Last updated on March 31, 2022
The Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, was formed as a colony of the Netherlands in 1800 when the country nationalized the Dutch East India Company. It expanded to the territories seen on the eve of WW2 with the annexation of the Bird’s Head Peninsula in western New Guinea in 1920. In 1941, the Dutch East Indies produced large quantities of coffee, tea (20% of the world’s supply), cacao, coconut (25% of the world’s supply), sugar, pepper, tobacco, rubber (35% of the world’s supply), quinine (most of the world’s supply), and oil (significant portion of the world’s supply). The islands were the Netherland’s main source of raw materials; very little industry was developed in the Dutch East Indies. In the 1900s the Dutch began to implement better flood control, education, and other programs to help the colonial subjects, but ultimately these programs were not effective. As main the interest for the Dutch colonial administration for the colony was trade, the Dutch language was never forced upon the local population; instead, the popular Riau dialect of Malay language was adopted as the official language so that trade would not be hindered; this official language would later involve into the modern Indonesian language.
The Netherlands declared war on Japan on 8 Dec 1941, and the Dutch forces fought against the Japanese under the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) structure. Celebes was invaded during the night of 10 to 11 Jan 1942, while Tarakan, Borneo was taken in mid-Jan. In late Feb, Japanese naval forces defeated the Allied fleet at the Java Sea while Japanese Army troops landed on Java. The Dutch ground forces, though slightly better armed than their counterparts in Europe during the German invasion in 1940, were unable to stop the Japanese invasion and surrendered on 8 Mar 1942. This ended 300 years of Dutch influence in the South Pacific.
A small number of Dutch servicemen remained in the theater and participated in various campaigns in the Pacific War. Dutch pilots who fled to Australia in early 1942 formed the No. 18 Squadron RAAF in Apr 1942 and No. 120 Squadron RAAF in Dec 1943 to continue the fight, for example. Dutch soldiers also played a part in the 1945 invasion of Borneo.
While most colonial members of the Dutch forces in Dutch East Indies were released back into the population, thousands of both military and civilian Dutch were placed in prison camps; some of them were later deported to Japan, Thailand, Malaya, and Burma as forced laborers. The Japanese were initially welcomed by the local populations, who viewed Japan as a friendly neighboring power who had liberated the Pacific Islands from European colonialism. In Jul 1942, Indonesian nationalist leader Sukarno publicly offered support for the Japanese war effort, for example, and his organization would continue to receive Japanese support throughout the entire occupation. Certain Japanese action in the islands, however, revealed their true intentions. Thousands among the local population were conscripted as forced laborers, while raw materials and food were shipped abroad, causing material shortages and starvation.
The Japanese occupation administration divided the Dutch East Indies into three regions for defense purposes. Sumatra was defended by the 25th Army, Java and Madura by the 16th Army, and Borneo and the remaining major islands by the 2nd South Fleet of the Japanese Navy. The Allied campaign across the South Pacific ultimately bypassed most of the populous islands except for New Guinea and Borneo, thus most of the population centers were saved from destruction but remained under Japanese rule until the end of the Pacific War.
After the war, most of the 300,000 Japanese were deported back to Japan in phases. 1,038 were kept behind for war crimes trials; 969 would be found guilty, and 236 would be given death sentences.
On 18 Aug 1945, Sukarno declared an independent Indonesia. On 27 Oct, the Battle of Surabaya broke out between Indonesian nationalists and British and Dutch forces, the first major action in what was to become a four-year long war for independence. On 27 Dec 1949, the war ended with the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference, with the Dutch ceding control of the majority of the former Dutch East Indies to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia. The member nations would dissolve themselves into the Republic of Indonesia by the end of 1950, forming the Indonesian nation today.
The western half of New Guinea remained under Dutch control as Dutch New Guinea. In the 1950s, the Dutch prepared the territory for full independence, and held elections in 1959 for the New Guinea Council. On 1 Oct 1962, the Netherlands handed the territory over to the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority. On 1 May 1963, control was given to Indonesia, who renamed the western half of New Guinea as West Irian and later Irian Jaya. In 1969, a referendum was held, the result of which made Irian Jaya officially a part of Indonesia.
Source: Wikipedia, http://ww2db.com/country/dutch_east_indies