Dutch East Indies: The pinnacle of the Dutch colonial experience. Making up one-third of the annual budget of the Dutch Government, the Dutch East Indies was the pride and joy of a nation that participated in imperialism. By 1920, the situation is that the country was industrialising and the general welfare was being extended to the first and second-generation Dutchmen here as well as the indigenous peoples of all the different islands.
But the situation was not so rosy.
One by one, the people of the Dutch East Indies were being awoken to the truth. The tyranny of distance, as Geoffrey Blainey would later write of the anniversary of the revolution, "marked the peoples of the archipelago as the pyramids marked the Ancient Egyptians or the centurion marked the men of Rome". In 1914, the Indies Social Democratic Association (ISDV) would be formed by Henk Sneevliet, a Dutch-born socialist and militant trade unionist. At first, the membership numbers were 100 people. But as native East Indians were coming out of university and were adopting western-style education, they would soon understand the principles of Marxism.
The war and its effects would channel itself into the educated peoples of the Dutch East Indies, along with news of the German Revolution and the Black Sea Socialist Republic. Speaking of that, on the 20th April 1918, Leon Trotsky and 300 members of the BSSR would arrive at Batavia. It would be the 5th of May when Trotsky would meet Sneevliet. Using Trotsky's skills in oratory and organisation, the ISDV would take the name of the Communist Party of the East Indies (CPEI) along with 10,000 new recruits and an alliance with the anti-colonial Sarakat Islam (Muslim trade unionists) organisation. Having put forward a programme to initiate a revolution, Trotsky set his men in place. By August 1920, over 100,000 native Indonesians were being taught how to use weapons.
It was the news of Trotsky's presence in the Dutch East Indies that alerted Prime Minister Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck of The Netherlands in September 1918. As a result, he orders the Governor-General of the DEI to be aware of the rising communists and to begin a crackdown on any gathering of weapons or calls to incite violence. The Governor-General ordered the police to raid newspapers that the communists used to promote their work, under powers given to him legally and other "extra-judicial" means. At first, the communists fled the scene and destroyed all of the evidence. When it failed, every one of them defended themselves with their fists. Then, in November and December of 1918, they began to arm themselves. With glass bottles, bricks, rifles and pistols, they begin to openly antagonise the police and the loyalist soldiers. By January 1919, the Communist Party had 50,000 members, having merged with the Sarakat Islam and other like-minded unions as well as taking over moderate reformist groups. On the 27th April 1919, Communists storm the Governor-General's Palace and kidnap Johan Paul van Limburg Stirum. The Volksraad was to be dissolved in favour of a union of soviets, as well as land redistribution and the entirety of the Dutch East Indies to be made independent as of the 1st May 1919.
Stirum and the conservative Dutch and anti-communist citizens openly rejected the demands. Trotsky relayed the demands again. If they were not given an answer by the 20th May 1919, Stirum was to be shot. Having heard the news, Stirum attempted to escape in a state of paranoia, believing that the communists would shoot him regardless of the outcome. Fleeing into the night, he was pursued by hundreds of communists through the streets of Batavia until he was beaten to death at 4am on the 9th May 1919.
The news of the killing spread like wildfire. Citizens already antsy about the Communists were now confirming their suspicions. Pleas were sent out to the colonial army and Major-General Marinus Bernardus Rost van Tonningen assumed the powers of the Governor-General in everything but name. The KNIL, the colonial army, numbered 40,000 people against a now confirmed ~100,000 members of the CPEI. The news in the homeland spread like a bushfire, with 20,000 protestors in the streets of Rotterdam and a riot between socialists and pro-colonial citizens in The Hague between the 18th and 28th May, leading to 9 deaths and 783 arrests. The Netherlands declared war on the CPEI, as well as asking for relief on the 12th June 1919.
