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.