In the two decades from the coming of Marshal Daendels (1808-1811) to the
Java War (1825-1830) Javanese society was turned on its head. New concepts
of honour, status and racial superiority were introduced from a Europe
transformed by the industrial and political revolutions. Military uniforms
were now used to demarcate rank and status, service to the colonial state
transcending nobility of birth. Through despoliation and military violence
the indigenous courts of south-central Java were eviscerated while racial
tensions led to an anti-Chinese pogrom which started the Java War. Two
contemporary wartime diaries, both written by Belgians, illustrate the
racialized world of the Netherlands East Indies and the ways in which
colonial wars were conducted using native auxiliaries.