Portugal, having contributed to one war to preserve the peace in Europe, hoped to intervene to protect East Timor, one of the colonies in the Far East asides from Macau. The fear was confirmed when a group of 700 communists stormed the island and attempted to trigger an uprising on the 27th June 1919. All of them were either captured or killed by the local police and citizens. Prime Minister Billy Hughes of Australia, before his defeat in the July Election, relayed the message of the attack to Portugal three days later. Portugal declared war on the USEI on the 3rd July 1919. A total of 50,000 soldiers were sent in August 1919, along with 5 battleships from the Portuguese Navy. Britain also called for a total of 40,000 soldiers from Burma and India to advance to Malaysia to protect its own borders from any possible communist insurgency on the 16th July 1919. 20,000 Australian troops were sent thanks to the new Prime Minister Patrick McMahon Glynn, following his predecessor's promise and his own anti-communist platform on the 24th July 1919. A further 8,000 New Zealander troops were sent by Prime Minister William Massey, as part of his re-election campaign to "be rid of communism near our shores" on the 5th August 1919.
By the 26th August 1919, the United Soviets of the East Indies was proclaimed in Batavia. At the same time, British forces were gathering at the northern border of Dutch Borneo, the Portuguese were about to bear down upon Timor and the Australians were already landing in New Guinea. What was supposed to usher a new age for the human race instead triggered much of the same old, same old. The decade was going to end with violence, whether anyone wanted it or not.
Resistance from the first generation European and Dutch descendants came when the communists expropriated their wealth and property. The conservative citizens of society either fled overseas (if they could) or fought back by themselves or joined the nearest posting of the KNIL. Armed with whatever weapons they found, they resisted the new authorities. 10,000 people were killed this way. Other citizens were rounded up in ad hoc stockades waiting for the orders from the General Committee, the executive and legislative and judicial force in the Dutch East Indies. Trotsky and Sneevliet shared de facto "head of state" status, with Trotsky's group and Sneevliet holding equal share of the seats in the General Committee. The GC would pass more regulations as time passed, with every person working on an industry for 12 hours a day and with the exclusion of anything that would betray the hard work that was put forward. All days were to be work days. All industries were to be controlled by communist-aligned unions, all citizens had to swear allegiance to the new state and the practice of religious services was banned by the General Committee.
Until the muslims had something to say about it. Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto, a founder of Sarakat Islam, saw what was happening and urged moderation. Trotsky, having lived under the autocracy of the Tsar and the Orthodox Church and seeing the BSSR fail the first time, did not intend on seeing the socialist experiment fail again. Tjokroaminoto opposed the moves made against the muslim and religious demographics of the country. But it was hoped, among the natives that . This was around the time that the island of Timor was captured by Portugal on the 9th September 1919, with over 30,000 Indonesians killed to 7,800 Portuguese killed. The USEI began to rally its soldiers for combat. Dutch sailors and merchantmen who defected to the USEI faced off against the British off the coast of Singapore on the 15th and 16th August, to face near annihilation.
In Sumatra the trained natives, acting under the command of Trotsky's delegates, pushed through to the northern coastline, hoping to send the Dutch forces back into the sea. At Ogan River (24th - 25th September), Curup (1st - 3rd October) and Pamenang (22nd - 29th October), the Dutch faced strong opposition but all three battles were left inconclusive. Either due to the communists sustaining far too many casualties or the Dutch not being able to press on with their advances. Major-General Marinus Bernardus Rost van Tonningen, having gathered 70,000 troops from the DEI and from the homeland, prepared to face the worst. Following a severe defeat at Pekanbaru on the 23rd November 1919, he told the men:
These men are not soldiers. These men are rabble. Rabble! You are all soldiers of Her Majesty! Soldiers of The Netherlands, that is what you are. What are they but the puppets of a Russian Jew! They are nothing more than citizens. They shoot one of us, there are more soldiers. But if we shoot one of them, they cannot replace him. They cannot take a civilian out into the street and give him a gun, no. They will not be able to fight us. The might of the homeland shall be felt on their backs. And the ones that are left to shoot us will beg and cry and piss their pants the moment we start to squeeze them! So men, break them. Do not slaughter them, but pressure them! Make them feel the pain. Make them think whatever they want of us, but never forget that they must be on their toes! We are the men that hold all of these islands! We Dutchmen! We fighting men, smaller than Britain yet stronger than Goliath. We are not going to go away into the sea! We will not falter! Come December or January or February, we will remain here, just as our ancestors remained here three hundred years ago.
