To most people this is a country full of love, culture, festivities and food. Imagine the scrumptious sweets and treats fragrant through the misty air. The batik or the rapid fire seaman dance, from beachy resorts surrounded by daisies and orchids blooming across rice fields to the bustling city full of motorbike growls and loud chatter. They call this place the emerald of the equator, Welcome to Indonesia. All around, you can see traditions being passed down from generation to generation. But it wasn’t always like this, things happened. Indonesia lived up to its legacy. History happened, something so significant it changed Indonesia forever. So let’s take a glance back to the past, shall we? Imagine the history behind this like a story, to read the story you have to paddle across a long river, stretching far and wide like the Nile. Every detail of the extraordinary three hundred years will splash into your brain and plant itself there forever.
It started out with a city called Sunda Kelapa. Sunda was an extremely prosperous city with cash flowing through it. The reason for this was because of a port. It was a bustling spice trade harbour where traders from countries from all over our world came to trade. They traded more than spices, things like rich peppers, timber, rice, cloves, and to a lesser extent even ceramics. China, India, England–the port was constantly filled with loads of indigenous places. Culture was spread along, traditions, festivals. The port was like an everyday hangout for the royals. Uptill the Muslim Commander took over the port to expel the Portuguese after the successful conquest in 1527 (Britannica, “Jakarta”). He even took the time to rename Sunda Kelapa to Jayjakarta (meaning complete victory forever). It was a ploy to show everyone in Portugal that the Muslim had it all, including strength and that no matter what, the muslim would win everything. Including whatever Portugal brought to them.
Once the ceremony had happened, time passed. Still remaining in 1527 and even going beyond, interesting things took place. Things that make the boat shake slightly and go through a bumpy patch. Following the capture from the muslim, Jayjakarta integrated into the Sultanate of Banten. A major islamic state on the northern coast of Java. They did this to have extreme power against the Portuguese in case they struck. Jayjakarta had taken dangerous risks against them, life threatening in fact. They had to be prepared and have famous allies to protect their city. The main reason for a conflict like this was because the Portuguese wanted to build their own establishments there, and the muslims resented foreign control. They believed everything should be handled by locals, and locals only. They envied the thought of Portugal parading on their property. Jayakarta wanted to eliminate the option of constructing more ports, so they went to Banten for help. Essentially their goal was to eliminate the Portuguese from stealing their property and land. It took a very long period of time to officially strip Portugal of their establishment plans, but it eventually happened. However even after the muslim had made it clear to portugal that they were neither safe nor welcome in Jayjakarta, Portugal was not done conning them.
So to complete their last idea, Portugal continued playing their game silently controlling less significant trading hubs and staying active in the spice trade to slyly earn money. They typically did this somewhere further away in the Maluka Islands. But Jayjakarta and Java were so wrapped up in the trade and getting a new leader in place for themselves, they decided to let Portugal play monopoly for a bit before fully exterminating them like a house full of pesticides that won’t leave. This moment is where the boat has just overcome their first patch of anger and despair. But it only gets worse….
In the sixteenth century, something extravagant happened. A solution to all problems, A prince called Jayawikarta took power and control over Jayjakarta. He wanted to make Jayakarta independent once again and gain new settlements. To get civilian votes he also protected the famous port by governing the key trading areas within the property. He also tried to navigate complex relationships between the Europeans and Indonesians. To be honest this hasn’t made a huge impact partly because most relationships had been ruined over a past of continuous disagreements during spice trade. Jayawikarta had a very high status, and the city respected his authority as a prince and a leader. He worked well with the local king too which made the city fall in love with him even more.
Everything was all well and smooth, the port was doing exceptionally well. Jayjakarta was earning hard and well earned money for his country with the addition of unique resources.
Until the hangout had officially ended with their new addition to the group, VOC (The Dutch). VOC had come to mark their territory, pouncing on prey almost. They saw an opportunity economically and socially and had decided to fight Portugal within the region.
At first, the VOC were simply there to trade for annual everyday resources. It was a gain rather than a loss for the Dutch, that was their motto. VOC was a benefit towards them, they wanted to bring home the big bills rather than scraps and lucky pennies on the sidewalks. VOC was ultimately a group full of power and pride, they were a naval force so mighty that it could single handedly start a war on its own. They had big goals in their lifetime with over 40,000 members to support them and help achieve each and every one. They were the guys who decided to plot an attack on the Portuguese, which did succeed. Jan Pieterzoon, the leader of this attack, first struck somewhere at the Maluka islands. They defeated the Portuguese over multiple battles and captured their forts which allowed them to take control of the scheme influencing the spice trade. Once they had achieved the first step of their plan they moved on to retaliate against Jayjakarta. This time Jan travelled with a fleet of nineteen ships to take full control over it. However they decided to approach Jayjakarta differently, rather than start a new battle they decided to completely tear down the city and rebuild it with all the money from the port once in power.
