The Netherlands Indies and the Great War, 1914-1918
The first book-length study in English of the Netherlands Indies during the First World War examines the impact of the Great War on the political and economic constellation of the Dutch East Indies. Special attention is given to relations with the mother country, developments in the colonial export sector, the position of the Islamic nationalist movement and the Netherlands Indies as a smuggling station used by Indian revolutionaries and German agents.
When World War I had just broken out, colonial authorities in the Netherlands Indies heaved a sigh of relief: The colonial export sector had not collapsed and war offered new economic prospects; representatives from the Islamic nationalist movement had prayed for God to bless the Netherlands but had not seized upon the occasion to incite unrest. Furthermore, the colonial government, impressed by such shows of loyalty, embarked upon a campaign to create a ‘native militia’, an army of Javanese to assist in repulsing a possible Japanese invasion.
By 1917 the optimism of the first war years had disappeared. Trade restrictions, the war at sea, and a worldwide lack of tonnage caused export opportunities to dwindle. Communist propaganda had radicalized the nationalist movement. The political and economic independence gained by the Netherlands Indies, a result of problems in communications with the mother country, was also lost with the end of the war.