IN THE NAME OF ALMIGHTY GOD, YOU SHALL MAKE YOUR STAND OR THEY WILL HELP YOU FALL!
December 1919 gave way to a lull, as both sides were exhausted. The USEI required as much manpower as possible to start harvesting resources for weapons and to train more of the military-age male population. The training and the industrialisation was hampered with news of planes dropping bombs on cash-crop plantations after Boxing Day. It was not until the 17th of January 1920 when one of these planes was shot down. Upon its inspection, it was discovered to be a British airplane.
In the new year, British forces under Major General Charles V. F. Townshend began to go southward through Borneo with 45,000 British, Indian and Gurkha troops. The Battle of Sarawak, from the 9th to 17th February 1920 was the first conflict between Britain and communist rebels. Suffering 1,067 casualties, the British managed to push southward 46km with over 30,000 POW's and 16,740 dead enemy combatants. For the third time this century, the British Empire had to undergo the development of concentration camps to hold the POW's in place. Despite such places being in existence, they were limited to six centres containing no more than 10,000 natives who were given humane treatment in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Despite Townshend's desire to press down on the rebels, Major General Tonningen ordered Townshend to treat the enemy with respect on the 24th February 1920. Despite what happened, the Dutchman shared the goal of the Dutch government in the homeland. This goal was to improve the welfare of all people within the Dutch East Indies, not just the white citizens. Townshend, angered at the order, communicated to British Prime Minister Austen Chamberlain and to Dutch Prime Minister Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck and demanded that he be made the commander of all forces in the region, not just the British and ANZAC forces.
On the 10th March 1920, having not advanced from his new gains, Townshend received his message. General John Monash would come from Melbourne to take command of all the ANZAC, British, Portuguese and Dutch forces, while Townshend was to be dismissed. Angered and shocked by the message from Chamberlain, he attempted to order an advance in the hopes that an attack would change the circumstances. Seeing their commanding officer in a more irascible manner, several soldiers attempted to look at the message and transmitted it along the rank-and-file. On the 15th March 1920, Monash would arrive at HQ, relieving Townshend before he could commence his attack. Angry, dejected and pissed off, Townshend would rant and rave at Monash's face for over two hours. Despite over a thousand men being witness to the event, Townshend argued that he would continue to find a way to be "at the top of the fucking chain of fucking command".
Monash said but one word. 'Leave,' as he pointed out to the car that escorted him to the base.
Charles Townshend would be dismissed from active duty, before suffering from depression and mania. He would die in 1937 in an asylum, with George Orwell's 1951 novel
On the Question of Man's Health being used as the precursor to the modern mental health procedure.
Upon taking command, John Monash would begin to oversee the use of combined arms during this time. Using planes from Britain, The Netherlands, Australia and Portugal, he ordered the planes to strafe concentrations of rebelling soldiers and to bomb areas of the forest in front of the allied positions. The use of planes as support and as bombers allowed for the Gurkha and Indian forces to beat the communists at Tarakan (26th - 28th April), Apung (6th-9th May) and Sajau (20th - 22nd May). The Dutch pushed southwards at Mandah (23rd April - 1st May), Ukui (3rd - 4th May) and the Second Battle of Pekanbaru (12th May), which led to the capture of 30,000 soldiers. The Portuguese fought the Battle of Wetah Island (29th April - 1st May), where 4,000 men were killed or wounded within five hours of storming the beaches. The firepower brought to bear led to the island capitulating on the first day of the new month. Damar Island, Babar Island and Yamdena Island all surrendered between the 4th and 14th May 1920. The ANZACs managed to obtain all of western Papua by the end of May, with ships patrolling and hunting down USEI warships (of which there are few and far).
