School Teachers and Soft Decolonisation in Dutch–Indonesian Relations, 1945–1949

The emergence of two states in Indonesia in the aftermath of the Second World War, namely the Republic of Indonesia and the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration, instigated a war that imposed citizenship, which schoolteachers had to choose carefully. By examining the quest for professional trajectories of Dutch and Indonesian schoolteachers during the 1945–1949 period, this paper argues that expanding citizenship fostered decolonisation through the teachers’ detachment from a shared dream of social mobility. The post–World War II reconstruction project, which is largely depicted as narratives of state building in many of the existing bibliographies, reflected a growing discontent in teachers’ expectations for economic reestablishment at the personal levels. The teachers’ detachment from a shared dream of social mobility reflected the dissolution of an imagined community where transnational cultural identities had met and melded in the early twentieth century. In contrast to the emerging historiography that emphasises atrocities and violence, this paper offers a perspective on the soft process of decolonisation.

Decolonization of Petroleum Education and Training in the Indonesian Oil Industry, 1950-1968

The article explores the decolonization of education within the Indonesian petroleum industry. The Netherlands Indies had one of the largest petroleum industries in the world with many major petroleum players involved. Despite this there was a lack of investment in training and schooling of engineers and workers in the Netherlands Indies. The article showed that the development of training and tertiary education in the 1950s was conducted by both the major oil companies and Indonesian government which invested in creating vocational training schools and university departments to meet industry needs. This development allowed for the creation of a government-run national education and research institute based in Java. The article shows that the role of the oil companies was still indispensable for the decolonization gap before the development of state-owned education institutes and the inclusion of Indonesian participation in the industry during the 1950s and 1960s. The active participation of the foreign oil industry in the Indonesianization of the industry was part of its ‘exceptionalism’ and the specific role oil played in the Indonesian economy.

August Tobler, the Swiss Pioneer of South Sumatra Geological Mapping, 1900-1912

Dr. August Tobler was a well-known Swiss geologist, who, as one of the very first petroleum field geologists in the Netherlands Indies, did more than ten years of geological mapping in the tiger-infested jungles of South Sumatra. He first worked for the Koninklijke/Royal Dutch and Moeara Enim oil companies in South Sumatra from 1900 to 1904. This was followed by six more years of geological mapping in the Jambi basin, as the first non-Dutch geoscientist at the Dienst van het Mijnwezen (Geological Survey). His thoroughly documented monographs and geologic maps of his geological fieldwork in the Palembang and Jambi basins of South Sumatra, as well as the adjacent Barisan Mountains, set new standards for quality and detail.Much of the personal information on Dr. Tobler is from papers by Kugler (1930, 1963), Oppenoorth (1930), Stehlin (1931) and Hottinger (2013). This paper is one of the chapters from a new book that is being prepared by the first author, entitled Pioneers and Milestones of Indonesian Geology (~1820-1960).

Colonial Domesticity and the Modern City: Bandung in the Early Twentieth-Century Netherlands Indies

The article shows that the expansion of modern colonial cities in the first half of twentieth-century Netherlands Indies was a result of changing colonial domesticity. The rise of European families along with the modernized middle-class Indonesian and Indonesian-Chinese families opened the market for a new kind of urban living space. Decentralization of municipalities made possible stronger relationship between local government and city boosters, who had connection with the real estate and tourism industries. This changing class and economic relations in the city resulted in the formation of an urban institution that linked local governance, the real estate industry, and the production of urban colonial imaginaries that were modern and predicated on a fetish of white, European urban spaces. Such a phenomenon has not yet been fully explored in the context of colonial cities.

PRESERVATION OF ROTTERDAM FORT POST BONGAYA AGREEMENT IN MAKASSAR

The purpose of this study was to clear analyze the existence of Fort Rotterdam and its preservation after the Bongaya agreement in Makassar. This study uses the steps in writing history, namely heuristics, criticism, interpretation and becomes a historiographical work with the literature study method. The results of this study indicate that First, Ujung Pandang Fortress have built by the Kingdom of Gowa to defend the greatness and dignity of the Gowa kingdom from colonial threats. This fort is one of the guard forts of the main fortress of Somba Opu, which is the center of the Kingdom of Gowa. After the Gowa kingdom lost the Makassar war and confirmed by the Bongaya Agreement on 18 November 1667, the Ujung Pandang fort fell into the hands of the VOC (Netherlands Indies Trade Association) and changed its name to Fort Rotterdam and as a spice-trading center from east to west. Second, the preservation of the fort after the Bongaya Agreement, namely during the Japanese occupation. The fort have used as a center for language and agricultural research activities, after that in 1973 after independence the fort changed its function as the National Institute of Antiquities and Heritage, which is currently known as the Cultural Heritage Conservation Center and Museum La Galigo.

