Dutch Empire

The Dutch were not in military or political control of the East Indies at the end of World War II, and in the power vacuum the nationalist leaders Sukarno and Muhammad Hatta proclaimed Indonesian independence in August 1945. Dutch public opinion at home was heavily in favour of a restitution of the pre-war situation before any concessions were made. Under immense pressure from the United Nations, and from the United States in particular (pressure which was similarly exerted on the other European imperial powers), the Dutch saw Indonesia inch slowly towards independence, which they finally recognized in 1949, after two military campaigns on Java and Sumatra, euphemistically known as “police actions”.

The Indonesian leader Sukarno confiscated all remaining Dutch property in 1957. The Dutch had stubbornly retained control of the western half of the huge island of New Guinea, known as West Irian, but in 1963 it too was returned, humiliatingly for the Dutch, to Indonesia. Most Dutch people resented the enforced decolonization, although it had none of the feared disastrous effects on the home economy. A number of immigrant groups have moved to the Netherlands as a result: the Eurasians of mixed blood (some 250,000 in the 1950s), who have integrated well into Dutch society, and the Moluccans (ex-soldiers in the colonial army and their families, numbering some 12,500), who experienced serious problems of adjustment, culminating in terrorist actions in the Netherlands in the 1970s. Dutch relations with Indonesia are not always harmonious.

In the Caribbean area, some nationalism was experienced in Suriname after World War II, though almost none in the six islands of the Netherlands Antilles. Having had the East Indies removed from them, the Dutch moved gradually towards loosening the bonds with their other colonies, passing a new constitution in 1954 that delegated a large measure of autonomy in internal affairs. In 1975 Suriname declared its independence, and some 60,000 immigrants took the opportunity of moving to the Netherlands. The Dutch proved keen to support the former colony financially, despite periodic crises and anti-democratic actions by the Surinamese government. In the islands, Aruba seceded and became self-governing in 1986; the rest of the Netherlands Antilles (Curaçao, Bonaire, St Maarten, St Eustatius, and Saba) remain part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, but with a high degree of autonomy.

At its height in the mid-17th century, the Dutch Empire was one of the greatest maritime economic organizations in history; it continued to support the Dutch economy well into the 20th century. It began as economic expedience, and although the Dutch were proud of their administration, it was never a crusading empire like the Spanish one. The Dutch became great in Europe through their seaborne empire, joined in the imperialist adventure at the end of the 19th century, and, like their fellow European powers, were obliged to dispose of most of their colonial assets after World War II, leaving them with a multicultural society and a post-colonial legacy of historic ties and residual guilt.