The USEI has attempted during this time to try and obtain supplies of weapons and ammunition, as was the desire of Sneevliet and the Indonesian members of the General Committee. Trotsky believed that another tactic had to be added: The motivation of the working classes to rebel. Lev Kaminev, one of the 300 followers that fled with Trotsky to the Dutch East Indies, was to take 50 men to Darwin to trigger an uprising. The plan was to divert the attention of the Australians and to trigger riots and a greater anti-war sentiment. Kaminev and his 50 men (all of them were armed) travelled in a merchant ship filled with communist pamphlets and some sugar and coffee on the 9th August 1920.
On the 17th August 1920, the boat arrived on the coast of the Northern Territory, outside of the view of the port authorities. Having spent time learning English, the men did not have the chance to develop an accent. So on Wagait Beach at 4pm, a few of the locals were bemused at the accent of these men trying to talk of Marx and of revolution. However, a dozen men were convinced to join the foreigners which was then raised to 20 when the coffee was granted to them. The boat returned to the sea with 71 people trying to trigger a revolution. Going into Darwin proper at night, the men left the boat and began presenting the pamphlets around the area. A group of 38 men stormed nearby police stations and gained more arms. Hoping to trigger a revolution was not as rosy as they thought.
Because one kilometre away was the entire 3rd Division.
Whether it was news from Wagait Beach or the shouting that the men did in the streets, but the entirety of 3rd Division marched down the streets of Darwin to see what the hell was going on. Newly promoted Lieutenant Walter R. Kinghorn was one of the first men to take cover after one of the communists opened fire, with the 20 Australians surrendering once they received news of the 3rd Division coming in. It took no more than 17 minutes for the whole affair to be over. 35 Australian soldiers were killed, with Kaminev and his 50 men all dying from their wounds hours later.
The reaction was explosive. On the 25th August 1920, the 3rd Division was shipped out in a plan dubbed "Operation Odyssey", to much fanfare from Darwin and from across Australia. As for the campaign to obtain more support, it was lacking. In The Netherlands, counter-protestors followed the anti-war marchers wherever they were. In Britain, the police would march out in force, but Chamberlain made sure that it was not heavy-handed.
With the anti-communist forces advancing through Western Papua, the communists faced their first crisis. The wavering support of moderates, social democrats and trade unionists was being affected by the absence of good news as well as the rumours. With no foreign capital coming in and with no chance of purchasing weapons, soldiers have been forced to conserve ammunition. If that failed, then more vital weaponry was shipped to Java, if it could escape the numerous Dutch and British warships coming around the islands. To control the public, further and further censorship was required, to prevent any counter-revolution. On the island of Sumatra, Major-General Marinus Bernardus Rost van Tonningen pushed 50km in, causing over 100,000 USEI civilians and soldiers to surrender to them. The island of Borneo surrendered in November following the Battle of Kalimantan, which caused over 59,000 casualties compared to the British casualties of 8,000
By December 1920, what was the USEI was based on: Java, Lesser Sunda Islands excluding Timor and Sulawesi. ANZAC forces claimed Kota Tual, Yamdena, Trangan and North Maluku during the August-September period. Portuguese and British forces stormed Maluku and the south of Borneo. In other words, the game was rigged from the start. The failure of the USEI was placed on several factors: the communist's agenda had alienated moderates within the anti-colonial struggle. Tjokroaminoto had managed to meet the Dutch on the 25th, seeking terms of surrender and wishing for a return to the peace that once was. The Dutch agreed, hoping that by not alienated muslim citizens, it would help to restore order in the country. From there, muslims began rioting against the USEI, with Trotsky countermanding Sneevliet and ordering the crushing of the riots. A total of 6,000 people would be killed or wounded in fighting between hardline communists and Islamic groups, with Christian and Hindu and other religious demographics rising up as well during the month.
With the walls closing in, orders were put forward to slash and burn cash crops such as cotton and rubber plantations, with the hope of not allowing them to be used up again. With news of these events occurring, the allied forces brought all to bear. The ships would intercept fishing boats, merchant ships and they would intern anyone on those boats. The white civilians within the USEI began clashing with one another as farmers began to rise against the orders to burn down their crops. Some even attempt to flee to the enemy lines to surrender.
