The Netherlands Indies

Abstract

THE Netherlands Indies has an area of 733,000 square miles, with a population estimated at 70,000,000 in 1940. The latest census, which was taken in 1930, gave the Indies a total population of 60,727,000. Indonesians, which is the term now generally applied to the indigenous peoples of the Indies, accounted for 59,138,000 of this total. The Indonesians are divided into a large number of ethnic groups. The Javanese, with 27,809,000 souls, is by far the most numerous. Other large ethnic groups are: Sundanese, 8,595,000; Madurese, 4,306,000; Minangkabauers, 1,989,000; Bugi, 1,533,000; Battak, 1,207,000; and Balinese, 1,112,000. The heterogeneity of the indigenous society is evident from the fact that on Java alone there are seven, on Sumatra nineteen, and in the Great East thirty-eight different Indonesian peoples, each numbering more than 25,000 persons. The peoples of the Indies vary greatly in development; the tribes of New Guinea and of the interior of Borneo are still