Dutch Colonialism in Indonesia

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Dutch Colonialism in Indonesia The Dutch “economic exploitation of the Indies is one the few examples of [an] economically successful colonialism.” (Glassburner, 1971: 1) The “single greatest achievement of the last century of Dutch rule was to create the basic framework for an integrated Indonesian economy and a nation state out of numerous regions whose commercial links with one another had hitherto often been negligible” (Booth, 1997: 5). The Dutch motive for this integration was to secure the large islands and commercial centers already occupied (i.e. Java) and to establish and solidify claims to the smaller, outer islands of the archipelago. However, the economic costs of the Dutch colonial policy of coercive integration were considerable. These costs included lack of access to quality education afforded to the indiginous population and a tiny, indiginous entrepeneurial business and administrative class that had been disadvantaged relative to European and Chinese enterprises. The Dutch colonial legacy is one that resulted in Java-centric, market-based economy that sought not only to integrate Indonesia with its own constituent parts, but also the rest of the world. As outlined in this paper, this Dutch structural change resulted in large benefits for Indonesia as a whole, but almost no benefit for parts of the indigenous population and lasting structural problems that are still not effectively remedied to this day. One of the irrefutable benefits that Dutch colonialism had on Indonesia was that real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew in per capita terms. However, Glassburner believes that the Dutch succeeded largely by means of shrewd and ruthless dominance of export trade (mainly coffee, sugar, and indigo). Many argue that this is just further evidence of the “colonial drain of funds [that] sapped the Indonesian economy and benefited the Dutch economy”

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