The Netherlands Indies and the Great War 1914-1918

The educational legacy of Dutch colonial rule in the Netherlands Indies has been widely regarded as disappointing. This paper probes further into the underlying causes of the poor Dutch legacy. It is argued that the spread of popular education was not only hampered by a lack of financial commitment by the colonial state, but also by notable inequalities in the allocation of funds for education and a major reluctance to support initiatives in investment in private education, which may be interpreted as a consequence of the Dutch metropolitan commitment to secular rule in an overwhelmingly Islamic society.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011

1998

is a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His current research interests focus on the formation of identity in Java in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Notes Do you know the villages and quarters of the Javanese? Most likely you've only passed by them. Do you know what the Javanese farmer, of your own people, eats?... Believe me, Tuan, I know these people better than you do. You'll understand later, there is too much that you do not know about your own people. 1 In this passage from Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Child of All Nations, Minke, a budding Indonesian nationalist, is reprimanded by a Dutch journalist for his lack of understanding of his own people, the Javanese. Minke, from an elite aristocratic family, is one of the first Javanese to complete a Dutch high-school education and is enamored with everything European. The accusation of not knowing his own people is stinging, particularly coming from a Dutch gentleman who claims to have a superior knowledge of them. The fact that he cannot refute the accusation makes it all the more troubling for him. The colonizer's knowledge of the colonized has always been privileged in colonial discourse. Indeed, Minke himself cannot imagine an East-Indies totally independent of the Dutch. His concern in this matter is similar to that of the Dutch: the Javanese rulers and Javanese society in

2011

In retrospect, the story of postcolonial migrations to the Netherlands presents itself as three straight-forward series of cause and effect. The independence of Indonesia unavoidably led to the exodus of the groups which had been linked to the colonial regime. The hastily executed 'model decolonization' of Suriname inevitably led to the migration of half a nation. The decision to keep the Netherlands Antilles within the Kingdom of the Netherlands meant that Antilleans would continue to settle in the wealthier, European region of the Kingdom. In reality, decolonization nowhere went according to predetermined planning and Dutch politics was, time and again, surprised by the unforeseen phenomenon of postcolonial migrations. Successive generations of Dutch politicians failed to shine in terms of vision or sense of realism. In this they differed little from their colleagues in neighbouring countries. As psychologically and strategically unprepared for decolonization as the colonial powers were on the eve of, and even following the Second World War, they equally failed to anticipate the scale of the migrations that would write the final chapter in their colonial histories. This chapter discusses and compares the dominant themes of post-war migrations from the three former Dutch colonies and the patterns of integration that ensued. This history is then placed within the broader context of migration, integration and government policy in the post-war Netherlands. Migrants from the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia, Suriname and the Antilles all had the benefit of a 'postcolonial bonus' which, however, has become devalued, little by little, along with the notion of the 'postcolonial community'. One of the last boats carrying 'repatriates' from Indonesia arriving in the Netherlands in about 1962. By far the largest number of migrants from the former colony disembarked between 1945 and the mid 1950s. The last, minor peak in 1962 was caused by the handover of New Guinea to the United Nations and hence, indirectly, to the Republic of Indonesia. (collection international institute for social history) de col on iz at ion, m igr at ion a n d t h e post col on i a l bon us 25 gration and exogamy have blurred the borders between them and the surrounding society. Equally, there was no natural sense of solidarity between migrants from different colonies: Dutch with colonial roots associated themselves with the Netherlands East Indies, Suriname or the Antilles, but rarely with the broader context of colonialism itself. The three postcolonial migrations more or less succeeded each other. This meant that the migrants arrived in a country that was becoming more clearly postcolonial over time. Immigration from Indonesia peaked in the first five years after the Second World War, coming to a halt by the early 1960s. At the beginning of this period the Netherlands was destitute, to the extent that many Dutch were themselves emigrating. Fifteen years later, by

Gert Oostindie (ed.), Dutch colonialism, migration and cultural heritage, 2008

The fragmentation of memory is one of the many legacies of Dutch colonialism in Asia, Africa, the Americas and ultimately * tr* Netherlands itself. The historiography of Dutch coloniarism can be neatly divided into geographic branches, with each of these subdivided into smader entities. This book aims to broaden the perspective by presenting a comparative approach to colonial migrations in the Dutch orbit. This introductorychapter piåvides a bird,s eye view of relevant colonial history as well as a succinct disiussion of the maj"or types of migration sparked by Dutch colonial rule and some prelimináry observations oñ the resultant cultural legacies.l An exceedingly brief history of Dutch colonialism To provide some context, a few words on the general outlines of Dutch colonial history are requisite. l4lhile Dutch ships were engaged in incidental explorations and commercial pursuits all over the tropús by the late sixteenth cenfury, the scale and organization of overseas expansion was greatly enhanced with the establishment of the Dr.itch East Indies companylvoi, and the Dutch wesr Indies Company (wIC, r6z7-1,7g2).Thís would lead to the establishment of a series of traàing posts along with a number of genuine colonies mainly administrated by thesé companiãs.

Eighteenth Century Studies, 1998

BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review

The Cambridge Companion to the Dutch Golden Age

Even today few people are unaffected by the term 'Dutch Golden Age'. So commonly has the phrase been applied to the Dutch seventeenth century in, for instance, museums, (art) history books, and tourist guides that it seldom fails to conjure up a range of iconic associations. For many, it will evoke pictures by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, or one of the many other only slightly less famous painters. Others associate it primarily with Dutch economic prosperity and the Republic's trade empire, and might envision the rich merchant houses along the Amsterdam canals, Delftware, or the great East Indiamen of the VOC. Some will think of one or two of the many wars fought by the Dutch Republic, most likely the Revolt against Habsburg Spain, the three naval wars against England, or the battles against Louis XIV's France. Grotius, Huygens, Spinoza, and the great intellectual achievements of the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic might be less prominent in the minds of most people, as would be the rest of its immense textual heritage, but still one can expect one or two mentions from that field as well. And that is only scratching the surface: evidently, the Dutch Golden Age connotes a great many very disparate things that are nevertheless distinctive enough to be called Dutch. All suchlargely positiveassociations are tinged with wonder. From the seventeenth century onwards, observers of the Dutch miracle have asked themselves how a small country, with barely two million inhabitants, could have achieved prominence in such varied fields of human endeavour and competition. Explanations, then and later, have ranged widely. Seventeenth-century Protestant observers were convinced that the Dutch were God's chosen people, and their country a New Israel, which owed its prosperity to divine providence. Other