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It was a reluctant Dutch government, representing an equally reluctant Dutch population, that had to recognize the independent Republic of Indonesia in 1949. The so-called decolonization process had been a traumatic experience for all parties concerned. The academic community in the Netherlands was no exception to this rule, and Dutch ‘Indonesian studies’ went into a long hibernation. This applies particularly to the study of the welfare services, an aspect of Dutch colonial rule that had been the pride and glory of civil servants and scholars alike (many of them former civil servants).

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This paper dexamines the history of sexually transmitted diseases in Southeast Asia and explores the origins of venereal disease, specifically syphilis and gonorrhoea, in the region. The arrival of new diseases that accompanied Europeans from about 1500, is a subject that scholars have largely ignored in favour of the 19th and 20th centuries. While concentrating on the Indonesian archipelago, the paper also considers to other parts of Southeast Asia to investigate the impact of syphilis and gonorrhoea on the rate of population growth in the region. Unlike gonorrhoea, which was present before the arrival of Europeans, syphilis was a new disease whose introduction by the Portuguese had lethal consequences. Possibly, the propagation of Islam and Christianity in island Southeast Asia after 1500 and of Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia, were important mitigating factors in checking the spread of syphilis.

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