The Netherlands Indies and the Great War, 1914–1918 (review)

Research on the First World War is no longer the sole domain of the countries that took part in the war. More and more well-documented studies are published to show the role neutral countries played and give a detailed account of the effects the war had on these ‘peaceful’ societies. The role of the Netherlands in World War I has been described in two eminent recent publications, one by Hubert P. van Tuyll, The Netherlands and World War I (2001), the other by Maartje Abbenhuis, The Art of Staying Neutral (2006). These studies have clearly demonstrated that the neutrals were involved in the abysmal events of 1914–1918, not only as victims, but also as actors actively pursuing their own interests.

2007 saw the publication of a monumental study on the largest neutral colony of one of the European powers: the Netherlands East-Indies. The author, Kees van Dijk, researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of South-East Asian and Caribbean Studies and Professor of the History of Islam in Indonesia at Leiden University, has written an extensive study on the effects of the war on a colonial society. His emphasis is on economic and domestic issues rather than on military history. In fact, Van Dijk hardly ever refers to military policy or other military matters at all: his focus is on the way the colonial economy was influenced by the trade restrictions imposed on the Dutch, by the British in particular. He also analyses the effect of, for example, the German unrestricted U-boat war and the fear of Turkish and German instigated anti-Dutch and pro-Islamic sentiments among the indigenous population.

The main military issue in the Dutch East-Indies at the time was the creation of a native militia by way of conscription of the male population. The idea of handing out arms to the Javanese caused great apprehension among the Dutch, but, in contrast, the Indian elite considered it a form of emancipation. Its members felt that with the introduction of conscription they could claim a certain measure of representation in the government. In the end a militia was instituted, albeit solely formed by European colonials, but a form of parliamentary representation did emerge as a consequence of the social tensions the war had brought about. Remarkably, one of the few studies in English on the military in the Dutch East-Indies, The Dutch Colonial Army in Transition: the Militia Debate 1900–1921 (1980), by Ger Teitler, has been left unmentioned by Van Dijk.

When Van Dijk does mention the Dutch Colonial Army in his study (pp. 559–70), it is in the context of the negative effects of the war on the flow of men and matériel from Europe to the colony, and the medical, disciplinary and morale problems that plagued the Army because of the shortages and the increased social tensions. In the last months of the war unrest was growing, both in the Army and Navy. The increase of anti-Dutch violence, from nationalists and communists alike, coincided with growing problems with rice imports. This explosive combination made 1918 a year of great anxiety for the Dutch colonial rulers, but in the end the granting of some concessions to the native population sufficed to ease tensions. The power of the Dutch was strong enough to last for a few more decades.

Van Dijk’s book is an in-depth study of a colonial society steadily coming under more and more pressure. His analysis is thorough and based on a wide selection of contemporary sources. As such it is of considerable interest to any scholar of Western colonial policy. Van Dijk mentions the almost impossible task of a small European country to ever defend such an extensive and remote area, but, on the whole, military questions are only marginally dealt with in the book.