The Netherlands East Indies
A colonial history
The Netherlands East Indies, East Indies and the East are names that were used for today’s Indonesia in the days of Dutch rule. Poetic names were also coined, like the Indian Islands Empire or Emerald Belt. The three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism in the Indonesian archipelago are the subject of this exhibition.
The Netherlands’ colonial history began with the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In the seventeenth century the Company established and captured trading bases on the coasts of various Indonesian islands in pursuit of the profits of the spice trade. In the nineteenth century the Dutch state took over the administration of the entire archipelago. Rebellions by Indonesians against the spread of colonial control were crushed, often with ruthless force. Early in the twentieth century Indonesians began to strive for independence and shortly after the Second World War Dutch colonial rule was brought to an end. The Netherlands East Indies became the independent Republic of Indonesia. In 1963 Dutch New Guinea was incorporated into the new state and is now called Papua.
Tangible evidence of Indonesia’s colonial past can be found in objects, recollections and family stories. Engraved in the collective memories of the Netherlands and Indonesia are the final years of colonial rule, the first half of the twentieth century. This exhibition attempts to recall that period and the events that led up to it.
Follow the Tropenmuseum on: