Affected by the Europeans

   Before the Japanese Occupation, the Europeans changed the lives of many in Indonesia. Since there was a high demand for natural resources, a rapid development of cash crops occurred. The goods that the Dutch East Indies exported were rubber, sugar, palm oil and other spices (B). Also new ideas were introduced from Europe like technological advances. Technological change increased and the automotive industry arose which made unforeseen markets for tropical products in Europe and North America (B).

  This economic development helped increase the population as well. The population grew of more than 500,000 people in each city, like Batavia (A). Smaller cities had about 100,000 to 300,000 people (A).

Final Independence

  The invasion of Japan had ended the Dutch Rule, but after Japan failed invading Indonesia, the Dutch tried to regain control. The Dutch were unsuccessful because now Indonesians began fighting for their final Independence.

More than 169 parties in Indonesia fought for their Independence, which resulted to the final war (A). On December 1949, the Indonesian National Revolution was fought and as many as 100,000 Indonesians died (C).

      Finally Indonesia gained its independence from both the Dutch and Japanese. 

     In 1945, Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed as an independent republic (A). Sukarno became the first president and attempted to stabilize Indonesia. But after a few years, Indonesia began to become weak. Problems such as starvation, and bank corruption occurred (A). Foreign banks would not lend money to Indonesia and the inflation rate arose to 1000 percent a year (B).

Indonesians began to realize that Sukarno was not “president material.” 

After Sept. 6^th 1965, when generals were killed and a coup attempt occurred, insurgents began to revolt and tried to take over his position (A). Then there was an uprising but Major General Suharto had stopped it. He was the commander of the army reserve. During the attempted coup, many Indonesians were massacred. Violence, especially in Bali and Java, arose and between 100,000 to one million people died (D).

      Sukarno was replaced by Suharto in 1967 and began to stabilize Indonesia (A). He began by outlawing communists and dismissed many government officials and recognized new ones. He also brought Indonesia back in the UN. He than made new laws which ended in about a million people being imprisoned (D).He than broke ties with China and the Soviet Union and was not friendly to the Westerners interests. Resulting, the army became close with the govermny and the economy (C). The economy had high growth through policies aimed at controlling foreign investments, boosting oil exports, slowing population growth and increasing food production (B).

·      A New Order had begun.

Japanese Occupation

         Japan invaded Indonesia during WWII from March 1942 to 1945 (B). The Japanese occupied Indonesia for their natural resources and raw materials. During the 3 years, Japan committed corruption by the use of slave trade, which led to starvation and diseases(A). Also the Japanese government forced Indonesians to join WWII and fight for Japan. The people, who did not attend the war, were treated as slaves and forced to grow crops to sell to other European countries (B). None of the food that the farmers cropped got to keep the food for themselves because there a high demand in goods. After the Japanese invaded, they divided Indonesia into three parts, Sumatra, Java and Madura(D). The affects of the Japanese Occupation affected Indonesia in both negative and positive ways.

   Japan increased power amount the local population of Indonesia, by promoting the Indonesian language, Bahasa, as the national language (B). Additionally, Japan reunited the separate islands to support the nationalists. Trying to make Indonesians like the Japanese, Japan continued raising nationalism (A). Everything that the Japanese did, failed against them. Nationalists began revolting against the Japanese military, which gave confident to leaders, Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta.  They both declared Indonesia’s Independence on Aug. 17, 1945, which was a few days before Nagasaki ( a city in Japan) was destroyed by an atomic bomb (A).

   

Initial Conquest

The Portuguese were the first people to conquer the land of Indonesia in the 16th century. The reason for their conquest was trade exploitation (B). The main good that was traded was the spices, making Portugal and many other European countries wanting to settle there (A). They first went to the lands of Moluccas (Maluku) and established trading posts in 1512 and began to convert people into Christianity (B). During this time, the Dutch invaded and decided take control over the islands. They first captured Melaka from the Portuguese and established a new foothold in Jakarta (C). Wanting all the islands, no one was allowed to sail in the waters near Indonesia or they would attack them. Finally they took over the Indonesian archipelago and renamed Indonesia, the Dutch East Indies (B).

The Colonial Experience

    In the Dutch East Indies, the Indonesian people had to change their life style. Most people were forced to produce certain crops and deliver them at prices that were made by the Dutch companies (B). During this time the Dutch did not feel the reason to educate the Indonesians. Ninety percent of the Indonesian population were not educated (C). Some decided to move to Holland and went to college. Most of the Indonesians were not as lucky and had to continue growing crops (A). As the costs grew, the VOC became bankrupt and in resulting the government took over. It was still controlled by the Dutch but now they began enforcing political control but on Java. Peasants were forced to grow new crops such as indigo, coffee and etc. and sold them to make huge profits (C).

   After a few years of conquered, a few Indonesians decided to make a change and they became important national heroes. They were Diponegoro and Raden Ajeng Kartini(A). Diponegoro was a Javanese prince that fought battles against the dutch for about five years (A). The result was not independence but instead 200,000 Indonesians and 8,000 Europeans died by starvation and cholera(D). Afterwards, he still began to make negotiations with the Dutch, but they came to conclusion of imprisoning him in 1830 and then have him exiled (D).

    Raden Ajeng Kartini was not as intense as Diponegoro but she was still admired equally. She was the daughter of a Javanese aristocrat and was given a great opportunity to go and attend a Dutch School. Because of everything that was occurring in the Dutch Indies, she was concerned of what the colonial rule had done and the denial of high education given to the Indonesians and especially for women's rights.  She began to send letters to her friends in Holland and they were published which created an uprising in the foreign community (A). 
    Sukarno, a former engineer formed The Indonesia National Party in 1927 which demanded independence from the Dutch (C). Soon after, he was arrested and killed because he was a very smart and powerful man and the Dutch were afraid that he would gain independence from them. In 1928 the famous Youth Pledge proclaimed the concept of Indonesia, which was, "One people, One language, One Nation" (A). Indonesia was not near getting their independence especially when the Japanese invaded and occupied it during World War II.