Imagine buildings and buildings toppling over each other like a simple game of jenga. The loud crash, sharp wood splattering everywhere, rods, shattered lamps. Glass cracking as you walk through disaster. Shattered souls watching their childhood homes disappear within a second, flames going up. Like a sharp and hard blade going straight through your heart, making every thump slowly slow down, until the number of thumps decreased and currently remains none. The Indonesians didn’t deserve such distress and discontent. They never ordered the glass of humility and pain, but they were forced to gulp it down and drink in silence. VOC was precise with their plan and felt no sympathy for the Indonesians. They did damage worth tens of millions of dollars burning down homes, buildings and trading goods meant for the trade. They were quick and effective with the process of immediately taking control of Jayjakarta, renaming it Batavia. Batavia was selected to honor an ancient German tribe to symbolically claim Jayakarta as a colony(BBC bitesize). It was a sign which presented pride, power, and strength. VOC officially named Batavia a colonial capital in 1619, where they made Batavia their main trading hub. But afterwards, conflicts spread internally. Lots of the members started to go corrupt and would mysteriously steal money that VOC was making for the Netherlands, this led to a loss of money from inside the force. Another reason was because local kingdoms across Batavia tried to retaliate and take revenge upon them, this caused a lot of money loss as it was being used to stock up on weapons. The last reason was because a lot more availability opened up and spices became very common across Batavia and other countries. The prices then eventually dropped and VOC earned lesser and lesser money by the hour. All these reasons created an unreasonable amount of debt until VOC officially went corrupt and stopped fighting against the war.
After the VOC fell, the Dutch government stepped in, creating the Dutch East Indies. He spent days imagining a bright future ahead for Batavia, constantly making big plans for his time being. Jayikarta tried to push back and fight whatever he could but slowly, little by little, ounce by ounce he started to sink, losing his voice between all the crashing and burning. This continued until he drowned due to piranhas and sharks pulling him downwards rather than up.
The boat was forced to dock, silently searching for him.
As for DEI (Dutch East Indies), there was one last issue. There was still a local king that remained in Batavia, the key to all these attacks. To unlock the door, the government set heaps of deals to tip off the attacks for now. But he wanted more, not for the Netherlands but for himself. The idea was to present himself as someone other than an attacker or colonizer so he changed the laws and taxes. Not for the worse but the better, he made more availability and probability for locals to continue staying in Batvia, their home town. He even created a school for the upper class because he believed he could make people like them support the dutch rather than hate on them. People like Sukarno and Hatta went to that school. And for a while people started to believe in him, they encouraged him to help them even more. He created an ideology that he was potentially even better than their original prince and king. However he was actually toying with locals and making sly deals and mystery laws behind their back. It took time for him to show his true colours but when they began to uncover people were furious. They had trusted him and began to think that things were going to be alright in Batavia just when they couldn’t have been more wrong in their life.
It didn’t seem like much at first, until it did. He started to force hard working farmers to work extra hours a day non negotiable even if they physically couldn’t. He forced labour so that he could make just a couple more cents at the ports. But not just regular items, they were forced to grow crops and unseen fruits to try to target the royals into investing or nevertheless trading. He wanted more money and it started to brainwash him. The money was like food and water, he kept feeding and drinking onto it until the people of Indonesia got fed up. They entirely as a whole decided the Dutch needed to leave and take their money schemes elsewhere. Unfortunately none of the members had any idea on how to push the dutch away completely so that the locals could live their lives in peace. Luckily World War 2 weakened the Dutch, Japan came and fought off the dutch leaving them weak and unsupported. The Dutch left and were finally pushed out of restraint after so many years. Batavia struggled but survived with its great mighty civilians along with supported leaders. They finally gained independence in 1945 and changed their name once again. Jakarta was called a unique spiral thanking the Dutch, Japanese, and Portuguese. The Dutch even tried to come back but Batavia had officially become more powerful and ended up defeating the Dutch on their own. Indonesia had united, became stronger, they made allies.
To conclude and to make sure the boat has reached the end of the river and can start heading back. Dutch wasn’t entirely a weakness but also a chance for new culture to affect the locals. To this day, they are seen as enemies and saviors. They unintentionally left fragments of Dutch influence, which are seen as a sign of bravery not disgust. Indonesia wanted a story like this to be told, for every student at school to read through what their country overcame. In the more modernised version of Jakarta, influence of the Dutch still manages to scream softly throughout the city. In architecture, education, law, and everyday lifestyle, stroll through the city of Jakarta and you may notice the colonial buildings pushing through the brand new skyscrapers. It’s a sign to make people gasp, thinking back to a complicated past with mixed views and feelings. The Dutch managed to introduce westernised pieces of clothing, a new system of law, and trade structures (Unesco). They showed a side of Indonesia they were unaware they had, yet the Dutch represented an unknown possibility, Jakarta did not fully accept the Dutch lifestyle. They created their own brand and left dutch in the crowd. Jakarta adapted, found endless choices and unique styles. To this day Jakarta is seen as a very presentable and lovely place only to find that the Dutch are the reason for this popularity and advertising. Jakarta’s past faded and the future came quicker than expected but even today their past is their present and their present remains their future.
By: Tanvi Kalani
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