page_title: History of the Netherlands
section_title: Colonial focus
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Netherlands / 1900 to 1940 / Colonial focus
caption_attribution_description: English: Dutch Expansion in the East Indies Русский: Экспансия Нидерландов в Ост-Индии
context_page_description: The History of the Netherlands is a history of seafaring people thriving on a lowland river delta on the North Sea in northwestern Europe. Records begin with the four centuries during which the region formed a militarized border zone of the Roman Empire. This came under increasing pressure from Germanic peoples moving westwards. As Roman power collapsed and the Middle Ages began, three dominant Germanic peoples coalesced in the area, Frisians in the north and coastal areas, Low Saxons in the northeast, and the Franks in the south.
  During the Middle Ages, the descendants of the Carolingian dynasty came to dominate the area and then extended their rule to a large part of Western Europe. The region nowadays corresponding to the Netherlands therefore became part of Lower Lotharingia within the Frankish Holy Roman Empire. For several centuries, lordships such as Brabant, Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Guelders and others held a changing patchwork of territories. There was no unified equivalent of the modern Netherlands.
context_section_description: The Dutch empire comprised the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), as well as Surinam in South America and some minor possessions. It was smaller in 1945 than in 1815 because the Netherlands was the only colonial power that did not expand into Africa or anywhere else.  The empire was run from Batavia (in Java), where the governor and his technical experts had almost complete authority with little oversight from the Hague. Successive governors improved their bureaucratic and military controls, and allowed very little voice to the locals until the 1920s.
  The colony brought economic opportunity to the mother country and there was little concern at the time about it. One exception came in 1860 when Eduard Dekker, under the pen name "Multatuli" wrote the novel Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company, one of the most notable books in the history of Dutch literature. He criticized the exploitation of the colony and as well had harsh words about the indigenous princes who collaborated with the governor. The book helped inspire the Indonesian independence movement in the mid-20th century as well as the "Fair trade" movement for coffee at the end of the century.
  The military forces in the Dutch East Indies were controlled by the governor and were not part of the regular Dutch army. As the map shows, the Dutch slowly expanded their holdings from their base in Java to include all of modern Indonesia by 1920. Most islands were not a problem but there was a long, costly campaign against the Achin (Aceh) state in northern Sumatra.
  The Netherlands had not fought a major military campaign since the 1760s, and the strength of its armed forces had gradually dwindled. The Dutch decided not to ally themselves with anyone, and kept out of all European wars especially the First World War that swirled about it.
caption: Map of the Dutch East Indies showing its expansion from 1800 to 1942.
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