ENGINEERING AN EMPIRE: The Creation of Infrastructural Systems in the Netherlands East Indies 1800–1950

Abstract

The Dutch laid the foundations for the present networks of public works, including irrigation facilities, roads, railroads, harbours and drinking water supplies, throughout Indonesia. They did so between 1800 and 1950 when they colonised the archipelago, then known as the Dutch East Indies. This paper deals with the construction of public works in relation to the process of colonial state formation in the Dutch East Indies. The East Indies Public Works agency was established in 1854 and it came to play a major role in the expanding building activities, particularly after 1885. Road building serves as an example. Dutch engineers constructed a road network comprising 12,000 km of asphalted surface, 41,000 km of metalled road and 16,000 km of unimproved surfaces in the colony. As roads became of great military and economic importance in the 19th century, long-distance connections were realised. Road construction specifications changed dramatically in the course of time. With the arrival of motorised transport, intensity and speed of road traffic increased and a new type of road design was needed. The period 1915–1920 brought a fundamental change in the organisation as well as the technology of road building. The rise of the Public Works agency resulted from the modernisation process of the colonial state, but the agency also gave this process an impulse.