Earlier Independent East Indies

How can we have an East Indies/Indonesia independent from foreign occupation (mainly Dutch, but there were also British and Spanish), as in pre-1900?

The territory must at least as large as OTL, but Papua can be excluded. Barring ASB, the largest option can be the entire Nusantara (that is including Malaya, Mindanao, Singapore, and Siam)

Thanks in advance!
 
A bit tricky if you want it all as one Indonesia.
The earlier you go the more likely it is to break up as various different states.
 
The Europeans were there for spices as these where worth more than their wieght in gold.

To stop the annexing of the islands you would need to have a strong nation ready to fight the Dutch, something similar to India when the Europeans first arrived there.

Generally the Dutch and Brits of the time where interested in profit, not land and if they could set up trading posts in safety then this would stop invasion by Europeans.
 
Prevent the waning and weakening the Sultanate of Malacca, if the Sultanate of Malacca becomes strong and manages to survive their war against Portuguese and manages to maintain it's role as a South East Asian power, another thing is the survival of the Majapahit Empire and maintain it as a SE Asian Power presumably if Majapahit becomes muslim.
 
Why not combine Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines into one empire?

the primary concern would be the language barrier, but it was said that Enrique of Malacca could understand rajah Humabon of Cebu just fine. So Malacca, Brunei, Sulu and Tondo would at least share a common tongue.

But since the south east asia is separated with large bodies of water, having a centralized government would be trouble-some. At best it would be like several little kingdoms that are closely allied together much like the german kingdoms before prussia unified them.
 
Why not combine Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines into one empire?

the primary concern would be the language barrier, but it was said that Enrique of Malacca could understand rajah Humabon of Cebu just fine. So Malacca, Brunei, Sulu and Tondo would at least share a common tongue.

But since the south east asia is separated with large bodies of water, having a centralized government would be trouble-some. At best it would be like several little kingdoms that are closely allied together much like the german kingdoms before prussia unified them.
Malay was their trading language but they are very different to each other, I think a situation similar to the OTL Indo-china is better with Malacca and Majapahit as the main powers with the other states as client states perhaps.
 
Have about China not withdrawing from exploration in the 15th century, but rather swallowing up the various countries of the Pacific and intergrating them into China.

Whilst China faired badly against the Europeans in later centuries I think they could have held off the occasional Dutch or Portuguese merchant at this time.
 
Have about China not withdrawing from exploration in the 15th century, but rather swallowing up the various countries of the Pacific and intergrating them into China.

Whilst China faired badly against the Europeans in later centuries I think they could have held off the occasional Dutch or Portuguese merchant at this time.

I think there should be a Super power in South East Asia who could support weaker states and can be seen as an equal to the Europeans, I think that could stall the colonization by Europeans in SE Asia, I think the perfect ones for that is Majapahit, I think Sri Vijaya could survive if the Cholas did not conquer Sri-Vijaya.
 
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