom, Indonesia during Srivijaya empire, beginning in Palembang in the 7th century, then extending to most of Sumatra, then expanding to Java, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung, Singapore, Malay Peninsula (also known as: Kra Peninsula), Thailand, Cambodia, South Vietnam, Kalimantan, Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, and ended as the Kingdom of Dharmasraya in Jambi in the 13th century. And during Majapahit Kingdom, according to the Nagarakretagama (Desawarñana) written in 1365, Majapahit was an empire of 98 tributaries, stretching from Sumatra to New Guinea consisting of present-day Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand, Timor Leste, southwestern Philippines (in particular the Sulu Archipelago) . So, pick your choice.
Any particular reason you glossed over the opium part? You've used a famous school painting of the Dutch Intervention In Lombok (which initially didn't really go well, as the King of Lombok could afford western trained mercenaries armed with the latest western firearms), which is called an intervention because that vile King of Lombok dared to sell opium for a much lower price than the Dutch state produced opium.
