indonesia

• Moluccas


  Also known as the Maluku islands, nicknamed the "Spice Islands" due to the spices they produce like nutmeg and cloves
• Divide and Rule Policy (Dutch)


  A strategy where the colonizers pitted the local leaders against each other to maintain control over Indonesia as a center of trade in 1511
• Dutch East India Company


  Established by the Dutch government in 1602 to unite the companies sending voyages to Asia. It was allowed to have an army to defend the company against pirates, establish ports in the territories it controlled, and make agreements with local Asians. It was used to control the spice trade in Southeast Asia.
• The spices and ports of Indonesia were the reasons for its colonization
• Colonization of Indonesia

  1. Portugal first reached the Ternate in the Moluccas in 1511 and established a trading post

  2. In 1655, the Dutch expelled the Portuguese and conquered the Moluccas (Amboina and Tidore) using military force

  3. To maintain control, the Dutch made agreements with local Indonesian leaders and used the Divide and Rule Policy to make the locals submit to their desires

  4. This led to the Dutch monopoly on the spice trade, which was further strengthened by the establishment of the Dutch East India Company
• Areas colonized in Indonesia


  • Moluccas (Ternate) - colonized by Portugal, Netherlands, England
  • Jakarta (Batavia) - colonized by Netherlands
• Although the British briefly controlled the Moluccas during the Napoleonic Wars, the Netherlands regained control after the war
• Nationalism in Indonesia arose to end the unequal policies of the Dutch colonizers. Movements like Budi Utomo, Serakat Islam, Indonesian Nationalist Party, and Indonesian Communist Party were examples of the Indonesians' continuing struggle for independence
• Indonesia gained independence after World War II, on August 17, 1945, and Sukarno became its first president