On the 17th February 1921, Portuguese, Dutch and British/ANZAC soldiers advanced onto Java itself. Facing stiff resistance, the beachheads to the north, west and east of the island were held with rising casualties. Airplanes made their appearance, as the British Royal Air Force started testing its new planes on the enemy positions and within towns. The Dutch pushed hardest out of all three beachheads, reaching 15kms of Batavia itself.
Riots began to occur in the communist-held territories, with food shortages and arbitrary punishments being too much. Summary trials and arbitrary executions were beginning to pile up, as well as signs of malnutrition, starvation and a lack of ammunition to fight against the enemy. Muslims revolted en masse, taking up arms against the communist forces. Christians, Hindus and other religious minorities did the same. Much of the horror that Trotsky dealt with in Russia was repeating itself in the Dutch East Indies. On the 26th March 1921, the USEI was no more, as the island of Java surrendered and the other pockets of resistance surrendered.
Many of the communists were imprisoned for life, while those higher up denounced one another to the restored government. Trotsky and Sneevliet denounced one another while Tjokroaminoto had this to say:
The cause that I fought for was one of self-determination. By this, I mean that the Dutch East Indies ought to be, as I see it, given to the native peoples such as myself to govern. What we saw was not the control of our destiny in our hands, but in the hands of a select few. I saw Muslims, Christians and Hindus, all ordered to not pray to Mecca, not to go to church and to not deliver their prayers. The thugs that Trotsky sent around the country ordered the shutdown of all religious worship. I heard the news of a rank and file member, whose cousin was on Borneo. He said that there was a shutdown of a mosque, the cousin protested and the thug did not respond. The cousin instead decided to pray outside, when the morning rain was going on. The thug, damn his name, whatever it was, he kicks the man. An argument comes forward from the thug, who does not even speak our own language, and those that were to pray. Next thing that I am told, his cousin was beaten to death.
Tell me, dear people, if a man chooses to pray when the country tells him not to, will it be self-determination if he resists or if he complies with their order? Trotsky is not one to deliver us the word and neither would Sneevliet.
Sneevliet would surrender himself after attempting to escape into the jungle. He would be imprisoned in The Netherlands for life, never returning to the Dutch East Indies. As for Trotsky, he would escape and make his way to safety. The boat he travelled in was intercepted and escorted to Singapore. His capture would make world headlines, as well as help with Austen Chamberlain's popularity. Trotsky would be deported to Russia and sent into a prison camp deep within Siberia to die in 1949.
The Dutch East Indies suffered 150,000 to 190,000 deaths from civilians: 4,802 Australians died, 2,912 New Zealanders died, 9,886 British died, 10,779 Portuguese died and 25,668 Dutchmen died. The communists suffered 51,000 - 64,000 deaths. The waste of lives and of resources would take decades to pay back, with the Dutch being forced into a quagmire with regards to its payments to foreign powers. One-third of the annual budget came from the Dutch East Indies and The Netherlands was close to giving up the whole empire. There was also the matter of the other nations involved, where they would have to repay their debts.
The Treaty of Rotterdam established the DEI to be in the hands of The Netherlands once again. However, to repay debts incurred during the fighting, there were several deals. The Territory of Curaçao was sold to the United States for $200 million, which was a price that the Americans could not get lower yet seemed reasonable. Western Papua was sold to Australia for $15 million (which was paid in instalments until 1970) and the western half of Timor was granted to Portugal in exchange for $3.2 million. Britain would be granted a cut of the revenue (10%) in order to pay its debts, which it would then receive 0% afterwards (which did not occur until 1966).
Meanwhile, further north, the Japanese remained absent from everything. Those that favoured expansionism and anti-Western sentiment looked to the Dutch East Indies. If it was divided once, they argued,
it could be divided again.
NEXT EPISODE: FILLING IN THE BLANKS (ELECTIONS, POP CULTURE, THAT SORT OF THING BEFORE 1920)