Strategi Diponegoro dalam menggerakkan semangat jihad masyarakat Islam di Jawa

One of the wars that was enough to make the Netherlands Indies Government change its war strategy and tactics to deal with resistance in Java, the Diponegoro War or often known as the Java War. This war involved almost all of the Land of Java, especially Central Java and East Java. The Participation of many Javanese people can’t be separated from the role of Prince Diponegoro in winning the hegemony over the Javanese people, especially people who embrance Islam resulting in a war within five years. The method used in this research is library research. The result of this research is that prince Diponegoro conveyed his ideas, ideas and knowledge to the public through the Islamic community, especially from the students, to call for the spirit of Jihad fi Sabilillah. The war banner he carried was also based on Islamic laws and wanted to establish an Islamic state (Balad al Islam). Salah satu perang yang cukup membuat pemerintah Hindia Belanda merubah strategi dan taktik untuk menghadapi perlawanan di Jawa, Perang Diponegoro atau sering dikenal dengan Perang Jawa. Perang ini melibatkan hampir seluruh Tanah Jawa terutama Jawa Tengah dan Jawa Timur. Ikut andilnya masyarakat Jawa yang banyak tidak lepas dari peran Pangeran Diponegoro dalam memenangkan Hegemoni atas masyarakat Jawa, terutama masyarakat yang memeluk agama Islam sehingga mengakibatkan perang dalam kurun waktu lima tahun. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah library research. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah pangeran Diponegoro menyampaikan sebuah gagasan, ide dan pengetahuannya kepada masyarakat melalui komunitas Islam, terutama dari kalangan santri untuk menyerukan semangat Jihad fi Sabilillah. Panji perang yang diusungnya pun juga berlandaskan pada hukum-hukum Islam dan ingin mendirikann suatu negara Islam (Balad al Islam).

The HSN and the Netherlands Indies: Challenge and Promise

In 2000 Kees Mandemakers and I started a project to trace the life courses of Dutch migrants to the Netherlands Indies. This article describes the process of data collection, the research questions and the project's main findings that have been published in various articles and a monograph. Two conclusions stand out: the first pertains to the heavily urban provenance of this migration and the second emphasizes the relatively educated and skilled background of colonial Dutch migration. This second finding contradicts earlier assumptions about the Dutch colonies as a place where undesirable elements were shovelled off. The current article further discusses findings of projects on Swiss and Luxembourger military migrations to the Netherlands Indies. An important difference between Dutch military migrants and those from other European countries regards the role of their service within a life course. While Dutch colonial military service was often the first step to make a career in colonial Indonesia, for Europeans from abroad it was rather a move of desperation as well as an attempt to earn some money that would enable them to start a business and a family in their country of birth. Their migration experience was rather a 'life cycle' migration. The article finally describes attempts to extend the HSN to the Dutch citizens born in the Netherlands Indies.

‘The Screaming Injustice of Colonial Relationships’

An insensitive poem published in 1935 sparked a wave of outrage among the Indies Chinese students in the Netherlands. Titled The yellow peril, it had started as an inside joke among Leiden’s Indologists, yet quickly aroused the fury of both moderates and radicals. Their anti-colonial activism flared up for months, attracting numerous allies and eventually taking hold in the Netherlands Indies. After the Indologists had apologized, the number of activists willing to push for more structural change dwindled. As such, this microhistory lays bare some broader dynamics of anti-racism. We argue that ethnic Chinese, who continue to be portrayed as an unobtrusive model minority, have a longer legacy of activism than they are usually given credit for. This is particularly relevant in the present, when Covid-induced Sinophobia, anti-Black racism, and a reassessment of the colonial past are inspiring new movements and forging new anti-racist solidarities.