Dutch Expansion in the Indonesian Archipelago Around 1900 and the Imperialism Debate

Abstract

Few works on modern imperialism (1880–1914) include Dutch political and military behaviour in the Indonesian archipelago. Theories concerning colonial expansion in this period have been based almost exclusively on the activities of the big powers, scrambling for new territories in Africa. The small country of the Netherlands, expanding its colonial frontiers within its nominal sphere of interest, did not arouse much interest, the less so as its history and sources are not easily accessible due to an internationally little known language.

Before the Gangrene Set In: Th e Dutch East Indies in 1910

“…Th ree sources can help us here; see, for example, Cribb 1994;Locher-Scholten 1994;and Shiraishi 1990. Th is story has been told by other scholars, but here I have tried to illuminate how the Indies may have appeared prior to these things occurring-in a time of colonial optimism, not when things had spiraled out of colonial control.…”

“…Locher-Scholten's window in examining these processes has been a Sumatran one, and particularly one based on Jambi, in the southern part of that huge island (Locher-Scholten 2003). Holland's colonial armed forces, or the Brought to you by | Boston University Library Mugar Memorial Library Authenticated Download Date | 8/8/15 9:44 PM KNIL, were not always up to the military adventurism required by an aggressive colonial regime for much of the nineteenth century.…”

The Dutch Colonial Business Elite at the Turn of the Century

“…4 His conclusion is that multiple directors generated a national network of interlocking corporations that was dominated by banks, transportation companies and trading companies, in contrast to industrial corporations which occupied only marginal positions in the network. 8 We shall concentrate on the period between 1888, when our main source first appeared, and 1914, when the First World War broke out. Segments of the network were strongly oriented towards local business elites in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and -to a lesser extent -the Hague.…”

Strange Parallels and the Big Picture: “Asia” Writ Large Over a Turbulent Millennium

“…In Malaya, the Pangkor Engagement, and with it the British Forward Movement, started only in 1874, even if a few ports and islands answered to Englishmen before this; the majority of the Indies' Outer Islands saw no Dutch flags until after 1873, when the initial defeat at Aceh pushed Dutch colonial pride into serious empire-building (see Charney, 2009;Loos, 2006;Edwards, 2007;Evans, 2002;Zinoman, 2001;Warren, 1981;Gullick, 1987;Locher-Scholten, 1994). Indeed, it would be very difficult to measure this equation, with all of the formal and informal arrangements of influence, sovereignty, and economic (as opposed to political) domination that were coming to bear at this time.…”