The discovery of Indonesia; Western (non-Dutch) historiography on the decolonization of Indonesia

Abstract

'Independence from the Netherlands' was the name of a conference organized by the VGTE (Society for Twentieth-Century History) in The Hague on 19 November 1993. This name is open to two different inter pretations. Firstly, it echoes a Dutch Communist Party slogan that was widely popularized between the two World Wars ('Indies independence from the Netherlands now'), which summarized the party's standpoint on the status of the then Dutch East Indies in rather a provocative way. Taken in this sense, the name should be viewed as a programme inviting reflec tion, half a century after its implementation, on how precisely this former communist programme was realized. Thus interpreted, the name would require a revised review of the decolonization of Indonesia. However, the name may also allude to a publicly established fact, referring to a point in time at which the colonial ties had already been severed, or in other words, to Indonesia as an independent state. If the name is taken in this sense, a number of possible subjects for historical reflection present themselves. This essay is intended to explore the reactions of Western, non-Dutch, historiography to the foundation of the Republik Indonesia and the events leading up to and following it. The choice of this essentially historio graphical topic requires some explanation. With published sources in the form of memoirs, surveys, descriptions and analyses by both Dutch and Indonesian authors existing in abundance, it seemed interesting, and even useful, to go into at least some of the reasons why historians from other Western countries came to study Indonesia. It turned out to be impossible to do so without giving at least a brief outline - which made the subject even more intriguing - of the main developments in historical research and teaching in the Western countries concerned after the Second World War. Against this background, it was possible to compare the contributions of the respective historians with one another. It should be noted in this connection that Western historiography here is taken to include American, N. BOOTSMA, a retired lecturer in 19th- and 20th-century history of the University of Nijmegen, is the author of Buren in de koloniale tijd, Leiden: KITLV Press, 1986, and 'The Netherlands East Indies in Documents on Dutch Foreign Policy', in: Bob de Graaff and Joost Jonker (eds), The optimum formula for a Foreign Policy Document Series, pp. 90-104, 's-Gravenhage: Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 1992. He may be contacted at Philippuslaan 6, 6564 AM H. Landstichting, the Netherlands.